Princess Eugenie Says Her Sons ‘Love’ Place She Feared as a Child

Princess Eugenie says that her young sons August and Ernest have no fears about embracing a place that frightened her as a child — the ocean!

Princess Eugenie, 34, made the revelation about her kids, whom she shares with husband Jack Brooksbank, during a visit to the “Blue: Art for the Ocean” exhibit at Christie’s in London. Eugenie was on the committee which secured artwork being auctioned this week to benefit the Blue Marine Foundation, which she backs as an ambassador. 

“They love swimming,” Princess Eugenie told Hello! magazine about August, 3, and Ernest, 1, when asked about whether she’s instilling a love for the ocean into her kids.

“The sea in Portugal’s a little bit rougher. So we’ve got our feet in, but Augie is a fish. Literally, he loves it and we have whales and dolphins all across the walls,” she said, using the family nickname for her eldest son. “We’re big ocean people.” 

Princess Eugenie and Jack, 38, divide their time between the U.K. and Portugal for his job, and also said that August likes to read a picture book about the ocean when he has breakfast.

“I see it every morning when Augie’s eating breakfast, and he’s like, ‘Mama’  and then we go through it,” Princess Eugenie told Hello! about reading a “Blue Marine-backed book” called The World’s Wildest Waters together. 

“The children have to find the creatures in the pictures in the book and the next page is all the facts about the cuttlefish, or the Great White shark or the seal… And Augie loves it,” she said.

Like her uncle King Charles and cousin Prince William, Eugenie has used her royal platform to advocate about the importance of protecting the environment, from having a plastic-free wedding in 2018 to raising Augie as an “activist” around climate change and more. 

Her insight about her sons’ loving swimming follows her admission on World Oceans Day in June that she was scared of the sea as a child.

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“I was always quite scared of the ocean when I was younger. I dropped a jelly shoe in there and never came back, obviously,” the princess said in a video shared to Instagram. “It’s something so wonderful and unknown that we really should be making sure that everything within it is looked after for generations to come.”

On Oct. 1, Princess Eugenie shared a family photo snapped at the beach to congratulate her sister, Princess Beatrice, after Buckingham Palace announced that she is pregnant with her second baby.

“Congratulations Beabea.. So looking forward to more on this journey of motherhood together. And adding another little one to the gang,” Eugenie captioned the snap in part.

The shot showed her, her sister, Jack and Beatrice’s husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi with Augie and Sienna, Beatrice and Edo’s 3-year-old daughter who will become a big sister when the new baby is born in 2025.

When it comes to an affinity for exploring the ocean, it seems August and Ernest have something in common with Prince George, 11, the son of Prince William and Kate Middleton. During an Oct. 3 visit to the Birtley Community Pool, the Prince of Wales, 42, revealed that his eldest child “loves scuba diving,” he said.

“He’s 11 years old. We took him under thinking he would freak out. He absolutely loves it. It’s just introducing him to the world of water,” Prince William said at the engagement last week, Hello! reported.