On Monday morning, Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Princess Eugenie of York to Jack Brooksbank, a posh(ish) London nightclub manager. Jack and Eugenie have been together for seven years, and I haven’t heard much gossip about them, positive or negative. Well, even though the York princesses are being pushed “down the line,” one thing never goes out of style: the royal engagement interview! Eugenie and Jack did a very simple and short interview with the BBC, seemingly at the same time that their engagement portraits were being taken. Here’s a clip:
Eugenie explains that they were on vacation in Nicaragua, and they were watching a sunset by a lake and “The lake was so beautiful. The light was just a special light I had never seen. I actually said, ‘This is an incredible moment,’ and then he popped the question, which was really surprising even though we’ve been together seven years.” She manages to make both things sound true, that “we knew it was going to end up this way” and that she was taken by surprise.
Jack proposed by getting on one knee, but he didn’t have the ring with him. He had selected a ring ahead of time, but he knew Eugenie well enough to know that she would want a hand in choosing just how it would look. It seems like he chose the padparadscha sapphire and then Eugenie chose the diamond surround and the setting, I think. He seemed enamoured by the pink sapphire, which to his credit, is a beautiful stone. It’s unusual too – when I heard “pink stone” I thought “oh, if it’s a pink diamond that seems very new-money, very J.Lo.” But a pink sapphire… that’s great. Eugenie also says that the Queen was one of the first people to know, and that she’s very happy for Jack and Eugenie.
Considering this my first time hearing both Jack and Eugenie speak, I have to say… I like them as a couple. SHE is the star and he seems to adore her. Very positive body language, like he feels lucky to be with her and she’s a very confident and upbeat person. I like their vibes. I hope her wedding gown is spectacular, and I always like a fall wedding!
PS… Eugenie’s engagement portrait dress is a $5000 Erdem piece. Her shoes are Jimmy Choo. Jack looked like he had an aggressive chemical peel.
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.
Love the dress, love the ring, and I love that they look genuinely thrilled. These are sweet photos.
I want that ring! It’s so pretty!
It is. I found a similar looking one on Etsy for only $900, lol.
They also have an imitation for 32 Quid in the U.K. on sale at some shop.
@Maria I am mortified to ask this but do you happen to know which site is selling them?
Don’t know the name but if you google Eugenies ring someone mentioned it and showed a photo. And it looked lovely. Sorry, I’m not in the UK.
Lorelai, there is an article in The Sun online titled
Here’s where you can get a version of Princess Eugenie’s pink sapphire engagement ring for just £32.99
They give a couple of different options.
Thank you Nota.
I saw this little number….the setting is a tinge busy, but still..HELLO GORGEOUS! 😍😍
http://www.shrevecrumpandlow.com/product-p/3040717.htm
Good grief! That’s like Mariah Carey’s dream engagement ring, except sized up 200%. That website is a rabbit hole of gemstones, lol. I just wasted 20 minutes clicking and clicking and clicking…
Right?! I always lose a solid 32-48 minutes on the website and the store in Boston?! Fugheddaboutit, I MUST GAWK 😂😂😂
it is so cool to hear people call Her Majesty ‘Granny’.
Very cute what he said about the stone changing colour.
She looks really happy in all the pics so i wish her and her hubby nothing but happiness and good fortune in their life together:)
They both look so excited!
Speaking of the hubby, @Kaiser let the man be red faced and shiny! Some of us are naturally like that *sobs*
Tbf I would wear foundation for an official engagement photo…
Her hair though. Just want to run my fingers through the curls and mess them up a little.
Have to say as an Australian I kind of wish this fascination with the British royals would disappear. Makes it harder and harder to push to become a Republic.
as a Canadian, I feel the same!
Ditto!
As a Briton I also feel the same!
Feel the same way as an Aussie. But when the Republic issue comes along for serious debate, are monarchists seriously going to make an argument that we should keep the present system because a few women from a foreign family in a foreign country wear expensive clothes and jewels? Plus have made-up titles such as princess etc? They’re not real, just centuries’ old traditions kept from the Dark Ages to keep people under control.
I feel like a lot of monarchists in Oz are loyal to the current queen but think there might be more support for a republic once Charles is on the throne. I hope so anyway.
Well I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the Americans got rid of the monarchy and became a republic not even two hundred and fifty years ago. Look what happened.
As a Canadian, I will keep the monarchy thank you.
@Ann, look what happened -what? Have the Visigoths invaded?! Has martial law been declared!? No? Then, Democracy= messy and sometimes gross, but so so worth it 😉
I believe we have a parliamentary democracy here in Canada.
@ANN: The funny thing is, they got rid of the monarchy and replaced them eventually with political dynasty families. The Kennedys, the Bush family, the Clintons… as they say in Thailand, “same same, but different”.
