What’s next for Beatrice and Eugenie?

Prince Andrew's scandal has raised questions about the future of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. Photo / Getty Images

Since Prince Andrew became mired in scandal, there has been much speculation about the fallout for the rest of the royals. What does the King do about the problem of his brother? How far and how fast does the Firm distance itself from the rising tide of dishonour and disgrace that has come, not only for the prince, but also his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson?

Their connection to Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted paedophile financier, has generated a near ceaseless stream of abysmal publicity. So much so, that a spokesman for the King intervened this week to say the monarch wanted to focus on “duty and service”, and hoped people would not be distracted by “other matters”, in a thinly veiled reference to the long-running headache caused by his younger sibling.

But what of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, formerly known as the York sisters (ninth and 12th in line to the throne respectively)? With their own names untarnished, they have managed to glide over the surface of the choppy waters drowning their parents. But a question mark hangs over how they move forward, given the toxicity now surrounding the family brand.

For both, there will be a careful line to tread between avoiding more association with their parents’ reputations than strictly necessary by dint of birth, and the natural loyalty and familial love that would deter most people from actively throwing their mother and father under a bus. Until now, neither has made a public comment on their family’s affairs.

As a foursome, the family (pictured in 1996) has always been close. Ferguson has often spoken of the tight bond she enjoys with her ‘girlies’. Photo / Getty Images

“Beatrice and Eugenie have to really make a tough decision here because they’re so identified with the York unit, and the York unit is toxic,” says royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams. “But it might even go beyond decisions they’re able personally to make now. There’s an element where it’s out of their hands.”

He suggests it may be that others make up their own minds about how much they want to be associated with the princesses in the future. The best way forward for them in the meantime, he says, will involve quickly moving to build their own profiles, separate from those of their parents – if, indeed, they can.

“Given the circumstances – it’s just week by week now [that more damaging revelations emerge] – what they’ve got to try to do is create a public image that differentiates them from their parents,” says Fitzwilliams. “[But] how they do it is far from clear.”

Indeed, it won’t be easy at a time when all eyes are trained on the bigger story of their parents’ ignominious ties – and in the case of the prince, alleged actions.

In recent days, that story has escalated further, with questions over Andrew’s living arrangements continuing after he announced that he was giving up his royal titles (though he will remain a prince). Ferguson likewise will no longer be known as the Duchess of York.

All of which came after further details of the prince’s alleged treatment of Virginia Giuffre and conversations with Epstein emerged. In now widely-publicised correspondence, the prince wrote to Epstein that “we are in this together” after a picture of him with his arm around a teenage Giuffre was first published in February 2011. He also told Epstein, by email, to “keep in close touch”, and wrote of his wish to “play some more soon”.

A problem, not least because the prince told the BBC’s Newsnight programme in 2019 that he broke off his friendship with Epstein in December 2010.

Meanwhile, extracts from Giuffre’s posthumous memoir, Nobody’s Girl, allege that Andrew behaved as if he “believed having sex with me was his birthright”. Giuffre, who claimed she was sexually exploited by Epstein and his wealthy associates, describes three occasions when she claims the prince sexually assaulted her. She had previously accused him of raping her when she was under the age of 18. Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing.

Last month, the storm came for Ferguson too. A string of charities dropped her as patron or ambassador when it transpired that she had hailed Epstein as a “supreme friend”, and appeared to apologise for publicly criticising him.

One thing she has long been said to have got right, however, is the way she raised her daughters, says one royal watcher. “People always say, ‘They’re such nice girls, such nice manners, so well brought-up,’” she says.

Both princesses work for a living. Beatrice, 37, has been a private equity analyst for more than a decade, and in 2022 set up BY-EQ, which describes itself as a “mission-led advisory firm working with technology and market-leading companies to maximise the positive impact they can have”.

Eugenie, 35, who has a degree in English literature and history of art from Newcastle University, has worked for the gallery, Hauser & Wirth, for the past 10 years.

While the sisters are not official working members of the royal family, they do have HRH titles – something their parents insisted on when they were born – and have long walked something of a tightrope as a result.

On occasion, their desire to combine their own independent careers with sporadic public events presents something of a challenge for the royal family. Earlier this month, Eugenie joined forces with Jordan’s Princess Rajwa al Hussein to visit a London psychiatric hospital, later publishing the photographs on her Instagram account.

