Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are used to reading lurid headlines about their parents – particularly when it comes to their father, the Duke of York.
Affairs, sex scandals, bribery, abuse of power; no daughters should have to confront the sordid allegations that have dogged their family over the years.
Such was the infamy of Andrew and his then wife, the former Sarah Ferguson, that throughout their childhood, newspapers were banned both at home and, by an agreement with their head teacher, at school.
That is not, sadly, the case today.
This week, Beatrice, who turned 37 yesterday, and Eugenie, 35, have endured five agonising days of revelations about first their father, then their mother, in an explosive new book by historian Andrew Lownie, Entitled: The Rise And Fall Of The House Of York, serialised in the Daily Mail.
The exclusive extracts detailed the Prince’s close friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and his mysterious financial dealings with foreign billionaires, as well as making claims about his ‘bullying’ of palace staff, vulgar sense of humour and brazen sex life.
The focus then moved to his ex-wife, detailing Fergie’s allegedly hedonistic spending on staff, parties and holidays, an aversion to paying her spiralling debts and her desperate pursuit of high-profile men – including John F Kennedy Jnr and the golfer Tiger Woods.
With the nation gripped by one shocking anecdote after another, one can only imagine the humiliation felt by the two Princesses.
Princesses Beatrice (left) and Eugenie (right) are used to reading lurid headlines about their parents – particularly when it comes to their father, the Duke of York
A source close to the family told the Mail this week that Beatrice and Eugenie are ‘utterly mortified’ by Lownie’s book, especially its claims about their father.
Although they’d been braced for its release, the reality – and the global furore it has stirred up – has been worse than they feared. ‘They’re keeping a distance from [their] dad,’ the source reveals.
‘The extent to how much the relationship can recover will depend on what further revelations, if any, emerge.’
With the book not out in full until next week, there may well be more to come. Ingrid Seward, Sarah Ferguson’s biographer and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, says Beatrice – something of a ‘Daddy’s girl’ – will be finding the fallout especially hard.
‘She has always been close to her father,’ she explains. They will both be finding this very difficult – it’s a horrid time.
‘But I’m not surprised they haven’t come out and said anything in his defence. For his girls to show their solidarity publicly wouldn’t benefit them in any way.’
Both York girls and their mother have remained steadfastly silent for most of the past decade, ever since allegations were first made about Andrew’s links to Epstein in 2015.
In an Instagram post this week, eagle-eyed followers spotted Fergie’s choice of shoes: a pair of black loafers with the words ‘Never Complain, Never Explain’ – a favourite motto of the late Queen – embroidered on the front.
Princess Beatrice (centre, front) wears a lavish ballgown in front of parents the Duke and Duchess of York, and her sister Eugenie (right) in 2006
It’s a mantra her daughters, too, seem to favour when it comes to their father. Not only do they have serious careers to pursue – Eugenie in art, Beatrice in tech – but both hold several charitable positions, not to mention having young children whom they will be eager to protect.
Beatrice has attended several engagements lately, and was spotted at the Lionesses’ victory parade in London, alongside husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, stepson Wolfie, eight, and their daughters, Sienna, three, and Athena, seven months.
Meanwhile Eugenie, who lives in Portugal with husband Jack Brooksbank and their two children, August, four, and Ernest, two, has been busy entertaining A-list friends – namely singer Robbie Williams and his wife, Ayda Field – at her multimillion-pound villa.
But family friends say their silence isn’t just the sensible choice. Rather, it belies years of hurt and heartache the sisters had worked hard to overcome.
Andrew was, throughout much of their childhood, an absent father. ‘He was away a lot – either as a serving naval officer or on royal duties – so they rarely saw him,’ a source tells the Mail.
He has, it seems, adopted a similarly ‘hands off’ approach to grandfatherly duties. ‘He gets hardly any practice,’ the source says.
‘These days, the girls are rare visitors to Royal Lodge [the £30 million Windsor estate where they grew up, and where Andrew lives on a royal lease, together with Fergie when she’s in the UK].
‘They spend most of their time raising families, pursuing careers and trying to be normal. Andrew isn’t completely ostracised, but arrangements to see Sarah usually take place elsewhere, and the girls seem keener that the King and other senior royals are part of their lives.’
When Andrew’s name was linked to Jeffrey Epstein’s (left) in the 2015 sex trafficking case brought by Virginia Giuffre (centre), his daughters initially sided with him
On social media, where Eugenie boasts 1.8 million followers, the last reference to her father dates back to June 2020, when she wished her ‘Papa’ a happy Father’s Day. In an album of pictures entitled ‘Family’, Andrew features just once, in a photograph from 2018.
By contrast, Fergie is pictured countless times – on Mothering Sunday, International Women’s Day and on her birthday.
In a recent podcast appearance, co-hosted by Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend, Cressida Bonas, the girls described themselves and their mother as a ‘tripod’. ‘We are each other’s biggest fans and … we turn up for each other,’ they said. Their father didn’t get a mention.
