Why Kate has always kept a safe distance from Eugenie

They attended the same school, share a keen interest in art and both count Pippa Middleton among their close confidantes.

On paper, it would seem as if the Princess of Wales and her husband’s cousin, Princess Eugenie, should have naturally gravitated towards each other.

But the future Queen has always kept the daughters of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson at a distance – one that has seemingly only increased after the Epstein scandal.

According to royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams, the prim and proper Kate does not ‘have that much in common’ with the York sisters.

‘Eugenie, particularly, seems to be closer to Harry’ than the princess’s husband William, he added, but it appears there may be more to Kate’s aversion than the 35-year-old’s warm relationship with the Sussexes.

Both Kate and Eugenie attended Marlborough College, the elite private school in Wiltshire, but they could not have had more different experiences.

While Kate excelled at sports and blossomed from a shy 14-year-old into a confident young adult during her time at the boarding school, Eugenie was at the centre of a royally embarrassing incident.

Eugenie was severely reprimanded after she was caught ‘frolicking naked in the ground’ at the end of term after a night of drinking.

While Eugenie – alongside the Royal Family – was left red-faced by the news, it wasn’t the only time the princess’s wild ways caused a kerfuffle within the halls of Buckingham Palace.

From insisting on ‘pole-dancing’ at a strip club to pursuing ill-advised romances with London society’s most notorious players, Eugenie’s ‘high jinks’ may be a thing of the past – but it appears Kate isn’t ready to forget just yet.

Eugenie was born on March 23, 1990, less than two years after her older sister, Princess Beatrice, from the now divorced former Duke and Duchess of York.

In an interview with Hello! magazine, Fergie said Eugenie always had a ‘very strong character’, while recalling her first day at the ‘aesthetic’ Montessori nursery in Windsor in 1992. 

By the time she turned 18, Eugenie was a strong contender for the title of Royal wild child, held by her cousin Prince Harry, after news of her indiscretions at the £23,000-a-year Marlborough College broke. 

During her last term at the private Wiltshire school, also attended by Kate, Eugenie and her friends were caught stark naked and ‘frolicking like nymphs’ on the moonlit lawns after a boozy night out. 

At the time, a royal source said: ‘It was nothing more than high jinks at the end of term in May [2008].

‘A group of them were reprimanded and that’s the end of the matter.’ 

But it was only the beginning of Eugenie’s hard-partying ways, as an insider is quoted as comparing the princess to a ‘cross between Harry and Princess Margaret’. 

‘Even her father admits she is liable to be a bit of a tearaway,’ they continued. ‘Hellraiser is the word.’

She also had something of a reputation for dating ‘bad boys’.

Eugenie, who in 2008 was planning her gap year after graduating from Marlborough, was allegedly ‘smitten’ with Hugo Taylor. 

Then 18, Eugenie’s rumoured fling with the former Made In Chelsea star, 22 at the time, made headlines after she was spotted ‘passionately’ snogging Hugo at Vendome night club in Mayfair. 

A source told the Daily Mail: ‘They were kissing very openly and very passionately and not making a secret of it.’ 

They added that the summer romance had left Hugo’s friends ‘rather surprised’ because of the reality TV star’s long history of dating ‘stunning leggy blondes’ – including his now-ex and fellow Made In Chelsea alum, Millie Mackintosh. 

‘Eugenie isn’t his type at all to be honest and he’s keen to play things down. It’s not necessarily an exclusive relationship but they both like each other,’ the source added, noting the princess’s soft spot for ‘bad boys’. 

‘Hugo is dark and a little bit naughty, which she loves,’ they continued. ‘But she should be careful before she falls too badly for Hugo – he’s a lovely chap but he’s a party boy and definitely a bit of a player.’

At the time, Hugo was a familiar face at London’s most exclusive nightclubs and worked as an unpaid promoter at Whisky Mist. 

Eugenie was no stranger to the now-shuttered nightclub at the Hilton on Park Lane; she spent the summer of 2008 partying at Boujis nightclub, Whisky Mist and Mahiki – apparently to her parents’ despair. 

The former Duchess of York – who has gone into hiding in the wake of her and Andrew’s disgrace – had hoped Eugenie would spend her gap year doing charity work. 

Instead, the young princess was relishing a newfound freedom as the city rolled out its red carpet for her – even at 4 in the morning. 

The following January, Eugenie caused a stir after it was reported that the late Queen’s granddaughter stopped by a pole-dancing club in the capital where ‘girls charge £20 for a nude dance’. 

According to a report by the Daily Mail, Eugenie arrived at the Sophisticats Gentleman’s Club in the West End accompanied by her friends and a Royal Protection Officer at the crack of dawn and spent an hour at the club. 

During their time there, Eugenie splurged on a £165 bottle of Bollinger Grande Annee Vintage 1999 champagne and indulged in a selection of cocktails. 

She ‘laughed and giggled’ as lap dancers performed on her and, seemingly emboldened by liquid courage, Eugenie then tried to ‘join the gyrating girls on stage’, the Daily Mail reported. 

After watching a brunette strip off and lap dance for one of her male friends, a laughing Eugenie and her girlfriends began dancing by the side of their table. 

Eugenie, who was sixth in line to the throne at the time, then allegedly made a beeline for the stage ‘where three girls were dancing naked for the customers’ and asked if she could ‘have a go’, an eyewitness told this newspaper. 

But because of health and safety regulations she was told she would not be allowed unless she was employed by the club and had undergone training on the pole, like their dancers. 

‘It was all done very tongue-in-cheek and Eugenie took it in good spirits,’ the eyewitness added.