Of course, now we have Trudeau Jr which is actually the first time we’ve seen the family dynasty thing happen in Canada. Although Justin is a very different beast than his father was.
Correct me if I’m wrong. This is the first Princess wedding since Anne, is it? If I’m not wrong Zara is not styled / titled as Princess? If so, I’m kind of excited seeing a Princess get married (small thrill, I know lol). Eugenie looks so sweet and I think she has the potential to look so gorgeous during her wedding. Just to be clear I’m not into Barbie dolls and Disney princesses ok 😀
I hope by the fall, they mean Sept or Oct because November can be pretty bleak. And when was the last Autumn royal wedding? Probably princess Anne too? I can’t think
of a more recent one.
HM and Prince Philip married Nov 20. Anne and Mark Philip married in November too. Anne and Tim Laurence married in December in a small ceremony at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral.
HM is usually at Balmoral through the first or second week of October. I don’t see her and Philip traveling for a wedding in September then back to Balmoral. Tina suggested in the other thread that it could be October 20th or 27th, leaning towards the 27th.
@NOTA, did you see this? I would be pissed if I were Eugenie and this is true. (Big “if” on the truth considering the source.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5306119/Eugenie-forced-delay-wedding-Jack-Brooksbank.html
I think the pink sapphire is hideous, but I’m not a pink person. Good for you, Eugenie!! I don’t know why but I’ve always liked her. She seems to be pretty sensible for someone with such whacky parents.
The ring reminds me of frost lipstick, which is always a fail in my mind. But best wishes to Eugenie.
@Janedoeswork:
I know what you mean about the colour…….I absolutely love padparaschas, but strictly as cocktail rings. That pink/orange colour looks so divine, but against the wrong coloured outfit, it can also quite easily start to look rather garish.
So, although I really love the ring (and general look of Eugenie’s engagement picture; the colours are so rich and pretty), Meghan’s ring is more timeless to me.
Glad I’m not the only one, don’t actually think it is hideous but it just looks faded to me.
The Royals have this weird distinctive thing they do with their mouth ad eye brows when they speak especially when chirpy cant put my finger on it but William and Kate also do it.
I LOVE that he knew her well enough to know that she wanted a say in the ring, and that he was totally fine with that. My husband and I picked out my setting together, although I didn’t see the final ring for several weeks as he was waiting until the right time. I still have no idea where he hid it almost ten years later-I should probably ask him about that.
I got to help with mine as well. If it’s going to be something I’m going to wear all the time – I’d like to have a hand in it. I basically went with him and showed him my absolute favorites – then at some point he picked one up and surprised me with it. I genuinely didn’t know he was going to propose when he did – so it was still a surprise. But like Eugenie and Jack – we’d been together for a long time (since we were in highschool) and knew we’d get married.
Same. My proposal was a complete surprise and he didn’t have a ring. He knew me well enough to know that I would want to pick it out and he is completely hopeless when it comes to that kind of thing. I was grateful to not have to pretend to love an ugly ring.
My then boyfriend and I popped into a jewelry store on a lunch break to consider options and ended up spending two hours with the sales team, watching videos, learning about the custom process, drowning in cappuccinos etc. He was fascinated by the design process and went through each stage with enthusiasm. I was also interested but felt we were probably taking up too much of their time but he insisted on getting my opinion at each step so I got pulled into the excitement of it. When we finally saw the virtual rendering of the ring it took my breath away. While I stared at the screen he got down on one knee in the gallery! I smile every time I look at my ring, all these years later 🙂
@EnoughAlready, what a great story!
Lorelai
Thank you 🙂
No roast chicken but a great moment lol.
That is romantic. 🙂
My husband proposed with a little chip diamond ring. He let me pick out the diamond and setting for my actual ring. Diamond with sapphires on either side.
I thought that they were so cute in that video clip! Congrats!
Mr Who didn’t have a ring either & also proposed a bit earlier than he’d originally planned. I’d never thought much about it either way and he wanted me to have whatever I wanted, We took it as a chance to get me the fancy birthstone ring I’d always wanted, with complementary diamonds. It was fun going to get it made up, and fun watching people’s reactions to the *shame* of my not getting a diamond engagement ring. Wear it a lot, still happy we did that, still love coloured stones. If someone had proposed with a ring, odds were high I might not have liked it, and then what do you do?
Eugenie’s ring is unique and suits her, and good for them.
Random thought, but I so so so want Vivienne Westwood to design Eugenie’s wedding dress.
Perfect match!
Ew! Why? Do you hate Eugenie or something?
Way better than Goopy’s ring.
A ring from a gumball machine would look better than Goopy’s.
I feel bad for Beatrice that her long-term relationship didn’t end up in the same direction.
Eugenie has a great voice though, no? Shame they didn’t use her more for public speaking engagements…very throaty and confident.
Same, Bea’s ex is engaged to someone and has a baby on the way already so I double feel for her.
