Princess Eugenie reveals the late queen’s corgis are ‘barky’ but ‘very sweet’ around her sons August and Ernest – and says she won’t send the boys to boarding school until they are 13 because she wants to ‘hang out’ with them ‘ as long as she can
Princess Eugenie has revealed that the Queen’s corgis are “barky and big” but “very sweet” as she discussed plans for her children and reflected on the do’s and don’ts of dinner with grandma.
Speaking to the Table Manners podcast, hosted by singer Jessie Ware and her chef mother Lennie, Eugenie gave some insight into what Queen Elizabeth II’s beloved dogs are really like.
When asked if the corgis are nice to children, Eugenie replied: ‘Yes. They bark and are big, but they are very sweet. They have big, big fluffy legs.”
On the podcast, Eugenie spoke about her plans to send her sons August, two, and Ernest, five months, to boarding school. She revealed that she wants them to wait until they are a little older than their father, Jack Brooksbank, was when he first came on board. eight years old.
She also remembered what it was like to dine with her grandmother, the Queen, and how the table was a strict no-go zone – and her elders often told her to stop when her knees were up at the table.
Queen Elizabeth II pets Candy, her corgi, as she looks at an exhibition of memorabilia from her Golden and Platinum Jubilee in February 2022
On the podcast, Eugenie spoke about whether she plans to send her children Augie and Ernie (both pictured) to boarding school, just like she and her husband Jack.
Princess Eugenie of York and Queen Elizabeth II attend Day 1 of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse on June 18, 2013
During the conversation, Eugenie discussed her late grandmother’s Corgis, Muick and Sandy, who were adopted by her parents Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson after Her Majesty’s death.
“Why did your family love them so much?” Jessie asked. ‘Where did it come from? Has it always been a tradition?’
“No, my great-grandmother had them and that’s why my grandmother loved them,” Eugenie replied.
‘And then that was it. She made it what it is today.”
Later in the podcast, Eugenie was asked if she went to boarding school as a child and whether she liked it. “I loved it,” she said. ‘I absolutely loved it.’
Jessie then asked, “Do you think you would send your children to boarding school?”
“Yes, at age 13,” Eugenie replied. ‘I think my husband went to boarding school at the age of eight. Yeah, I mean, when I look at my sons now. I want to hang out with them. I like playing with them. I don’t want them to leave.’
Eugenie went on to say that she wouldn’t have sent her children to boarding school as young as her husband had gone, but added that when they were a little older, it would be “great to get on board.”
“Yes, at that moment it was great to get on board and then be with all your friends and have that adult sensibility and all that stuff,” she said. “But yeah, I wouldn’t send them eight.”
“I didn’t tell Jack that,” she admitted.
Wares’ ‘Table Manners’ podcast is about food, family and ‘the art of conversation’, so an integral part of the Queen’s family was naturally brought up during Eugenie’s appearance – her corgis (pictured at the Queen’s funeral), who were adopted by the princess’s parents
Here the Queen arrives in Aberdeen, Scotland with her corgis to begin her holiday at Balmoral in 1974
Later in the podcast, Eugenie (pictured with her son Augie) was asked if she went to boarding school as a child and whether she liked it. “I loved it,” she said. ‘I absolutely loved it.’
Eugenie, the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, gave birth to her first son in February 2021. Pictured with August during the platinum jubilee of the late Queen Elizabeth
The Ware podcast also touched on the titular theme, table manners; and dining etiquette growing up in the royal family.
When asked if she had to do certain things growing up, Eugenie said she had two different table manners: one for when she dined with the Queen and one for at home.
“We had table manners A,” she said. ‘Just like very small people: table manners A were when we were at grandma’s and table manners Z were when we were at home.’
Eugenie also revealed that as young people they couldn’t have ‘knees at the table’.
She said, “Like my mother, when I would sit with my knees at the table, she would say, ‘Are they invited to lunch? Are they invited to dinner?’ And so they would be downstairs.
“But it was a funny thing. So now when one of our friends is around and they put their knees up, my mom is like, you know.”
The Princess reflected on her summers in Scotland – which she described as her ‘favourite place on earth’ – which consisted of picnics, trips to Bothies and picnics.
Queen Elizabeth II waves to the crowd as she stands on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with Prince Philip, Princess Margaret and Princess Eugenie after the Trooping the Color ceremony in June 1998
Jack and a pregnant Eugenie pictured in April, during the traditional Easter Sunday Mattins Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle
Princess Eugenie welcomed her second child with husband Jack Brooksbank, named Ernest George Ronnie, in May
She said, “We would hang out in the little houses, the little houses. And it would look very much like we would all get Tupperware out of the basket, picnic baskets, and open them, and then help ourselves to the salad and the cold cuts and things like that. So that was very normal.’
“It’s my favorite place on earth,” she added. ‘Well, wherever we go in Scotland, the Cairngorms are the most beautiful. It is one of the most beautiful national parks.’
As the podcast came to a close, Lennie asked, “Can I ask something that might be a little rude?”
“But as the royal family, as a young person, do you think you’re modernizing? Do you think there are changes in attitudes and it’s becoming more modern?’
Eugenie responded: “It’s less about modernizing and more about becoming one with what the Monitor believes in,” she said, describing her uncle and cousin, King Charles and Prince William, as “great examples of that.”
“And the way they were raised and the work they believe in,” she concluded.
“It’s not like they’re thinking, ‘God, we’re going to modernize it.’ It’s just to say that they move with their belief systems and with what the world believes.”