Beatrice and Eugenie have seen their lives unravel as a result of their parents’ scandalous associations with Jeffrey Epstein – but how are the two sisters coping behind the scenes?
It was difficult enough seeing an image of their father on all fours on top of a woman in the Epstein files, but now a new photograph will be etched in Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie’s minds.
The snap in question shows a shell-shocked Andrew Mountbatten Windsor slumped in the back of a car after spending 11 hours in police custody. The former prince was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office on Thursday – his 66th birthday no less – and has since been released, but remains under investigation.
Sarah Ferguson, his ex-wife and the mother of his daughters, is nowhere to be seen as the crisis engulfs her once close-knit family. According to the latest reports, she spent January staying at the £13,000-a-day Paracelsus Recovery Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland. Now, she is reportedly hiding out somewhere in the UK, “laying low with friends” and “in constant tears”.
READ MORE: How disgraced Andrew being axed from line of succession will cause huge shake-upREAD MORE: ‘I worked for Queen Elizabeth – Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor moment made my skin crawl’
As Eugenie and Beatrice are left to pick up the pieces of a long-running nightmare that has no doubt haunted them for years, royal experts and sources close to the sisters have revealed the devastating personal cost of their father’s arrest.
It’s said that the ‘horrified’ York sisters held ‘crisis talks’ over the weekend to try and navigate the impossible scenario they have found themselves in. Andrew is the first royal in modern history to have been arrested – and the move came following months of intense scrutiny of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein – as well as Fergie’s.
Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.
Beatrice and Eugenie kept their royal titles when King Charles unceremoniously stripped their parents of all of their honours, but there’s fears their careers and finances could take a huge hit as a result of the scandal rocking the monarchy.
While not on par with the allegations Andrew faces, Fergie’s relationship with Epstein has also left her daughters ‘mortified’. Emails released in the latest tranche of files suggest everything from desperate money requests and a marriage proposal, right through to an embarrassing reference to Eugenie’s sex life.
Until very recently, both sisters stayed fiercely loyal to their parents – even as their father faced sexual abuse allegations, which he vehemently denies. But in the weeks before the ex duke’s arrest, Eugenie is said to have made the decision to ‘cut off’ her father entirely. “There is no contact at all, nothing,” the insider told the Mirror last month. “It’s Brooklyn Beckham-level – she has completely cut him off.”
Meanwhile, Beatrice had been trying to maintain some form of relationship with her dad as she was spotted riding with him and her daughter Sienna last month. The princess also recently invited her parents to her youngest daughter’s christening.
And royal expert Ingrid Seward says that both the sisters will have been ‘extremely upset’ by their father’s arrest last week. “I’m sure they weren’t expecting it,” she told the Daily Mail. “It’s really embarrassing and distressing for them both.” It’s been claimed that no-one in the royal family knew of the police’s plan to swoop in and arrest Andrew at his temporary home in Sandringham last week.
As Andrew’s daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie grew up in an incredibly privileged world and both enjoying many luxurious holidays before settling down. Seward believes that they will now have to face an uncomfortable question; where did the money their parents put in their bank accounts really come from?
“All the doubts will have come crashing in – those holidays they had as children, the funds their father put in their bank account, all the lovely things they enjoyed,” the author said. “Sadly, they’re going to start doubting everything their father ever told them.”
One person who knows both Eugenie and Beatrice told the outlet that they are still in touch with their beleaguered parents – but that relations are fraught, with the princesses torn between their loyalty to their mum and dad, and their shock at the Epstein scandal. They are also aware of the optics and the fact they can’t be seen publicly with Andrew and Sarah.
Seward believes both will be feeling incredibly angry with Andrew, and also huge disappointment in their mother. “They’ll be asking how both their parents could be so stupid.”
As they grapple behind the scenes on how to navigate the crisis, Eugenie and Beatrice are said to be taking different approaches – but have made a commitment to stick together and present a united front themselves.
A source told the publication: “Eugenie will stay silent, but Beatrice will be very conflicted. Although no believer that her father is an innocent, she is aware that his mental health is suffering – something ‘stiff upper lip’ Andrew may not recognise. She took the decision to be seen with him and Sienna [her eldest daughter, aged four] at Royal Lodge in late January just before the Epstein files dropped. She will almost certainly keep some sort of contact with her father, but out of sight.”
Eugenie, said to be feistier than her older sister, will reportedly have made her feelings towards her father clear, however, and has not been seen with him publicly for some time.
Both sisters are said to be greatly upset by the fact their names are mentioned in the Epstein files – including reference to Christmas card with their photos, allegedly sent by Andrew. Emails sent by Fergie also suggest they made with their mother to see Epstein mere days after he was released from prison for child sex crimes in 2009.
Jennie Bond, the BBC’s former royal correspondent, told the Mirror: “I hesitate to criticise another woman’s parenting, but what kind of mother takes her daughters – then aged 20 and 19 – to Miami for lunch with a convicted paedophile? Epstein had only been out of jail for five days when Sarah took Beatrice and Eugenie to see him.
“Of course they weren’t children then – they were young adults. But I can only presume they didn’t know about Epstein’s conviction. If they had, then surely they would have questioned their mother’s decision.”
In another email, dated March 2010, Esptein appears to ask Fergie about a possible trip to New York, enquiring: “ny?” Fergie responded: “Not sure yet. Just waiting for Eugenie to come back from a sh*****g weekend.” This message was sent around the time of Princess Eugenie’s 20th birthday, which she spent with her then-boyfriend, now husband, Jack Brooksbank.
Of the correspondence, Bond asks: “And what kind of mother writes, albeit jokingly, about her daughter’s love life to a man who abused children?”
Beatrice’s name has cropped up more than Eugenie’s; she reportedly encouraged Andrew to go ahead with the disastrous Newsnight interview, and was allegedly with Sarah when she called a journalist in 2011 to say it was ‘wrong’ to call Epstein a sex offender.
On the subject of the Newsnight interview, Beatrice is said to have completely ‘blindsided’ by Andrew’s decision to use her as an alibi; he famously told interviewer Emily Maitlis that he couldn’t have been at a nightclub with Virginia Giuffre on an evening in March 2001, because he was taking her, then aged six, to a children’s party at Pizza Express in Woking. The Daily Mail reports that princess had a heated discussion with her father in the aftermath of the interview.
And it’s not just emotions that Beatrice and Eugenie will have to deal with – they also have to consider the financial implications of being caught up in a global scandal. It could have a major impact on their husbands’ businesses.
Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi is a property developer and the founder/CEO of Banda Property, a high-end design and development firm, while Jack Brooksbank currently works for Mike Meldman’s Discovery Land Company, which develops luxury residential communities
Indeed, Beatrice’s husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi has reportedly already lost out on some business ventures – one of which was the proposed redevelopment of Royal Lodge – as a result of Andrew’s fall from grace, according to the Mail.
Beatrice and Eugenie might have been able to retain their HRH titles but they will likely have to face a lower-profile moving forward. One area of concern is their charity work; Beatrice is involved with four youth organisations, while Eugenie is co-founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective, whose focus includes sex-trafficking victims. Thanks to their father, there have been calls for them to step down from those ventures.
In some quarters, it’s been taken a step further with calls for the sisters to give up their HRH titles voluntarily and fade quietly into the background. They are close to Charles, however, who is believed to be supporting them behind the scenes as they try to come to terms with their shocking turn of fortune.
Meanwhile, royal author Andrew Lownie believes Andrew may only have agreed to vacate Royal Lodge in a bid to spare his daughters and ensure they could remain royals and enjoy the privileges that brings.
