Prince Harry took his cousin, Princess Eugenie, to his first Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago. Before they were seen there, no one had any idea that Eugenie, her husband Jack Brooksbank, and very likely their baby August were in California. And for several days after that there were no sightings, although presumably, Eugenie and her family were staying with Harry and Meghan Markle at their home in Montecito. Which is likely where Eugenie would have been when news broke a couple of days after the Super Bowl that her father, Prince Andrew, had reached a settlement with Virginia Roberts Giuffre. As I mentioned at the time, being with Harry and Meghan would probably have felt safe for Eugenie, not just for physical security but also emotional security. Here are two people who have their own fraught relationships with their fathers and who can empathise more than most about what Eugenie is experiencing.
On Saturday, Harry, Meghan, Eugenie, and Jack were seen out for dinner. TMZ acquired the exclusive photos and the story hasn’t yet gotten much play in the UK, and that may be because TMZ has a hold on them for a certain amount of time before other outlets can buy. As you can see from the shots, they all look like they’re having a great time, an evening out with no kids. My Photo Assumption call (our favourite game of baseless conclusions) is that this is a last night outing – one final dinner on the town before Eugenie and Jack leave to go back to London.
Harry and Meghan, as we know, are rarely papped and certainly not at the usual places where celebrities are papped in California. There’s generally not a lot of papping where they live – Montecito is not like Hollywood where there are hang-out spots that famous people either avoid or frequent. The times that Harry and Meghan do get papped in Montecito it’s when they’re out for dinner, like back in 2020 when they were seen with David Foster and Katharine McPhee. It was about six months after they’d arrived in California and three months or so after it was confirmed that they’d bought a home in the neighbourhood.
The conspiracy theorists’ take on this then is that, well, the timing of these pictures is interesting with Kate over in Denmark. Harry and Meghan are celebrities. They have access to and know the game of celebrity. The dinner happened on Saturday and TMZ didn’t publish until yesterday. I also find it curious that TMZ doesn’t mention the restaurant. That may be because the pap agency doesn’t want to give away to its competitors where this happened. Or maybe they weren’t able to get any additional scoop from the restaurant about what they all ate or drank or whatever and don’t want any other outlet finding ways to access that information. Like I can’t find a mention at PEOPLE or Us Weekly about this dinner yet so they may be waiting out TMZ’s exclusive before they buy the shots through the agency to post it themselves, while making calls for additional details to fill out their story.
By now, though, Harry, Meghan, Eugenie, and Jack would be well aware that these shots were taken – and if PEOPLE, for example, always eager to be on the good side of celebrities, especially Harry and Meghan, doesn’t end up running the pictures, and they have the budget for it, it could be a sign that they don’t want to mess with Harry and Meghan’s paparazzi policy. TMZ was acquired by Fox last year and it would be inconsistent with Harry and Meghan’s messaging if they were to endorse this kind of under the table situation with an outlet associated with connections to so much bullsh-t and f-ckery. If PEOPLE had run these shots first, the conspiracy definitely has more weight. The fact that it’s TMZ, however, gives me pause. But your gossip buffet selection might be different.