Princess Beatrice and Eugenie could lose royal titles after Epstein scandal fallout
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are considering a significantly different royal future after their parents’ involvement with Jeffrey Epstein was revealed.
The sisters have reportedly been informed that they will not be invited to the upcoming Royal Ascot event, and a royal expert tells the Mirror it could be the first of many potential exclusions due to Fergie and Andrew’s relationship with the late sex offender.
“In my opinion, they will eventually lose their royal titles in the future,” says royal writer Richard Palmer. “I think we’re going to see much less of them. They clearly want to maintain a low profile currently and in the future, I think they’ll just fade into the background.
“It’s likely that the issue will continue for many months, if not years, and it won’t look good, for example, if Beatrice and Eugenie are at Ascot in a carriage with 70,000 people watching while they are involved in any way in the controversy surrounding their parents.”
Fergie and Andrew were stripped of their Duke and Duchess of York titles last year after details emerged about the extent of their friendship with Epstein, although both have denied any wrongdoing [and being named in the files isn’t an indication of wrongdoing].
They were also forced to leave Royal Lodge, on the Windsor Estate, where they lived for about 20 years, even post-divorce in 1996.
Richard suggests that due to the slim possibilities of their parents’ redemption in public perception, Beatrice and Eugenie might indeed be “better off” shedding their royal titles and its associations.
“It might be cleaner for everyone involved,” he says. “Being princesses who are non-working royals is already confusing for people because they have titles but do not perform any duties for the monarchy or the country.
“They are essentially just private individuals who enjoy the privileges of being members of the royal family – but they are likely going to have to say goodbye to some of those long-enjoyed privileges.”
Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, are already being what Richard describes as “edged out” of royal events such as Trooping the Colour, in part because King Charles is intent on focusing more on a slimmed-down royal family.
However, a harder adjustment to make, Richard claims, could be the decades of VIP treatment they’ve received both domestically and abroad, often due to their now disgraced parents’ royal status.
“They were welcomed in royal palaces around the world,” he says. “I don’t know if it’s still the case, but when they traveled with their mother as children, British Embassy officials would meet them at the plane, even though they were on a private trip.
“There was also a period when Beatrice had around 15 or 16 holidays in one year while supposedly earning about £19,000 a year. Where was all that money coming from? Presumably some sort of trust fund. But I suspect the greatest loss for them could be their royal homes.”
As princesses, the pair have homes within royal residences which they reportedly pay “market rate” for from their own pockets. Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi rent an apartment inside St James’s Palace, while Eugenie and husband Jack Brooksbank have Ivy Cottage, a three-bedroom home in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
“The royal household may claim they pay market rent for those, but the ‘market rents’ are not equivalent to similar properties in those areas,” Richard says. “It’s rumored, for instance, that Beatrice was paying about £20,000 a year for an apartment that might cost 10 times that in the real world.
“I believe the public is becoming increasingly unwilling to tolerate all of that, and whether it happens under King Charles III or King William V, I think there’ll be a reckoning for the princesses and they’ll probably have to give up those apartments and their titles.”
Both sisters chose not to give their own children any royal titles, so little will change for them in that regard – except potentially growing up on the fringes of official royal life.
Their home lives will likely focus more on “9 to 5 careers” and less on royal trappings, Richard claims, and fortunately both sisters already have paying jobs – with Eugenie working at a London art gallery and Beatrice in tech consultancy.
“Part of me thinks they might actually enjoy leaving the royal connections behind and simply getting on with their lives and careers, and they both seem to have happy marriages,” Richard says.
“Like any family, they enjoy big family gatherings, particularly when their kids can play with each other, especially the cousins. I don’t think they’ll lose that completely; it will just be behind the scenes.
“The sisters adored their late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and they’re very fond of their Uncle Charles, so they’ll still want to be part of family gatherings. There’s no reason they can’t go to Sandringham for Christmas because, after all, there are other extended family members there, like the Middletons and Queen Camilla’s children.
“It’s been quite a while since I’ve spoken to them, but just after their university days, I found them to be really pleasant young women.
“I think Beatrice and Eugenie are proof that not everything Andrew and Fergie were involved with ended badly. They did raise two fairly well-adjusted and bright young women who’ve had successful careers and yes, perhaps partly because of their world connections, but that’s probably not the whole story.”
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