Back In The Firm Fergie's By Eugenie's Side

The Youngest York Shines At Her Lavish Royal Wedding.

- Judy Kean

The bride was beautiful, her groom couldn’t stop grinning and for the most part, the black sheep of the family was on her best behaviour.

When Princess Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank last week, there was almost as much attention on her mother Sarah, Duchess of York, as there was on the happy couple.

It was Fergie’s first official return to the royal fold after the 1992 toe-sucking scandal that saw her blacklisted from Britain’s first family and become persona non grata with her former father-in-law, Prince Philip.

Friends say Fergie (59) had been a “bag of nerves” before the wedding, worried about being in Philip’s company again, but by the time she arrived at St George’s Chapel for the ceremony she couldn’t contain her excitement at her youngest daughter’s big day.

Known in the past for her often impetuous behaviour and occasional lack of decorum, the bubbly redhead departed from protocol as soon as she got out of her chauffeur-driven car, rushing over to the crowd gathered behind a barricade and hugging family friend Jessie Huberty (83). Jessie, from New York, says, “She is a lovely woman; she never forgets her friends.”

Wearing a custom-made emerald-green dress by Windsor designer Emma Louise Design and a striking hat adorned with an unusual bow, Fergie looked a tad nervous as she made her way up the church steps, accompanied by eldest daughter Princess Beatrice (30).

Beatrice had been named as Eugenie’s maid of honour, but unlike Pippa Middleton − who held the same position at her sister Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding − Beatrice didn’t join Eugenie (28), their father Prince Andrew (58) and the bridesmaids and pageboys for the procession into the church.

Instead she walked in with her mother, apparently so that Fergie didn’t have to make the long journey to her seat alone.