Princess Beatrice has had a tough few months, with her parents’ links to Jeffrey Epstein being exposed and her dad Prince Andrew being arrested
Princess Beatrice has endured a difficult few months. Initially, her disgraced parents faced removal from their Royal Lodge residence due to their connection with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, then her father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested, and now speculation has emerged suggesting that her marriage is facing difficulties.
Following the most recent release of Epstein documents which exposed the full extent of the relationship between Epstein, Andrew and his former wife Sarah Ferguson, attention has been firmly focused on the York family. Sarah Ferguson has maintained a low profile, while Andrew has established a mobile home at his Sandringham residence, reportedly to accommodate staff working around the clock. Sarah has been stripped of her “Freedom of the City of York” honour after a unanimous vote.
Meanwhile, their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie have been drawn into the consequences after their names appeared in the vast number of documents released by the US Congress in the Epstein files. The documents suggest that their association with Epstein – evidently initiated by their parents – was a prolonged one. Mentions in the Epstein files do not indicate wrongdoing.
One exchange from 2011, three years after his conviction for sex trafficking a minor, showed a correspondent, believed to be Ferguson, tell him how Beatrice believes he should be free to move on with his life. The email was sent after Ferguson publicly denounced Epstein to journalist Geordie Greig, while secretly staying in touch.
“Beatrice and I had a discussion and we agreed it was important to call Geordie back and make sure he understood the severity of NOT making a mistake and getting it wrong about Jeffrey, because he was sent to prison for sexual offending, but that he had done his penance and was out of jail and moving on with his life,” the email read. “And Geordie was NOT in anyway to go down the P. route. I duly did the call, and Lee Ashley Johnson was also witness to that call as well as Beatrice.”
A separate exchange from 2010 reveals Epstein enquiring whether there was “any chance” of either sister “saying hello” to an unnamed individual visiting London. In 2015, an unknown account emailed Epstein noting that Beatrice would be joining a group holiday to Mexico. “Oops…in Mexico on the group trip with DK, founder of Twitter etc. and it turns out princess Beatrice will be joining us too.”
“I can see the headlines already. 🙂 Do you still talk to them?” the sender wrote, reports the Mirror. Epstein replied, “she likes me its ok.”
Initially, it appeared that the rest of The Firm was rallying behind the sisters. Both attended Christmas at Sandringham alongside their royal relatives, and there was speculation that Andrew had even agreed to vacate Royal Lodge on the condition that they would be permitted to remain within the family fold.
Since then, however, it has been reported that despite King Charles’s fondness for his nieces, they are no longer welcome at Royal Ascot — and may even skip the annual Easter Sunday church service, as well as forthcoming royal garden parties.
A source told the Daily Mail: “Beatrice and Eugenie are particularly vulnerable at the moment. As they are dragged further into the Epstein web, the King is shifting his stance on the girls’ future. Although they aren’t implicated in any of Epstein’s wrongdoings, their own association with him threatens to tarnish the reputation of the throne.”
It has been suggested that the two sisters are coping with this development in markedly different ways. “Both girls are very highly strung and emotional, like their mother,” a source told the Mail.
“Beatrice is trying to come to terms with it matter-of-factly although can’t help bursting into tears regularly – not for her father but for the implosion of her own world and, especially, the family’s cold shoulder. Her royal status means more to her than Eugenie.”
Eugenie, meanwhile, “has apparently gone into denial – fingers in the ears, head in the sand, hoping it will all go away”. The scandal is said to have placed considerable strain on the marriages of those involved.
Eugenie’s husband, Jack Brooksbank, has reportedly refused to allow her now-homeless mother Sarah to move into their Portuguese home. A source close to the family revealed that Jack adheres to a “code of honour” which means he won’t “completely desert Andrew and Sarah”, but equally won’t “step into the line of fire himself”.
“His first loyalty has to be to his wife and their two young children. The whole sordid affair has already brought them a great deal of unwarranted attention, and he won’t do anything to increase that,” the source told The Mail. The head of a consultancy firm is said to be concerned about the potential damage the scandal could inflict upon his business, fearing his family will be “tainted by association”.
“Jack has worked very hard building his business, and it’s going well, so the last thing he needs is for the Epstein scandal to taint that,” the source added. “He will do everything he can to keep his head below the parapet because of that.”
The couple are reportedly anxious that Ferguson will not request to move in with them. A further source claimed: “Eugenie and Jack are resisting any suggestion from her mother that she should come and live with them.
“Because, to be frank, Sarah is difficult to live with and they don’t want the responsibility of looking after her at the moment. That’s not to say they are not concerned about her welfare – they just don’t actually want her to be living with them, even temporarily.”
Meanwhile, speculation has emerged regarding potential difficulties in the marriage of Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 42. Beatrice, 37, has been wed to Edoardo since 2020 when they married in a socially distanced ceremony during the COVID-19 pandemic. They have two daughters together, Sienna, four, and Athena, one, alongside Edo’s son Christopher ‘Wolfie’ – nine years old – from his previous relationship with Dara Huang.
The couple have not been photographed together in recent weeks and speculation intensified after Edoardo departed her side during a challenging period to travel 4,500 miles away to Palm Beach, Florida. There, he shared Instagram photographs of himself savouring a rosé against the backdrop of an elegant hotel courtyard.
As the co-founder of a property development and design firm – Banda – one ‘former associate’ told the Mail that his professional standing soared after he began a relationship with Beatrice back in 2019: “When they first got together, Edo wasn’t nearly as successful. Being adjacent to royalty was transformative.”
Back in 2019, accounts from Companies House indicated the design arm of the business was £244,000 in debt – yet it now boasts a turnover of £2.2 million. Nevertheless, Edo’s close friends maintain he would never trade on his wife’s name or her family connections.
A source has now made the claim that there is a “noticeable distance” between the pair in the wake of the Epstein scandal, suggesting that “things haven’t been great for a while between them, [but] Beatrice is determined to soldier on and forge a path through this crisis.”
The source further alleged that he “seems more and more distracted by work and travel… just when she needs him most, he’s been pulling away”. Yet an insider told the Mirror that such claims were entirely wide of the mark, with a source close to the couple dismissing any suggestion that their marriage is in trouble.
“This is nonsense,” the source stated, while a second contact told Hello magazine that the businessman’s recent travels had nothing whatsoever to do with the ongoing furore surrounding Andrew and Fergie – insisting instead that the couple face the same pressures as countless other parents who must travel for work.
“The only thing Bea and Edo are navigating are their busy jobs and looking after their children! They’ve both had recent stints working abroad and like so many working parents, have balancing work with looking after the kids,” they said. “Recent reports that things aren’t good between them are not true at all. Things are great between them and the only distance between them recently has been physical distance because of work!”
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