Princess Eugenie is opening up about having spinal surgery at age 12 to correct her scoliosis.
This week, the princess visited with Horatio’s Garden, a charity that builds soothing outdoor spaces for spinal patients.
She shared how her mother, Sarah Ferguson, turned the memory into a positive experience, as well as how having children of her own has inspired her to give back.
Princess Eugenie is supporting a cause close to her heart.
The princess, 35, recently visited with doctors and patients at the Duke of Cornwall Spinal Treatment Centre in Salisbury, England. She was there on behalf of Horatio’s Garden, an organization she patronizes. The charity works to build peaceful outdoor spaces for patients at spinal centers to visit as they recover from surgery or injury.
It’s an especially meaningful cause for Eugenie, 35, who had back surgery at age 12 to correct her scoliosis.
“When you’re in a bed for as long as I was, not being able to walk to a shower, and having to be rolled around by nurses, you can’t really think past how you’re going to get out of bed,” she told The Telegraph. “But now, having worked with Horatio’s Garden, I’ve seen how the garden is so transformative for patients. Nature is so healing; hearing the sound of the birds and running water.”
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Eugenie’s surgery was performed at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) in Stanmore, which now has a Horatio’s Garden of its own – one of seven in total. The floral decorations at each location are strategically laid out to be enjoyed from all vantage points, including archways for patients lying in hospital beds.
“I was too young to notice I couldn’t get outside; all I cared about was where my parents and sister were,” she recalled of her experience. “But I do remember watching someone waving to my incredible red-haired nurse through the window and having this feeling that I couldn’t reach them. I couldn’t get out of bed or do anything for myself.”
The princess does have an acute memory of feeling “embarrassed” about her surgery – during which surgeons affixed eight-inch titanium rods to the sides of her spine and screws at the top of her neck.
But her mother, Sarah Ferguson, helped change her perspective on the scars the surgery left behind by telling others, “My daughter is superhuman.”
“She was amazing. She’d ask me if she could show it to people, then she’d turn me around and say, ‘My daughter is superhuman, you’ve got to check out her scar,’ “ Eugenie recalled. “ All of a sudden it was a badge of honour – a cool thing I had.”
That positivity continued through to her October 2018 wedding to Jack Brooksbank, where she wore a Peter Pilotto gown that purposefully displayed her scar.
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Princess Eugenie displays her spinal scar in her wedding dress on Oct. 12, 2018.
She said her mother’s positivity ultimately “trained my brain that it’s ok, scars are cool.”
“It became a positive memory, a part of me, that I could do something with in the future. I could help heal other people,” Eugenie shared.
Now she does, through her patronage of Horatio’s Garden, the RNOH, the Teenage Cancer Trust and more. As a non-working royal, whose income is not funded by the public, she also has a full-time job at the gallery Hauser & Wirth in addition to being a mother of two. She and Brooksbank share sons August, 4, and Ernest, 1.
“I think I’ve got a good balance. I’ve got an amazing husband and team and projects I’m passionate about,” she told the Telegraph. “I’d feel uneasy if I wasn’t doing my charity work, looking after my family and doing my job. I love what I do.”
Motherhood, Eugenie said, has also given her a whole new perspective on the medical journey she faced as a child. She notes that her parents, Ferguson and Prince Andrew, must have been “absolutely terrified” when she had her surgery, though she can’t remember them allowing her to see their fear.
“With my own children, I panic if one of them bumps their heads in case we have to take them to A&E, or even if they just want to cut paper with art scissors,” she admitted.
She also noted that the Horatio’s Garden spaces aren’t just therapeutic for the spinal patients – but their families as well.
“Patients’ children need to have space to run around and the patients themselves need to have space to be alone,” she shared. “The incapacity that comes with a spinal injury – it’s so hard to come to grips with it.”
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Eugenie also gives back by speaking to children who are facing spinal surgeries like the one she had – offering motherly care as well as lived experience.
“A little voice comes on the phone and they don’t know what questions to ask,” she recalled. “I tell them not to feel ashamed – not just of the scar but of the whole experience; bed pans, the lot.”
“The people looking after you in this situation are literally angels; I tell them, ‘don’t feel nervous about letting them look after you,’ ” she added.
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