I think Bea and George Percy should get married. They would be such a power couple.
Holding out for the gossip gold of Beatrice and Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster. Or Beatrice and Albert von Thurn und Taxis for an epic Fergie vs. Gloria event.
Nota: or Northumberland.
Let’s gossip genie these 2!!!
Oh, yes! My Albert TNT dream cannot happen, since she’s legally required to live in the UK once she’s a Counsellor of State. If Charles decides to change the rules around that to remove Andrew from that position, maybe he’ll remove Beatrice (and possibly Eugenie) too.
Yes, I am rather hoping that Bea will marry a very rich landowner or top notch Duke, just in the way the ‘plain’ sister in Downton trumped all of them!
Right?! I love her voice. I’ve actually never heard her speak before so I wasn’t expecting it to be so throaty.
She sounds a lot like her mother to me, although I think some of the huskiness is due to Eugenie’s smoking.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard her speak, and wow, she sounds exactly like her mother with that very throaty low voice. I’m actually pretty excited to see this wedding unfold. They look and sound so genuinely happy together, which is nice. And I like the ring too!
I hope the tabs, specifically the DM, don’t stack Beatrice for being single. The DM went after Harry for being a 3rd wheel, gooseberry, poor lonely Harry.
I wonder if Eugenie already knew what she wanted or if she put in a call to Chelsy.
A padparascha is more than pink it’s a combine of pink and orange. To me, the best shad is the color of salmon. The word means “the color of lotus” in Singhalese. A true padparascha is incredibly rare and expensive. I love them. I love that they didn’t choose the common and expected diamond even though Eugenie’s setting is very pedestrian.
I love that stone!
Really love that ring. A great choice and it matches with her dress.
The ring setting is very similar to her batshit mothers.
5000$ dollars for THAT dress! It’s just a black cocktail dress with a floral print! That’S robbery, that’s what it is!
Best wishes to them! Very cute couple.
And I LOVE the jewelry discussions here! I had never heard of such a sapphire. The color sounds amazing-wonder if this photo does the stone a disservice?
@ TIG
Yeah….Sapphires are actually any non-red Corundum (aka ruby), so they come in all sorts of beautiful colours: purple, orange, green, pink, orange and pink-orange (aka padparascha).
I dream of one day owning them in every colour I can find. 😍😍
Tig, LAK provided a link in yesterday’s story about this ring. (comment #20) It connects to a site that shows/sells them. There is a link at the bottom of the sapphire page that leads to the other colours they come in. It also talks about how rare they are.
The only thing I’m excited about is the return of Fergie. She about to do the most the interviews are coming. She’s already OD’ed with wedding memes congrats on twitter.
A few royal reporters commented on twitter that it was weird that a non working royal got an engagement interview.
I wonder if Andy going to whine to mommy that his child deserves a televised wedding like Chuck’s kid.
I feel like this will be a pissing match for Andy to show his kids are just as important as Chuck’s kids.
Ohh, he seems so sweet and excited. Makes me less cynical this morning…
Aw, he does seem like he really loves her. I’m happy for them. Congrats!
I believe Andrew wants a grand wedding for Eugenie. The bad blood between Charles and Andrew is there despite denials. 5000 for the dress? Some reports say Eugenie is being frugal. Not with that price tag.
I doubt it cost that much. Like MM she probably got it for a deep discount.
The ring is horrible but the manicure is great.
+1
This was the royal engagement I was waiting for. I thought Eugenie would be engaged before Harry last year. She is my favorite of them all. I am happy for her. I think he’s sweet and he adores her. Wishing them many years of happiness.
He isn’t a night club manager…he works for Casamigos…
You know George Clooney is over the moon that this engagement is giving free PR to Casamigos.
Will George be invited do you think? I just love that she’s marrying in St George’s. I want it to be televised though highly doubtful.
It would be terribly funny if George was invited because you know that is an invitation he won’t turn down.
I was also wondering if George (and Cindy Crawford’s husband) would be invited! 😂
Just read this, which seems like a hint that Clooney might be invited:
“Royal insider Dickie Arbiter says the Princess’s marriage to the 31-year-old will be even more star-studded than Meghan’s.”
George sold Casamigos
Porcupette: he remains a stakeholder.
These engagement photos are stunning! The dress is so lovely on her and very flattering to her coloring and I love how his suit complements her outfit. This is how you do it–beautiful, classic, and timeless yet modern at the same time. Sarah is clearly over the moon with happiness for her baby girl and who can blame her.
I just read in the Sun that a jeweller has estimated the ring to be worth over $100,000. Apparently the stone is very rare and very expensive. Any truth to that?
Yesterday the DM was claiming he paid $7,000 for the ring.
@ladyd I think that is closer to the actual price. If it’s colour-treated it’s cheaper. I don’t see them spending that much money on an engagement ring.
