1 MINUTES AGO! Princess Beatrice’s trip to Saudi Arabia has reportedly sparked fears inside Buckingham Palace that she may be following in her parents’ footsteps. While King Charles and Prince William remain fond of Beatrice, insiders say there’s growing unease over her overseas dealings and “VIP” treatment abroad.
Princess Beatrice’s trip to Saudi Arabia has reportedly sparked fears inside Buckingham Palace that she may be following in her parents’ footsteps. While King Charles and Prince William remain fond of Beatrice, insiders say there’s growing unease over her overseas dealings and “VIP” treatment abroad.
A recent visit to mega-wealthy Saudi Arabia by Princess Beatrice has set alarm bells ringing at Buckingham Palace where courtiers fear she may be imitating her avaricious parents.
Up to now there’s been immense sympathy for Bea and her sister Eugenie who have been portrayed as innocent victims in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
While Andrew and Fergie have lost their titles and will be thrown out of their home, the King and Prince William are said to be fond of the sisters and it’s likely they will spend Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham in Norfolk.
But I’m told there is growing unease at Beatrice’s commercial activities, and fears she is “cashing in” on her royal status, the kind of “half in and half out” model the late Queen wouldn’t grant to Harry and Meghan.
In Saudi Arabia, Bea hosted an afternoon tea seminar with women business leaders at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton where dozens of relatives of the royal family and officials were tortured in a 2017 crackdown.
As far back as 2008 she accompanied her father to Abu Dhabi and Egypt on a 14-day tour at the taxpayers expense while he was the UK’s trade envoy.
And in 2011 it was reported she was given expensive jewellery on another trip to Abu Dhabi, where a luxury mansion awaits Andrew if he ever decides to live there.
It’s not known if Bea arrived the other week by private jet or if she was paid.
But she was certainly treated as a VIP by assembled Saudi royals and businessmen.
Back home I’m told Bea recently hosted a shoot in Windsor Great Park for friends, using the Castle as a base for breakfast and lunch.
And while she’s taken on more charities and good causes, becoming deputy patron of Outward Bound and visiting the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, aides are becoming nervous at the blurring of her roles.
Some would say Princess Anne’s son Peter and daughter Zara have commercialised their royal links for decades, but they are not high up in the line of succession and don’t have titles or police protection.
Beatrice is ninth in line to the throne, a Princess and a Counsellor of State.
She is already independently wealthy being married to successful property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, so does she need to swan about the globe networking?
One worried insider told me: “This needs to be looked at before there’s a major problem.
“The King and Prince William like Beatrice and understand she is not a working royal.
“But she does appear at Palace garden parties and is treated like a royal around the world.
“Whether she is making all these contacts to feather her own nest or take over in some way from her father as a roving ambassador to make money for him and Fergie, it’s not yet clear.
“But the downfall of her parents should be a stark reminder of the dangers of mixing with too many wealthy people who just want to be seen with royalty.”
