Princess Eugenie reveals she calls Tracey Emin ‘Aunt Tracey’ after they become friends and live in New York

Princess Eugenie revealed she calls Tracey Emin ‘Aunt Tracey’ after the couple became friends as ‘English women living in New York’.

The royal, 33, spoke about her close friendship with the artist and revealed they were ‘hanging out’ and talking about art.

Speaking about Kate Thornton on White Wine Question Time podcast she said, “I met her in England, but we moved to New York at the same time.

‘She became Aunt Tracy because we hung out in New York without really knowing anyone.

‘I had seen everything she had done in 1997.

‘I did art history at school and read about her.

‘When you see them in a history book and then meet them in real life, it’s bizarre.

“It usually involved going to her apartment, having dinner, talking about her art.

“We were going to have brunch in New York. She is such a sweet person, I would like to get to know her, she is such a special woman.’

Eugenie has been photographed with Tracey several times over the years.

Eugenie moved to New York in September 2013 for a job at Paddle8, an online auction house in New York owned by her boyfriend, Old Etonian Alexander Gilkes.

The auction house’s backers included the former enfant terrible of British art, Damien Hirst; gallery owner Jay Jopling, who is also the ex of Hollywood film director Sam Taylor-Johnson; and banking heir Matthew Mellon, ex-husband of former Jimmy Choo boss Tamara.

The role only earned her £25,000 a year, but was invaluable to that little black book.

Because while working in New York, Eugenie also met the artist who became such a good friend that she now calls her her ‘guardian angel’ – none other than Tracey Emin.

Other friends she picked up during her time in New York include Sting’s daughter, Mickey Sumner, and actor Eddie Redmayne.

Elsewhere, Eugenie said she is ‘lucky’ to have a bit of her grandmother in her – as she revealed how she ‘always goes to sister Beatrice’ for advice.

She talked about the values ​​the late Queen Elizabeth instilled in her from an early age, including staying “strong,” “kind” and “dutiful.”

She said: “Her sense of duty, her dedication and her love for her people, it really happened in public, as you all saw, and it happened privately with us.

‘We learned from her how to do things, and how to talk to people, how to stay strong, dutiful and kind. She really taught us a lot and I’m glad I have a little bit of her.

‘When she died I said to people: how lucky I am to have a part of her in me.’

Elsewhere in the podcast, Eugenie spoke candidly about her relationship with her sister Beatrice and how her mother, Sarah Ferguson, ‘grounded her’.

She said, “My sister, she’s incredible. She’s a great mother. I call her all the time, I call her for almost everything.

She added: “My mother really grounded me, this sense of giving back, and it’s very natural that I want to do that because I’ve watched her grow up.

‘She started a charity of her own and built schools and went around the world and we shared her with every child we could think of who needed her to help.

“So I got a lot of my donations back from what she did, her example is definitely something I live by. The same actually applies to my grandmother. She god, she was, she was just one of the best people in the world.”

It comes after Eugenie called former British Prime Minister Theresa May an “inspiration” for her work to end modern slavery during her career.

She told the politician that it was “really cool” that she had paid so much attention to the subject when she was interior minister and later prime minister.

Mrs May was the first guest on the second series of Floodlight, the podcast from Eugenie and Julia de Boinville’s Anti-Slavery Collective, which returns on Anti-Slavery Day.

As the former Prime Minister sets up a global commission on modern slavery, she chatted with the podcast hosts about her work developing the Modern Slavery Act, which was passed in 2015, and how it came about.

At the end of the conversation, Eugenie told Mrs May that the work she has done to tackle modern slavery is ‘amazing’ and added: ‘You are a huge inspiration to us.’

Elsewhere during the discussion, the royal mother-of-two said it was “really cool” that the former prime minister and Cabinet member had made tackling modern slavery her “big thing” while in power.

Julia and Eugenie, who founded the Anti-Slavery Collective in 2017, discussed their work with children as they delivered workshops in schools to help young people understand the signs of modern slavery.

The politician praised the pair for their work in training young people, which she said is not currently being done on a large scale.

The return of the podcast is Princess Eugenie’s first major project since the birth of her second son, Ernest, in May.

The youngest daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, who is also mother to two-year-old August, revealed that Ernest George Ronnie Brooksbank was born at Portland Hospital in London in May, as was his older brother August.

Weighing 3.5kg, his name is a tribute to his late grandfather, Jack’s father George, who died in 2021 aged 72, and Fergie’s father Major Ronald Ferguson.

Eugenie also said his name was a tribute to his great-great-grandfather George V, whose middle name was also Ernest.