Princess Eugenie’s Two-Country Family Life Revealed as She Adjusts to Life With Three Children

Princess Eugenie has entered a new chapter as a mother of three, and her growing family is experiencing an unusual lifestyle divided between two countries.

The 36-year-old welcomed her third child, a daughter named Adelaide Elizabeth Annina Brooksbank, on August 3. Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, are also parents to sons August, six, and Ernest, three.

With five people now in the family, attention has turned to where the Brooksbanks will make their home. For several years, they have divided their time between Portugal and Britain — maintaining a European base connected to Jack’s work while also retaining a cottage within the grounds of Kensington Palace.

But the arrival of Adelaide could eventually make that arrangement more complicated.

A Different Kind of Royal Life in Portugal

The family’s connection with Portugal began in 2022, when Jack accepted a position with Discovery Land Company at the CostaTerra Golf & Ocean Club.

Since then, Eugenie and Jack have maintained a base in Portugal and spend part of each year there with their children.

Details of their specific property have remained private. However, CostaTerra describes its residences as offering “effortless luxury for easy living,” with accommodation options including club residences, dune villas, golf pine barrens and winery cottages.

For Eugenie, one of Portugal’s biggest attractions has little to do with luxury.

It is the freedom of being relatively anonymous.

Speaking to Jessie and Lennie Ware on the Table Manners podcast, Eugenie explained why she finds life there so appealing.

“This is why Portugal is the dream because I can go to the supermarket in my exercise gear and my hair piled on my head and not mind. Not care. No one cares,” she said.

It offers the princess a degree of normality that can be much harder to achieve when living within one of Britain’s best-known royal residences.

August and Ernest Have Embraced Their Portuguese Life

Portugal has also become an important part of childhood for Eugenie’s two sons.

Speaking to HELLO! in 2024, the princess revealed that August and Ernest had developed a love of swimming, although the Portuguese coastline presented a slightly different experience.

“They love swimming. The sea in Portugal is a little bit rougher,” she explained.

Eugenie described August as particularly enthusiastic about the water, calling him “a fish” because of how much he enjoys swimming.

The family’s connection to Portugal has now deepened further following Adelaide’s arrival.

Eugenie chose to give birth to her daughter in Portugal, and according to the original report, the newborn had not yet travelled to the UK at the time of publication.

Their Second Home Is Inside Kensington Palace Grounds

When the Brooksbanks are in Britain, their circumstances are very different.

Rather than living inside Kensington Palace itself, Eugenie and her family have used Ivy Cottage, a three-bedroom property situated within the palace grounds.

The cottage has a considerably more traditional appearance than might be expected from a royal residence, with white detailing around its windows and entrance and a white picket fence surrounding the property.

It has provided Eugenie and Jack with a London base while keeping them close to other members of the extended Royal Family.

However, Adelaide’s birth means the household has now grown to five people.

With only three bedrooms, the property could eventually require the children to share rooms if the family continues using Ivy Cottage as its British home.

Whether Eugenie and Jack might eventually seek a larger property has not been confirmed.

Questions Now Surround Eugenie’s Royal Accommodation

Space is not the only issue potentially affecting Ivy Cottage.

Royal residential arrangements have come under increased scrutiny following controversy surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s reported “peppercorn rent.”

The Public Accounts Committee has launched an investigation into royal rents, bringing greater attention to leases and arrangements involving members of the Royal Family who may receive preferential terms.

Eugenie’s Kensington Palace cottage is among the royal properties facing scrutiny in the wider discussion.

There is currently no confirmation that Eugenie will lose Ivy Cottage, but the investigation creates another element of uncertainty surrounding the family’s long-term London arrangements.

A Growing Family Between Britain and Portugal

For now, Eugenie and Jack continue to have ties to both countries.

Portugal provides a more private lifestyle connected to Jack’s work, along with the relaxed environment Eugenie has openly praised. Britain, meanwhile, keeps the family close to Eugenie’s royal relatives and provides them with their Kensington Palace base.

The arrival of Adelaide has made that two-country arrangement even more significant.

Eugenie is now raising three young children between a relatively anonymous life in Portugal and a distinctly royal setting in London — two very different environments that have each become part of the Brooksbank family’s life.

And with their three-bedroom British cottage potentially facing both practical space pressures and wider scrutiny over royal accommodation, where the family ultimately chooses to establish its longer-term base remains an open question.