Too good to sit through the queen's funeral? Party to fraud? These princesses might not
be active royalty, but that doesn't stop them from getting people talking.
Princess Eugenie sparked a furious debate over which member of the royal family deserved
taxpayer-funded security in 2011 after taking a pricey trip around the world.
According to the documentary "Beatrice and Eugenie: Pampered Princesses?",
Eugenie had been accompanied by expensive 24-hour security
during her gap year after finishing school. Royal expert Richard Kay said,
"She was sort of flitting from country to country as most middle-class young people
do who take gap years. But, of course, she was accompanied by police bodyguards."
He continued,
"That meant we the taxpayers were paying for policemen to
accompany her to the fleshpots of the world."
According to the Daily Mail, her holiday across India, America,
Thailand, and South Africa added up to a security budget of more than £100,000 of taxpayers' money,
despite the princess being considered low-risk. Royal expert Angela Levin explained,
"Prince Charles decided that as they were not likely to be very senior royals, that this was too
much for the public to pay, so he stopped that. Their father Andrew was reportedly so furious
with his brother's decision that he wrote to their mother, Queen Elizabeth, about the issue."
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie created one of the most
memorable images from the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton when
they were photographed wearing some rather eye-catching hats.
The princesses later said that they cried over the media's reaction to them
and their widely-mocked accessories. In an interview with British Vogue,
Eugenie recalled an emotional moment they shared during a garden party at Buckingham Palace.
"There was a horrible article that had been written about Beatrice and she got
really upset. We were just about to step out and she had a bit of a wobble and cried. And
then about an hour later, I had a wobble and started crying and Bea was there for me."
When Princess Beatrice married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in 2020, COVID-19 wasn't the
only dilemma they faced on their wedding day. Although the royal family's official Instagram
congratulated the couple and stated that they celebrated with their nearest and dearest,
Prince Andrew was missing from his daughter's official wedding portraits. The father of the
bride was being investigated at the time by American prosecutors over his close ties to
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as allegations that Virginia Giuffre had been sex
trafficked to the royal when she was a teenager. These accusations led to a civil case, which was
settled out of court. Andrew had also tanked his reputation in a disastrous BBC interview in 2019.
"Do you regret the whole friendship with Epstein?"
"Now? Still not."
That wasn't the only family occasion that the disgraced royal missed. As The Sun noted,
Andrew also had to avoid the birth of his granddaughter, Sienna,
when Beatrice and Mozzi welcomed her to the world in September 2021. He was staying in
the family's Scottish estate, Balmoral, to evade American lawyers who were trying
to serve papers on behalf of Giuffre's civil claims. A royal source stated that
he definitely wasn't going to risk venturing down to London for his daughter's childbirth.
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie faced another public controversy around their father
in 2022 when a Turkish millionaire claimed that her financial manager had swindled her
into making direct payments to Prince Andrew and his daughters. According to the BBC,
the millionaire reportedly believed that she had paid
£750,000 for Andrew's help with getting her a new passport after she fled her home country.
But her financial manager had actually presented the money as a gift for Beatrice's wedding,
rather than guaranteeing any diplomatic help. The payment has since been returned.
That wasn't the only fraudulent money that the royals received, however: court documents showed
that another £900,000 was paid through a separate company to Andrew and Sarah
Ferguson. And Eugenie received her own surprise payout of £25,000, as The Guardian reported,
although she insisted that she thought this money was for her mother's birthday party.
Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice have supposedly been feuding with family members
over letting their father, Prince Andrew, back into public royal duties. After the scandal
over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced royal was stripped of titles
and positions. King Charles, Prince William, and his wife Kate have decided to uphold the queen's
decision in the future, which has apparently caused a rift. A royal expert told The Express,
"According to very good sources, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice
are seemingly struggling to remain cordial with Prince William, Katherine, and Charles."
According to the Daily Mail, there were also reports of tension over William and
Kate moving into Adelaide Cottage, a property Eugenie had her eye on.
In 2022, The Sun reported that Beatrice and Eugenie had argued on Andrew's behalf in a
meeting with Charles at his Birkhall Estate in Scotland,
days after their father had a similar unsuccessful meeting with his brother.
Charles reportedly told the princesses, quote, "there's no chance." A palace source explained,
"His family are close so it's natural Beatrice and Eugenie want to get involved. They were only
looking out for their father and this latest development shows just how intense everything
is getting. But there will be no return to public royal duty for Prince Andrew."
Although they were involved in many of the official ceremonies
following the death of Queen Elizabeth II,
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie didn't leave a great impression at the funeral.
Royal fans watching the broadcast on September 19, 2022, expressed confusion over the princesses
making an exit before the service was over. The sisters were seated on opposite sides of the
aisle with their husbands when they stood up and started to make their way out of the abbey. After
the service, the princesses spotted were outside of the abbey with the rest of their family.