It’s nearly two years since Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie stepped out to support the Prince of Wales at a garden party at Buckingham Palace. The heir to the throne had drafted in his younger cousins, along with Zara and Mike Tindall, to the society event in May 2024 as his wife, the Princess, and his father, the King, both underwent treatment for cancer.
But now, with the Princesses’ mother, Sarah Ferguson, in hiding and their father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, exiled to Wood Farm on the Sandringham Estate, life looks very different for the sisters once earmarked by some royal-watchers as potential stars of the future.
To the outside world, they appear to have been cast adrift from the rest of the royals as the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues.
But, contrary to reports that the Princesses have been told that they cannot join their relatives at Royal Ascot this year, HELLO! understands that they have been invited and that senior family members have continued to check in on them.
“The question is, would they want to go to a public event of that nature?” asks a friend of the sisters. “They will get criticism whether they go or not – and not just that event. They just can’t win. Bea has found the scrutiny very hard, especially the strain of the past few weeks. It has felt as though things have been in freefall, and she’s being hammered and bullied by commentators.
“Bea is keeping calm and carrying on. She learnt a lot from her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. This is a family in turmoil, but Bea is working hard; the juggle of full-time work and being a parent is her main priority, in order to keep herself mentally strong and her life moving.”
The York sisters were last seen alongside the wider royal family at church at Sandringham on Christmas Day, having until that point weathered the storm of Andrew’s dramatic fall from grace.
He was stripped of his title of Prince and ordered to leave Royal Lodge, his home on the Windsor Estate, in October. The move came after leaked emails proved that his friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein continued long after he had claimed it had ended.
But the Princesses have since found themselves dragged into the scandal with the release of the “Epstein files”.
© Getty ImagesFriends are keen to point out that they do not see themselves as victims in this situation, but note that “people forget about the human element of what they’ve been going through, too“.
Having kept a low profile for months, both sisters have been seen in London in recent weeks. Eugenie enjoyed a 36th birthday dinner with her husband, the marketing executive Jack Brooksbank, at the River Café in late March.
Beatrice, however, has also had to contend with rumours swirling about her five-year marriage to the property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who has been pictured on business trips to the US in recent months.
The couple have two daughters, Sienna, four, and Athena, one. Edo also has a son, Wolfie, from a previous relationship. Suggestions that the marriage is under strain amid the ongoing scandal have been strongly denied by Edo himself, and friends of the couple have come out to rebut the claims.
© Getty ImagesA friend tells us: “The only things that Bea and Edo are navigating are their busy jobs and looking after their children. Like so many working parents, they have to balance work with looking after the kids. 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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