Their public indifference must be a blow to Andrew, who spent much of their childhoods fighting for his daughters, non-working royals, to earn places on the royal rota.
He defended their HRH titles and is said to have been furious when their official police protection was axed in 2011.
Over the years, Andrew lavished them with gifts, expensive schooling and extravagant family holidays. Some of the former, it now emerges, came from dubious sources. For Beatrice’s 21st birthday in 2009, for example, she received a £18,000 diamond necklace from a Libyan businessman who had allegedly boasted he could ‘influence’ Prince Andrew to support certain commercial projects.
In 2013, with his financial backing (and approval from Charles and his mother, the late Queen), the sisters attended a series of trade events in Germany to prove their mettle as assets to The Firm.
They ended up making headlines – not for their ambassadorial prowess, but for unintentionally running a red light. A bemused official from the British embassy commented: ‘This is making us a laughing stock. Better if they b****r off and marry millionaires.’
To this day, a royal insider says, Beatrice is angry with her father for not apologising on air – and regrets letting him go ahead with his infamous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in November 2019
It was a tricky time for the girls, then in their early 20s, whose love of holidays and partying had led to the labels ‘spoiled royals’ and ‘throne idle’.
As Beatrice and Eugenie grew up, however, a transformation took place. ‘The girls lost their loyalty to Andrew and his pompous approach to being royal,’ a family friend says.
‘They’d been brought up to believe their breeding set them in a class apart. Their change of view was gradual, but was no doubt helped by having been out in the real world at non-Oxbridge universities [Beatrice at Goldsmith’s in London; Eugenie at Newcastle].’
Another associate says: ‘Considering what they’ve been through, they’re remarkably well-adjusted.’
‘They are far more courteous and respectful towards staff than their father has ever been.’
Nevertheless, when Andrew’s name was linked to Epstein’s in the 2015 sex trafficking case brought by Virginia Giuffre, his daughters initially sided with him.
Epstein, after all, had been in their lives since they were children. Sources say they knew him as ‘Jeffrey’; the kind American who gave them thoughtful presents and occasional gifts of money.
But after Andrew’s Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in November 2019, things took a turn for the worse.
Beatrice was more involved in the ill-fated enterprise than Eugenie or their mother: the 2024 dramatisation, Scoop, depicts her attending a BBC meeting at her father’s side.
To this day, a royal insider says, Beatrice is angry with her father for not apologising on air – and regrets letting him go ahead with it.
Pictured: Sarah, Duchess of York posed for a photo with her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie during a visit to the Teenage Cancer Trust unit at University College Hospital, London
Eugenie was also deeply affected by the whole distasteful episode. In 2017, she had co-founded the Anti-Slavery Collective, a charity which campaigns against sex trafficking and modern slavery – a mission that could not be more at odds with the heinous crimes of which Epstein and his associates were accused.
Her move to Portugal in 2022 – the same year Andrew settled out of court with Giuffre for an undisclosed sum – seemed impeccably timed. Eugenie’s life in Europe today is undeniably lavish: she and Jack live in an exclusive golf complex, where he works in marketing, and where villas cost upwards of £3.6 million.
For trips back to the UK, she and Jack have retained Ivy Cottage, their former home in the grounds of Kensington Palace. Beatrice and her family also have an enviable existence, purchasing a £3.5 million Cotswold mansion, with swimming pool, tennis court and ‘party barn’, in 2021.
The sisters – not wholly immune to paternal influence, nor their mother’s love of the high life – have a taste for the finer things. Sources say both employ Norland nannies, whose salaries can be £64,000 a year, and their social calendars are a whirlwind of prestigious events: Royal Ascot, Wimbledon, Chelsea Flower Show, gallery openings and garden parties.
There are more serious issues on their minds these days, too. Fergie, who underwent a mastectomy in 2023, was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma last year, and her daughters have supported their mother through treatment.
Both have thrown themselves into charity work: Eugenie for the Scoliosis Association UK, a spinal condition which led to her having connective surgery aged 12; and Beatrice for Borne, a charity supporting research into prematurity, after her second daughter was born premature.
As for their relationship with their father, thanks to Fergie’s efforts to keep her family unit intact, relations had started to thaw. The sisters had begun to spend alternate weekends at Royal Lodge – where both have permanent quarters – with their young families.
But now family unity is once again under threat.
So can the Yorks recover from this latest rift – or has their father’s infamy become too much to bear?
Motherhood, says Ingrid Seward, has made the princesses far more inclined to forgive – even if they can’t forget. ‘As mothers themselves, they value their family links more than ever,’ she says.
‘They’ve been through a lot together and they won’t just abandon their father.
Their lack of public support doesn’t mean they don’t love and care for him very much. Both girls have that Ferguson spirit,’
Ingrid adds.’Fergie is quite remarkable – the way she rises through these dreadful scandals, which would squash most people, unscathed and still smiling.
‘If they’ve inherited anything from their mother, it’s that.’
