The Duke of Sussex was seen discreetly in a box at the Californian stadium where the US Soccer League championship final took place

On the night of Sunday, February 13, the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl LVI title, not without effort. The Californian team was proclaimed champion of the most iconic game in the American NFL, beating the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 . A sporting show, but also a social and cultural one, which, although it goes largely unnoticed in Europe, in the US and throughout America is quite an event and brings together around 100 million people in front of their televisions.

In addition to on TV, thousands were lucky enough to enjoy the game at the Inglewood stadium in California. Also many familiar faces, such as the marriage formed by the singer Justin Bieber and the model Hailey Baldwin, who were present with the model Kendall Jenner; host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, actress Portia DeRossi; athletes such as basketball player LeBron James or former tennis player Billie Jean King; or actors like Ryan Reynolds, Charlize Theron, Sean Penn, Mark Wahlberg, Rebel Wilson or Will Ferrell.

But if someone drew attention to his presence -despite his attempts at discretion- it was Prince Henry of England. The youngest son of Charles of England and grandson of Elizabeth II occupied a box at the Californian stadium in what is his first public appearance since November, when he attended a gala in New York and after the withdrawal of his last charges: his patronages of him . He dressed in a dark jacket and pants and a white T-shirt, in the images in which he was captured by television cameras he appears with a mask, without removing it, despite the fact that most of the attendees did not wear it.

Enrique went to the stadium accompanied by a member of his family, but in this case it was not his wife, Meghan Markle. Who sat next to him throughout the game was his cousin and very good friend Eugenie of York, the youngest daughter of Prince Andrew, third son of Elizabeth II and Duke of York; and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. Enrique has lived in the US, specifically in California, for two years, and he is a great sports fan, but this is the first time he has attended a Super Bowl.

Eugenia and Enrique have a close relationship. He is five and a half years older than her, but her mothers were very close friends and spent a lot of time together when they were little, which has made them maintain close ties throughout their lives. In fact, curiously, Meghan Markle herself already had a relationship with the princess before meeting Enrique, as she told a few months ago, when she explained that being with her was “very comfortable” and that they had a close relationship with Eugenia and her husband, Jack Brooksbank. When Meghan and Enrique were starting their relationship, Eugenia and Jack went to Toronto – where she was filming the last chapters of Suits – together with Enrique. As a courtesy gesture, when Eugenia got married, in October 2019, Markle was already pregnant, something that was obvious, but the couple preferred to wait three days for the wedding to announce their status. In addition, after her departure to the United States, the princess and Jack Brooksbank went to live in Frogmore Cottage , the house that Enrique and Meghan had restored and in which they barely lived.

Eugenia has become the first member of the British royal family – at least that is known – who has flown to the US to visit the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and meet their second daughter, Lilibet, born last June. When the little girl was born, Eugenia wrote an affectionate message to the new parents, whom she called “dear cousins”, on her Instagram profile.

Although it was the first time that Enrique attended a Super Bowl, it was not the first time that he passed through that stadium in Inglewood, located just an hour and a half from his home in Montecito , more to the northwest of the state. That was one of the first places in which Enrique appeared in a public act when he returned to the United States after definitively breaking with his family, after the funeral of his grandfather Felipe, Duke of Edinburgh. It was in May 2021 for, in a big act with a powerful speech at the global event VAX Live: The concert to reunite the world,recorded precisely at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and in which the president and first lady of the United States, Joe and Jill Biden, the vice president, Kamala Harris, and celebrities such as Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Jennifer López also participated. , Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Olivia Munn or Sean Penn.

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