Buckingham Palace announced that Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank are expecting their third child together, due this summer, welcome family news arriving against a backdrop of scandal and legal trouble that continues to shadow the broader royal household.
The palace posted the announcement on its social media channels at 10 a.m., confirming the pregnancy in a formal statement. Eugenie, 36, shared the news on her own Instagram account with a photo of her two young sons, August and Ernest, holding a picture of a baby scan. Her caption was brief: "Baby Brooksbank due 2026!"
The announcement, first reported by the Daily Mail, noted that the couple's elder son August is five and their younger son Ernest is two. The new baby will be the 15th great-grandchild of the late Queen Elizabeth II and the third born since her death in 2022.
Buckingham Palace released a statement that read, in part:
"Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie and Mr Jack Brooksbank are very pleased to announce that they are expecting their third child together, due this summer. August (aged five) and Ernest (aged two) are also very excited to have another sibling join the family."
The statement added that King Charles III "has been informed and is delighted with the news." Fox News confirmed the palace's language, noting the King's reaction and the couple's growing family.
The Washington Times also reported the pregnancy, emphasizing that Eugenie is due to give birth this summer and that King Charles expressed delight at the news.
The child will be born 15th in line to the British throne, bumping the Duke of Edinburgh down to 16th place. The baby will also be the fifth grandchild of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Eugenie's father and the King's brother.
The timing of the announcement is hard to separate from the turbulence surrounding Eugenie's parents. Her father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, a development that deepened the cloud over a branch of the royal family already damaged by Andrew's association with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Epstein connection has touched Eugenie and her sister Beatrice directly, if tangentially. Both sisters' names appeared in files released in a U.S. Department of Justice document dump related to Epstein. One email exchange referenced in reporting suggested their mother, Sarah, took her daughters to see Epstein in the United States days after his release from prison for child sex crimes. Eugenie and Beatrice were 19 and 20 at the time.
None of this is new ground for the royal family. King Charles himself has faced questions about the Epstein matter on the international stage, including when Rep. Khanna pressed him to speak for Epstein victims during a planned address to Congress.
Beatrice, 37, has faced her own share of scrutiny after her name surfaced in the Epstein files. Still, the sisters have stayed close. Last Thursday, they were seen together after lunch at Soho Mews House in Mayfair and were spotted walking near Hanover Square, their first joint London appearance in six months, according to reporting.
That same evening, Eugenie and Brooksbank were photographed at the Dorian Restaurant in Notting Hill, dining with friends. The Daily Mail published exclusive pictures of the date night four days before the pregnancy announcement.
The couple married at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle in October 2018. Their first son, August, arrived on February 9, 2021, and Ernest followed on May 30, 2023. They split their time between a Kensington Palace cottage and a villa in Portugal, a lifestyle largely removed from the senior royal spotlight.
The day before the pregnancy announcement, Eugenie marked Brooksbank's 40th birthday on her Instagram story. She shared photographs of her husband relaxing on a beach, an older photo of the two together from 2011, and a shot of August playing in the sand with his father. Her caption: "Happy 40th my love."
Their most recent public appearance alongside senior royals came at the Duchess of Kent's funeral in September. They joined the wider family at Sandringham on Christmas Day, but notably did not attend the traditional Easter service gathering at Windsor last month. The King reportedly agreed to their absence.
That kind of selective visibility has become the norm for Eugenie and Brooksbank. They are not senior working royals. They do not draw from the public purse for official duties. And they have kept a lower profile than some of their relatives, a choice that looks increasingly wise given the legal and reputational storms swirling around other members of the family.
The new baby will join a growing generation of royal great-grandchildren. Princess Beatrice's daughter, Athena Mapelli Mozzi, was born in January of last year. The arrival this summer will mark the third great-grandchild born since Queen Elizabeth II's death in 2022.
King Charles's public reaction, "delighted," per the palace, is notable in context. His relationship with his brother Andrew has been strained by scandal, and the broader royal family has been forced to navigate a series of embarrassments that would test any institution. Charles's recent high-profile appearances in the United States drew their own share of political theater, but on the home front, a new grandniece or grandnephew offers something simpler: good news.
The New York Post had previously covered the couple's second pregnancy announcement in similar fashion, a palace statement, Eugenie's social media post, and the obligatory note about the line of succession. The pattern held this time. The machinery of royal announcements grinds on, even when the family's standing is less certain than it once was.
European royal families, of course, face threats beyond reputational ones. A recent case in the Netherlands involving an alleged plot against Dutch princesses served as a stark reminder that royal households still attract dangers of a different kind.
The palace statement did not specify an exact due date beyond "this summer." Eugenie's Instagram post said "due 2026" without further detail. No location for the birth was announced, and no further public comment from Brooksbank accompanied the news.
Whether the couple will increase their visibility as the due date approaches, or continue their pattern of quiet, selective appearances, remains to be seen. Their last public outing with senior royals was eight months ago, and the Easter absence suggests they are not eager to step back into the formal rotation.
For a family that has endured arrests, document dumps, and relentless tabloid scrutiny, a baby announcement is about as uncomplicated as things get. Whether the goodwill lasts depends less on Eugenie and Brooksbank than on the scandals they did not choose and cannot control.
New life in a family under pressure. Sometimes that is the only kind of good news an institution gets, and sometimes it is enough.
