Royal Sisters in Distress: How the Latest Andrew Revelations Have Left His Daughters ‘Utterly Mortified’
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
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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
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
