A delighted Princess Eugenie has given birth to a son and named her baby boy Ernest, she has announced.
The late Queen’s granddaughter, 33, and husband Jack Brooksbank, 37, welcomed their second child, who weighed 7lb 1oz, nearly a week ago on May 30.
Their eldest son, two-year-old August, is “loving being a big brother already”, the princess said.
Eugenie posted on her Instagram account: “Jack and I wanted to share the news that we had our little boy, Ernest George Ronnie Brooksbank on 30th May 2023 at 8.49 weighing 7.1lbs.
“He is named after his great great great Grandfather George, his Grandpa George and my Grandpa Ronald.
“Augie is loving being a big brother already.”
Eugenie shared a sweet picture of Ernest, wearing a knitted blue and white hat, asleep in a Moses basket, and one of August tenderly stroking his brother’s head.
Ernest’s great-great-great grandfather was King George V who also had Ernest as a middle name – with his full name being George Frederick Ernest Albert.
Eugenie’s father-in-law Mr Brooksbank had been ill for some time and had previously been seriously unwell with Covid.
Ronnie is a nod to Sarah, Duchess of York’s father, the former royal polo manager Major Ronald Ferguson who died in 2003 and who was dubbed “the galloping major” following tabloid exposes of his private life – and a title he used for his autobiography.
Ernest has arrived in the King’s coronation year, just weeks after the ceremony.
He is the first of the late Queen’s great-grandchildren to be born since her death last September.
The newest member of the royal family, whose title is Master Brooksbank, is 13th in line to the throne, moving the Duke of Edinburgh down to 14th place.
A heavily pregnant Eugenie, daughter of the Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York, joined the Windsors to witness her uncle Charles’s coronation in Westminster Abbey at the start of May.
Mr Brooksbank was seated next to the Duke of Sussex in the third row.
The princess is close to her cousin Harry, whose biography caused ructions when he laid bare his fraught relationships with the King and the Prince of Wales.
When she was just weeks away from giving birth, Eugenie joked she would use her baby bump to clear a path through the busy crowds at a Coronation Big Lunch on Chalfont St Giles’s village green in Buckinghamshire during the celebratory weekend.
Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank had expressed their excitement ahead of becoming a family of four.
The princess posted a photograph of August, in a burgundy winter hat, matching trousers and wellies, embracing her and kissing her bump, to announce her pregnancy in January.
“We’re so excited to share that there will be a new addition to our family this summer,” she wrote.
August Philip Hawke Brooksbank was born at the exclusive Portland Hospital in central London on February 9 2021.
He made an appearance at the Platinum Jubilee pageant celebrations last year wearing a Union flag jumper as Eugenie bounced him up and down on her knee in the royal box.
Eco-conscious Eugenie has pledged August will be “an activist from two years old” and spoken of her own attempts to stop using plastic at home.
The princess and Mr Brooksbank married in a glittering ceremony in the gothic surroundings of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in front of royal and celebrity guests in October 2018.
Mr Brooksbank has worked as a European brand director of Casamigos Tequila, co-founded by actor George Clooney.
He met Eugenie through mutual friends while on a ski trip to Verbier.
Eugenie is a director at the contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth in London.
She is patron of several charities, including the Elephant Family, the Teenage Cancer Trust, the Coronet Theatre and the European School of Osteopathy, and also founded the Anti-Slavery Collective charity.
Eugenie and Mr Brooksbank arrived at the coronation with the princess’s disgraced father, Andrew, who stepped down from royal duties in 2019 after his controversial Newsnight interview and the furore over his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The duke went on to pay millions to settle a civil sexual assault lawsuit to a woman he claimed never to have met. He denied the claims.
The baby is Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah’s third grandchild, joining August, and Princess Beatrice’s one-year-old daughter Sienna.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here