How Beatrice and Eugenie plan to distance themselves from ‘toxic’ parents’

The sisters want to remain loyal to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson while disentangling themselves from the tainted York brand, insiders say

Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are expected to publicly distance themselves from their disgraced parents in the fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

The sisters – who are both said to be in shock amid lurid revelations about Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s friendship with Epstein – want to remain loyal to their parents but wish to disentangle themselves from the toxic York brand, according to some royal insiders.

Beatrice and Eugenie already dropped out of a high-profile event at the British Museum on Saturday, as their parents hit the headlines once again.

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But in private, the sisters have both been spending time with Andrew and Sarah, offering them solace amid ongoing revelations about their friendship with the late paedophile, according to those who know the family well.

“They’ve always been a very resilient family who support each other in times of crisis,” one friend said, denying rumours in royal circles over the weekend that the sisters had cut off contact with their parents.

On Monday, Beatrice, 37, drove to see her parents at Royal Lodge as Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir – which details alleged sexual encounters with Andrew – hit the shelves.
Sarah, Andrew, Eugenie and Beatrice attending Royal Ascot in 2015 (Photo: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty)
As the elder daughter, Beatrice has been more involved in her parents’ affairs, offering advice to her father in particular, although her judgement has sometimes been called into question. She took notes for two hours when Andrew met the BBC Newsnight team in November 2019, and is reported to have advised him that agreeing to that ill-fated interview with Emily Maitlis would help clear the air.

Beatrice has told friends: “I’m just numbed by it all,” as she struggles to process a succession of new revelations about her father.

She and Eugenie, 35, now face the difficult task trying to navigate through the chaos left by their father’s enforced decision to give up using his Duke of York title and various honours.

Andrew Lownie, whose biography Entitled gave a blistering account of the scandals surrounding Andrew and Sarah, believes Beatrice and Eugenie will have to try to distance themselves further now. “I think the sisters need to lie low until the dust has settled and to keep their hands clean,” he said. “They have their careers, families and charities.”

They have already started. Both were expected to attend the British Museum’s inaugural Pink Ball on 18 October but dropped out, perhaps fearing the media attention and awkward questions from other guests. How long they hide away for remains to be seen.
The family, pictured in Switzerland in 2003, have been tested by a series of scandals involving Andrew and Sarah (Photo: UK Press/Getty)
Professionally, however, it is in their interests to emphasise their connection to their uncle, King Charles, and the institution that has just heaped humiliation on their branch of the family. Being royal helps boost their profiles. The two Princesses, who occasionally attend royal events, both have business careers and receive no taxpayer-funded support.

The King regards both Beatrice and Eugenie, who are respectively ninth and 12th in line to the throne, as blameless and has made it clear that they remain Princesses as the male-line grandchildren of a sovereign.

Unlike Andrew and Sarah, they will be welcome to join the rest of the Royal Family at Sandringham for Christmas. “The King is fond of both of them and his intention is that they are unaffected,” one source said.

But the lines between Firm and family are blurred. Their mother had to remove all references to being a Duchess on her business and social media accounts as of Monday, while their father’s reluctant relinquishment of the Duke of York title is now reflected on the Royal Family’s official website, where he is still profiled alongside two other non-working royals, Prince Harry and Meghan.

Confusingly, however, their daughters still call themselves Beatrice and Eugenie York professionally, and the elder one remains @yorkiebea on X, even though both sisters ceased to be known as princesses of York when they got married.
Eugenie and Beatrice, pictured with Andrew at the Queen’s funeral in 2022, have rarely been seen in public with him in recent years (Photo: Marko Djurica/Getty)
Inevitably, they are embroiled in the story of Andrew and Sarah’s downfall. In her posthumous memoir published this week, six months after she killed herself, Giuffre describes being trafficked to London by Epstein with Andrew telling her that his daughters, then 12 and 10, were “a little younger than you”, shortly before she claims she was forced to sleep with the 41-year-old Prince at the age of 17 in March 2001.

A decade later, according to a tranche of emails released at the weekend, Sarah took her two daughters to see Epstein in New York after he had served 13 months in prison for soliciting a minor for prostitution. She was, Epstein wrote, “the first to celebrate” his release from jail “with her two daughters in tow”. Sarah, however, claims to have no recollection of this.
Andrew and Sarah at the wedding of Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank in 2018 (Photo: Steve Parsons/AFP)
Beatrice has two daughters, Sienna, four, and nine-month-old Athena, with the Anglo-Italian nobleman and property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. She also has a stepson Wolfie, nine, from Mozzi’s previous partner Dara Huang.

Beatrice works as a strategic adviser to the software company Afiniti and, since June, has set up her own advisory firm, BY-EQ, working with technology companies. She and Edoardo live in a £3m farmhouse in the Cotswolds.

Eugenie is married to British marketing executive Jack Brooksbank, with whom she has two sons – August, four, and Ernest, two. She divides her time between homes in Portugal and Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace. She has a senior role at the art gallery Hauser & Wirth and, like her sister, has private charity patronages.

Like her sister and her cousin Zara Tindall, she helps the Prince and Princess of Wales host royal garden parties occasionally, and she also acts as a mentor for young people supported by charity The King’s Foundation.
Andrew was not featured in an official photograph from Princess Beatrice’s wedding in 2020 (Photo: PA/Alamy)
Even though her father is accused of taking advantage of young sex-trafficked women, Eugenie is co-founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective and works to support victims of modern slavery and other forms of exploitation. That work, along with other charitable activities, is unlikely to be affected by her parents’ deepening disgrace.

The big test for both Beatrice and Eugenie will come at Christmas. Do they spend it with their parents or join the rest of the family at Sandringham?

After years of damaging headlines about their parents, they have already had some experience in navigating scandal. When Beatrice and Edoardo were married in Windsor in July 2020, Andrew had to be cut out of the official wedding photos.

Last year, Beatrice spent Christmas with the Royal Family at Sandringham, despite Andrew announcing he would “honourably withdraw” from the event. Eugenie spent the festive period with her in-laws.
Beatrice and Eugenie have represented the Royal Family at events such as the Coronation Big Lunch in 2023 (Photo: Ben Birchall/Getty)
Some royal observers think they will want to be seen with the wider Royal Family at Sandringham this year.

Royal historian and biographer Hugo Vickers, who recalls going to tea with Sarah and her daughters, thinks it will be less down to optics and more about where the two Princesses think their children will have a better time – and that might be with other children and the wider family in Norfolk.

“Their parents have done a very good job with them. They are bright, university graduates and very polite,” he said. “I do feel sorry for those girls because they are very nice girls.”