Revellers at the club were, however, left stunned by the princess’s behaviour as one source said ‘it caused quite a commotion’.

‘The last thing anyone expected was for a princess to turn up unannounced, let alone sit there and enjoy a lap dance for one of her party,’ a source at the controversial Soho strip club said. 

Last year, dancers at Sophisticats accused the owner of withholding thousands of pounds worth of tips at the ‘extremely toxic’ venue. 

Adult performers claimed they had waited ‘months and months’ for the gratuities which had put pressure on them and affected their mental health.

Others alleged that the venue on Brewer Street in Soho was ‘a very bad place to work’ and claimed they cannot leave when they want to and ‘get spoken to like dirt’.

But Sophisticats boss, John McKeown, defended refunding the tips to unhappy customers after claiming some of his performers had gone ‘too far’ with them.

One year on from her raucous night out in London, Eugenie, then 19, had a new man in her life: Richard Branson’s polo-playing nephew, Otto Brockway. 

At the time, Eugenie was studying English and art history at Newcastle University after initially being turned away for not meeting the entry requirements. 

Eugenie achieved two As and a B in her A-levels as she fell short of the AAA requirement, but the university ‘seemingly changed its mind’ about offering her a place when they ‘realised who she was’, The Sunday Times reported.   

A former senior lecturer at the university, Dr Martin Farr, revealed the mix-up at an anti-monarchist event in July 2017. 

‘A friend of mine who is Italian was the admissions officer for BA English Literature and received one application for the undergraduate degree that was not good enough and so discarded it, not realising that it was a royal applicant.’

When the ‘horrified’ university realised who Eugenie of York from Sandringham was, she was offered a place on another course. 

Shortly after she joined, she was introduced to Otto – the then-24-year-old son of the Virgin boss’s sister Lindy and her graphic-designer husband Robin. 

Their paths crossed at the Sussex Polo Club and they got on ‘fabulously’, as a common friend told the Daily Mail Otto is ‘a real party animal, rather like Eugenie herself’. 

Mr Branson, now 75, is among the famous personalities whose names have appeared in the Epstein Files – a tranche of three million files related to the paedophile financier that were drip-released by the US Department of Justice beginning last year. 

In one email, Mr Branson told Epstein to ‘bring his harem’ the next time they met while giving the paedophile – who died by suicide while awaiting sex trafficking charges – PR advice after his conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. 

The British billionaire, who strenuously denies any wrongdoing, reminisced about meeting the paedophile five years after Epstein pleaded guilty to the charges, as Branson wrote: ‘It was really nice seeing you yesterday. The boys in Watersports can’t stop speaking about it! Any time you’re in the area would love to see you.

‘As long as you bring your harem!’

Mr Branson also gave Epstein advice about avoiding scrutiny for his conviction, which the Virgin founder says he was told by Epstein related to a consensual encounter with an individual ‘one day shy of 18’. 

At the time, a spokesman for Virgin Group said ‘harem’ was a term Epstein had used in reference to three adult members of Epstein’s team and Mr Branson would have never used it if he knew the full facts.

In a subsequent statement to the Daily Mail, they added: ‘Any contact Richard and Joan Branson had with Epstein took place on only a few occasions more than twelve years ago, and was limited to group or business settings, such as a charity tennis event.

‘When Epstein offered a charity donation, the Bransons asked their team to carry out due diligence before accepting the donation, which uncovered serious allegations. As a result of what the due diligence uncovered, Virgin Unite did not take the donation and Richard and Joan decided not to meet or speak with Epstein again. 

‘Had they had the full picture and information, there would have been no contact whatsoever – Richard believes that Epstein’s actions were abhorrent and supports the right to justice for his many victims.’ 

Mr Branson also recently denied that Eugenie’s mother Sarah is hiding on his island. 

Fergie, 66, is believed to have fled the UK in the wake of the Epstein scandal, amid suggestions she had sought refuge on Necker Island – Mr Branson’s 74-acre escape in the British Virgin Islands. 

But those rumours have been denied by the Virgin juggernaut’s spokesman, as the social circle around the Yorks grows smaller every day. 

They told the Daily Mail: ‘Sir Richard has had no contact with Sarah Ferguson following the release of the Epstein files and, contrary to some media reports, can confirm she is not on Necker Island either.’

Otto Brockway’s relationship with Eugenie was short-lived; the pair split around April 2010, after Fergie, now famously, told Epstein she was waiting for her younger daughter to ‘come back from a sh***ing weekend’.

Two days before her 20th birthday, on March 21, 2010, Epstein sent Fergie an email asking her ‘NY’, in an apparent reference to an upcoming New York trip. 

Sarah replied: ‘Not sure yet. Just waiting for Eugenie to come back from a sh***ing weekend!!!’ 

Two months later, Eugenie had found love with her now-husband Jack Brooksbank after they met during a skiing holiday in Verbier, Switzerland. 

She later described it as ‘love at first sight’, and the couple wed in 2018 and have two young children, sons August, five, and Ernest, two, together. 

In the wake of the scandal surrounding Andrew and Fergie, both Eugenie and Beatrice are keeping a low profile. 

In February, Eugenie broke cover after she was spotted on a solo outing in London – just days after the arrest of her father, who is under investigation on suspicion of misconduct in public office. 

She ventured out for a coffee in Notting Hill with her husband Jack on Tuesday, dressed casually in Nike trainers, blue leggings, a jacket and a North Face baseball cap.

Both Beatrice and Eugenie have been invited by King Charles to attend Royal Ascot after they were notably absent from The Firm’s traditional Easter Sunday service.