Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced they were expecting their first child on Princess Eugenie’s wedding day in 2018 – and it’s believed the news didn’t go down well with Eugenie’s mum, Sarah Ferguson
Sarah Ferguson reportedly took a subtle swipe at the duchess(Image: Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage and Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry reportedly ruffled some Royal feathers, specifically those of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, when they chose to announce their pregnancy on the same day as Princess Eugenie’s wedding. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex discovered they were expecting their first child, Prince Archie, in 2018, just a few months after their own grand Windsor wedding.
However, their joyous news coincided with Harry’s cousin, Princess Eugenie’s, wedding day, potentially overshadowing her special day. Although Harry and Meghan only shared the news with a select few at the wedding, Kensington Palace announced the baby news shortly thereafter.
Royal authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand suggest that Eugenie did not particularly like this decision.
The announcement seemed to eclipse news of Princess Eugenie’s wedding, much to the chagrin of Eugenie’s mother, Sarah.
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While Sarah, 65, didn’t explicitly express her displeasure, she did post a series of tweets about Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank’s wedding, conveniently timed with Kensington Palace’s public announcement of Harry and Meghan’s baby news, reports the Express.
It’s speculated that this was a subtle jab at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, an attempt to overshadow their news with wedding photos. Insiders claim Fergie was livid at the couple for upstaging her daughter.
Princess Eugenie’s wedding was in October 2018(Image: Pool/Max Mumby/Getty Images)
While Sarah may have viewed the timing of the couple’s pregnancy announcement as inconvenient, Harry explained in his memoir Spare why he decided to share the news with his Royal relatives on his cousin’s wedding day.
In his 2023 memoir, he wrote, “Euge was getting married to Jack, and we were deliriously happy for them and for ourselves, selfishly, since Jack was one of our favorite people.”
He went on: “Meg and I were supposed to head off on our first official foreign tour as a married couple, but we delayed the departure several days, so we could be at the wedding.
“Also, the various gatherings connected to the wedding would give us a chance to pull aside family members one by one and tell them our good news.”
The duo’s pregnancy announcement was revealed publicly on October 15 – three days after Princess Eugenie’s wedding.