Princess Eugenie opens up about her health struggle
Being allowed to have her own Instagram account, as she’s not likely to ever ascend the throne in the British Royal Family, Princess Eugenie provides some entertaining insight into what life is like as a royal.
She candidly shares behind-the-scenes and throwback photos, like the rare recent snap of her father Prince Andrew inside Buckingham Palace celebrating his first Trooping the Colour as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards.
However, Princess Eugenie’s most recent post revealed the health struggle she has gone through with scoliosis (curvature of the spine), which she has suffered since the age of 12.
Shining a light for International Scoliosis Awareness Day, the royal – who is ninth in line to the throne – shared two of her personal X-rays along with four other photos (scroll through the gallery above) to help spread the word about the condition, as well as thanking the hospital and staff that treated her.
“I’m very proud to share my X Rays for the very first time,” Princess Eugenie wrote.
“I also want to honour the incredible staff at The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital who work tirelessly to save lives and make people better. They made me better and I am delighted to be their patron of the Redevelopment Appeal,” she added.
Opening up about the corrective surgery she underwent, Eugenie also revealed in an article on the hospital’s website, “This was, of course, a scary prospect for a 12-year-old; I can still vividly remember how nervous I felt in the days and weeks before the operation. But my abiding memories of RNOH, where the surgery was carried out, are happy ones – everyone there was so warm and friendly, and they went out of their way to make me feel comfortable and relaxed.”
The operation, which took eight hours, involved surgeons inserting eight-inch titanium rods into either side of her spine, along with one-and-a-half inch screws at the top of her neck.
The princess continued, “After three days in intensive care, I spent a week on a ward and six days in a wheelchair, but I was walking again after that.”
Now the proud patron of the hospital’s Redevelopment Appeal and the new state-of-the-art facility – Princess Eugenie House – which has been named after her, the royal further acknowledged, “Without the care I received at the RNOH I wouldn’t look the way I do now; my back would be hunched over. And I wouldn’t be able to talk about scoliosis the way I now do and help other children who come to me with the same problem.”
She continued, “My back problems were a huge part of my life, as they would be for any 12-year-old. Children can look at me now and know that the operation works. I’m living proof of the ways in which the hospital can change people’s lives.”
To see Princess Eugenie's X-rays and photos of her visiting the hospital as a proud patron, scroll through the gallery above.