Princess Eugenie of York is set to wed soon and her sister, Princess Beatrice of York, will play a special part on her big day.
In a rare interview, published in British Vogue's September 2018 issue, the two, the children of Queen Elizabeth II's son Prince Andrew and ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, opened up about their close relationship and Eugenie's upcoming wedding to Jack Brooksbank on Friday, October 12. Beatrice will serve as her sister's maid of honor.
"Euge is amazing," Beatrice said about Eugenie, adding, "She's a very modern bride."
The two largely rose to fame outside of their native U.K. seven years ago, thanks to their...headwear. The princesses had turned heads at Prince William and Kate Middleton's 2011 royal wedding due to their eclectic Philip Treacy hats, which landed them on worst-dressed lists. Beatrice's pink, spiral ribbon fascinator even inspired many unflattering memes.
The online mockery upset the two so much that they reportedly broke down crying at a garden party at Buckingham Palace. The two leaned on each other for support.
"There was a horrible article that had been written about Beatrice and she got really upset," Eugenie told British Vogue. "We were just about to step out and she had a bit of a wobble and cried. I was looking after her. And then about an hour later, I had a wobble and started crying and Bea was there for me."
With only a year and a half between them, Eugenie, 28, and Beatrice, 30, have always been there for each other. In their interview with British Vogue, Eugenie and Beatrice said they were "each other's rocks."
The two lived together in a four-bedroom apartment at St James's Palace for about a decade before Eugenie got engaged to Brooksbank in January. The couple soon moved to Ivy Cottage within Kensington Palace.
As the sisters have grown up, they have both struggled to keep up with the intense media scrutiny.
"It's hard to navigate situations like these because there is no precedent, there is no protocol. We are the first: We are young women trying to build careers and have personal lives, and we're also princesses and doing all of this in the public eye," Beatrice, who works as a vice president of partnerships and strategy for U.S.-based tech company Afiniti, told British Vogue.
She and Eugenie, who works as an associate director for the Hauser & Wirth art gallery in London, also talked to the magazine about growing up together. Like all siblings, they don't get along all the time.
"One of the biggest fights we ever had was about a pair of Converse trainers," Beatrice said. "We have the same size feet and both of us had identical pairs. One pair got trashed and the other sister may have swapped them."
The two were occasionally dressed alike as children, as seen in old family photos of the two together that Eugenie posted on Instagram this year.
Eugenie's Instagram is public and was created in March. Her username is her shortened royal title—@princesseugenie. She updates her page regularly.
Her sister's page, with the username @beayork, is private.
In August, Eugenie shared her first contemporary pic of her sister; it shows the two dressed in black, but in different style outfits, sitting on a bench with their dogs. The photo is contained in their British Vogue feature.
The magazine said the two occasionally feel overwhelmed when it comes to social media.
"It's so easy to recoil when you see a perfect image, but it's important that it's real," Eugenie told the magazine. "We're real."