The Queen’s granddaughter also visited the Victoria & Albert Museum to meet with the winner of the Platinum Jubilee design contest ahead of this weekend’s festivities
Princess Eugenie is honoring her “grannie” Queen Elizabeth ahead of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Eugenie, the second daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, reflected on what the 96-year-old monarch has meant to the U.K. and the world during her 70-year-old reign, as well as how her own life has changed since the Queen’s last Jubilee in 2012. In Oct. 2018, Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank, and the couple welcomed a son named August Philip Hawke last year.
“As I look back on the 2012 Jubilee and the one we are about to celebrate, I think about how my life has changed in that time,” Princess Eugenie, 32, wrote in The Spectator magazine. “I am now a wife and a mother with so much more responsibility than I had as a 21-year-old just leaving university. I have given my life to my special little family and hope to impart even an inch of the values my grandmother has lived her life by.”
She continued, “I think about my son August and what I’d like for him, what kind of world I’d like him to grow up in. And I think of my grannie and what she has stood for, for so many people and for our family during these 70 years. I’d love Augie to have her patience, her calmness and her kindness, while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye.”
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Princess Eugenie called herself a “very proud granddaughter” and also reflected on how the Queen has been a beacon of stability for many people throughout her seven-decade reign. She recalled how at the 2012 Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip watched 850 boats floating down the Thames despite some unfavorable weather.
“Most of all, I remember seeing my grannie and grandpa standing for eight hours in the rain, waving and smiling, and keeping the family and the nation moving forward like they had done for so many years,” she wrote.
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The Queen continued doing just that amid the COVID-19 pandemic when she gave a rare televised speech emphasizing the need to band together as a country, united in fortitude and strength.
“The Jubilee stands as a testimony to a woman who has transcended time and has been that constant rock for so many when the world can feel so fragile,” Eugenie said. “I remember during the worldwide lockdown, when Her Majesty gave a speech saying, ‘we will meet again,’ and in an instant we were all connected in a collective confidence that everything would be OK and life would continue one day.”
On Wednesday, Princess Eugenie visited the Victoria & Albert Museum to view the Queen’s Jubilee Emblem Display and meet with Edward Roberts, the winner of the emblem design competition.
Artists and illustrators between the ages of 13–25 from all four nations of the U.K. were invited to submit their designs, and Roberts was announced as the winner in August.
In a statement about his win, the graphic design student said he “wanted to give a modern twist to the iconic elements of St. Edward’s Crown, and so I created a continuous line, which I felt was a fitting representation of The Queen’s reign.”
Judging panel member Paul Thompson, Vice-Chancellor of the Royal College of Art, noted of Roberts’ entry: “This clean graphic design takes us on a simple line journey to create the crown and the number 70, beautifully capturing the continuous thread of Her Majesty The Queen’s 70-year reign. Drawn on a computer, the ingenious emblem works across all scales and the flow of the line gives us a sense of a human touch behind the digital design process.”
As part of his prize, Roberts scored a VIP invite to this weekend’s celebrations, including the Platinum Party at the Palace concert on June 5.
It’s expected that Princess Eugenie will join other members of the royal family in this weekend’s events, including Friday’s service of thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral to honor the Queen.
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