The visit pointed to the unique position the siblings occupy in the broader royal machinery – with one foot in and one foot out. Beatrice is one of seven Counsellors of State, who undertake official duties on behalf of the King if he is unable to do so. Eugenie is a mentor for the “35 under 35” network run by the monarch’s foundation.

Both regularly involve themselves in charity work. Eugenie’s includes her role as co-founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective, which works to eradicate slavery around the world, and as patron of the charity, Horatio’s Garden, which creates gardens at NHS spinal injury centres.

Beatrice’s includes her patronage of the Northwood African Education Foundation and the Chartered College of Teaching.

Both sisters are also honorary patrons of the Teenage Cancer Trust, which was among the organisations to drop their mother in September.

Whether charities will, in future, be as keen to be associated with any members of the family is now in doubt, says Fitzwilliams. “When the House of York is falling, there comes a point where it’s absolutely impossible for future charities to link up with them,” he says. “There’s an aura about [the scandal surrounding their parents] that the charities won’t want to be attached to.”

In light of recent developments, he suspects things “have altered” for the princesses, who juggle their work with family life, as each is married with children. Eugenie’s husband, Jack Brooksbank, works in property development in Portugal, and the two split their time between there and Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace in London, with their sons, Ernest and August. Beatrice is married to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi with whom she has two children, Sienna and Athena.

As a foursome, Beatrice, Eugenie, Andrew and Sarah have always been close. Ferguson has often spoken of the tight bond she enjoys with her “girlies”, as she calls them, and their rapport is clear from the many happy photographs of the trio posted on their social media channels. She has also continued to champion her ex-husband, with whom she has continued to live at Royal Lodge throughout the fallout from the Epstein scandal.

But perhaps it is because of this bond that the sisters have so frequently been drawn into their parents’ scandals.

Indeed, Epstein’s attendance at Beatrice’s 18th birthday party in 2006 has been pored over as proof of her father’s close relationship with him, as well as his efforts to bring him into the royal fold. Seemingly unbeknownst to Andrew, a warrant for Epstein’s arrest had been issued two months earlier.

More than a decade later, in 2019, Beatrice took part in a meeting with the BBC at Buckingham Palace to negotiate the terms of her father’s disastrous Newsnight interview. She is said to have been sceptical at first, but was persuaded during the meeting that it was a good idea, and was latterly mortified that she did not do more to stop it. It was claimed she was in tears for days as the prince was branded a national disgrace.

Now, however, there are signs that a public distancing may be under way. Last week, Eugenie was reported to have ended her long tradition of posting a birthday message for her mother on social media, when Ferguson turned 66.

The former Duchess of York (centre) has been dropped by a number of charities over her email correspondence with the late convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. Photo / Getty Images

More recent reports have suggested the sisters may now be readying to publicly disentangle themselves from the scandals surrounding their parents.

“I think they’re caught. There’s a very tight bond [and] I’m sure [the princesses] are being supportive of the parents,” says Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.

He predicts they will fly “a little bit more under the radar” with their own business activities for the meantime though. “They’ve both been doing a lot in the Middle East recently. I think that will go on hold,” he says.

Last year, commentators suggested they were becoming unofficial “cultural ambassadors” in the region after Beatrice appeared at two conferences in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, and Eugenie attended events in Qatar. Last November, Eugenie also flew to Tokyo to appear on stage at a business event held in connection with a deal struck by her father with a Dutch company, effectively selling contacts and networks made prior to his fall from grace.

They have no doubt grown accustomed to the negative publicity their parents have attracted over the years, Lownie suggests. He notes that there has been “quite a bit of sympathy in some quarters that the children shouldn’t be tarred by the same brush”.

Still, there will be tough choices for them to make. They will shortly be forced to decide whether to spend Christmas with their parents (which would be, suggests Fitzwilliams, a “catastrophic public relations mistake”), or join the other royals for their symbolic festivities at Sandringham. Not to mention where they decide to position themselves, as more aligned with their parents or with the Royals. The challenge, says Fitzwilliams, is to avoid being “subsumed in a tide of horror”.

That may mean a certain steeliness and resolve. “The only way they can act now is never be photographed with their parents, and try to distance themselves as much as possible,” he says. “It’s a difficult time for them. It’s deeply distressing and they must feel it desperately.”

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