Princess Eugenie has opened up on a health battle that left her unable to get out of bed. Eugenie, 35, was diagnosed with scoliosis in 2002 at the age of 12 – a condition where the spine twists and curves to the side.
The princess had to undergo spinal surgery as a result of her condition, telling The Telegraph that she was in intensive care for three days before spending a week on a ward, followed by six days in a wheelchair. During this time, the princess said she couldn’t do anything for herself.
She also said she felt a sense of shame about her condition, which eventually changed with the help of her mother Sarah Ferguson.
Speaking to the Telegraph on a recent visit as part of her work as patron for charity Horatio’s Garden – which aims to provide garden spaces for people in spinal units to access – Eugenie revealed what spinal injury was really like, with the royal having to spend 10 days lying on her back in a hospital room.
It was then four months before she could go back to school. She said: “The incapacity that comes with a spinal injury – it’s so hard to come to grips with it.
“I had a corner room in the hospital with two windows looking out over a car park. I was too young to notice I couldn’t get outside; all I cared about was where my parents and sister were. 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. I felt very embarrassed about the whole thing. I don’t know why or where it came from.”
Eugenie, who had eight-inch titanium rods inserted into each side of her spine and one-and-a-half screws at the top of her neck, also praised her mother Sarah Ferguson in the interview.
She told The Telegraph: “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’.
“It 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.”
Princess Eugenie has not hidden away from discussing her spinal condition over the last few years, even wearing a dress by designer Peter Pilotto that purposefully revealed her scar on her wedding day in 2018. She also plays a hands on role as patron of Horatio’s Garden to help improve the wellbeing of those having to undergo spinal surgery.