100k is entirely possible, although very upper limit. Pads are rare, not cheap and neither is jewellery in London. If it’s been heated, it would be worth considerably less.
Someone mentioned colour treated here. Anything other than simple heat would automatically exclude the stone as being defined as a pad, at least as far as the gem labs go, and I would assume a stone like that would have a lab report.
Anyone loving the color of pad sapphires without big bucks to spend: a decade or two ago there was the “Mad Pad” incident, ie: Madagascar pink sapphire that was beryllium diffused to change the colour to padparadscha. These are still floating around out there for dirt cheap, you’d probably easily find them on eBay if you search for “beryllium diffused padparadscha”. They are in absolutely no way any sort of an investment stone, but neither is Swarovski if it’s just bling you’re after.
The padparasha stone is much more expensive than white diamonds. 100k would be more like it. There is no way $7000 would get you this ring. 7k would buy a bog standard pink sapphire. I know gems.
Oh Sixer, where are you? Hope you are well. So much to discuss.
Yes Sixer, where are you? Your input is required here.
Yeah, where is Sixer? I hope she’s okay.
Love the stone, don’t like the ring. If the stone were blue the ring would look like a smaller version of Diana/Kate’s ring. There are so many different setting styles she could have chosen that would show off the stone much better.
Yea, love the stone, don’t like the ring. Perhaps a prong or pave setting?
Fyi there’s already a dedicated post on royal jewels😀
http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.sg/2018/01/royal-jewels-of-day-engagement-ring.html?m=1
My engagement ring is a pink-peach sapphire (with a much simpler setting), and I absolutely love it! It’s nice to have something different since to me it seems like every single woman I know pretty much has the same exact ring.
It sounds beautiful! Sounds like the ring I’d want — morganite center stone…
I don’t really have a preference as far as diamond vs. other stones, this is beautiful. But it looks like the ring has two bands, why is that?
More power to ya if you helped chose the ring but so very glad the Mr. knew well enough to select a classic setting that I’d love it was his grandmothers diamond so that alone made my heart melt. He shocked me when he got down on one knee and asked. I still get compliments from people on how beautiful my engagement ring is and I tell them proudly how my husband selected it himself, he has excellent taste! 😉
I don’t care for the ring myself, but I do love that its something different.
Can we talk about her lovely NATURAL accent and throaty voice? I’m about it. Compared to Waity’s fake accent… ugh I wonder when she will transition out of that BS way of speaking.
I suspect it would be when William is nearer to being King. Surely she would be more confident by then.
Padparadsha is a lovely choice of stone. Good ones have gorgeous orange-pink color.
Wish I had one, but they aren’t cheap.
@WOOD DRAGON: I just kind of love your screen name. Very feng shui. 🙂
Try looking for a spinel the same colour. Tanzania and Vietnam produce some great ones and that colour of spinel is much less expensive!
They seem like a lovely couple and he is clearly not afraid to show that he’s a very happy man with her. Great body language & positive, loving vibes from both of them. Very sweet.
They are really cute together. Love Eugenie’s get up for this occasion. I’m with the non-diamond engagement ring crowd (wrote my senior thesis on the devastating effects of diamond mining in southern African countries)… But idk how I feel about this ring. Seems to suit her well though, which is the only thing that matters!
Also, the chemical peel line made me lol this morning and I’m still loling about it this evening.
How do you also wear a wedding band with a ring like that? It’s a pretty ring, but a plain band with it will look odd. Or do they just wear the engagement ring? How does this work, people??
She will probably wear a matching wedding band.
See Diana, Fergie and Kate’s wedding bands with this type of ring.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/720/media/images/52343000/jpg/_52343500_000996431-1.jpg
https://cdn.images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/1/photos/284000/1123284.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d0/2a/d7/d02ad730aea8a32416fa6ba879d0b341.jpg
The ring is beautiful. Are you sure about the price of that dress? I read elsewhere that it was significantly less. And omg what a beautiful low speaking voice she has!
I love the ring!! It’s not what I would have picked but the comment about the changing colors makes me love it. I have a blue sapphire set into my great grandmothers wedding ring (the diamond went to another sibling). My mother gave the platinum setting with all the remaining diamonds in it to my husband & he had a sapphire placed in it instead of a diamond because “I wanted you to have something as unusual & beautiful as you.” Yes, I cried. I get compliments on it all the time because the ring is actually from the 1920s & people think the sapphire was always in it. From what I gather blue sapphires were quite common as engagement rings back then.
Sounds like a beautiful ring.
It does sound beautiful! It’s times like this that I wish we could post photos in comments on CB 🙂
I think it’s fabulous that they went for something other than a diamond.
I love it, it’s not too pink but a rather nice peachy colour that would complement skin tones quite nicely you’d think.
He’s a bit of a drip isn’t he?