This week, Semafor published an interesting piece about the new editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair, Mark Guiducci. Guiducci took over from Radhika Jones over the summer, and Guiducci was seemingly chosen in part because of his celebrity connections. Conde Nast (correctly) felt like VF had lost that glossy, pop-culture, zeitgeisty feel during Jones’s tenure as EIC, so they brought in a guy with starf–ker vibes, basically. Well, funny story about that – Guiducci was already friendly with Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie before he got the VF gig. Once he took the job, he told staff to go easy on the York princesses as the magazine covered Andrew Windsor’s disgrace in recent weeks.

Five months into his tenure, and as Vanity Fair’s coverage of one of the great royal scandals of a generation reached its apex, editor Mark Guiducci had a message for his staff: Leave Prince Andrew’s children out of it.

The scandal in question was Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which last week cost him his royal title. In September, Vanity Fair wrote a story detailing new revelations around his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson’s correspondence with the disgraced financier. The draft of the story also mentioned Andrew’s adult daughters, known as Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie — who happen to be friends with Guiducci.

Guiducci, who was brought in from Vogue in part for his glittering social ties, wanted to know if it was relevant to include the women in a piece about their father. In the end, the magazine only mentioned the princesses in passing.

Managing celebrity relationships while courting access has long been a challenging task for glossy magazines, and as celebrities increasingly circumvent journalists via social media, traditional publications like Vanity Fair that have traded in big-name access have found themselves at a disadvantage. While Vanity Fair continues to publish original journalism under Guiducci, the royal tip-toeing offers a glimpse at how the magazine — where Tina Brown stoked America’s royal obsession in the 1980s — has begun to take a more deferential relationship to celebrities in its day-to-day churn of online content.

[From Semafor]

While this is extremely questionable from an editorial standpoint, let’s face it, Guiducci was far from the only editor to direct journalists to go easy on Eugenie and Beatrice. I think pretty much every British media outlet got the same directive from the palace, and most of them followed through. In recent weeks, there were only a handful of published columns devoted to slamming Bea and Eugenie, while most of the coverage included variations of “the king knows Andrew’s daughters are blameless and he is fond of his nieces.” Which is a lie as well, but Charles wanted to look magnanimous. Is it sleazier to go easy on B&E because you’re friends with them or because the palace orders you to?

While some will point out the double standards, I’m curious about whether Guiducci wants to change the magazine’s strategy towards the left-behind Windsors and the ones who got away. Earlier this year (and not on Guiducci’s watch), Vanity Fair published a pretty awful cover story about the Sussexes. Since then, Harry and Meghan completely overhauled their communications team AND VF got a new EIC, almost like that cover story inspired a fresh start in both directions. It will be interesting to see if VF keeps Katie Nicholl around for her royal exclusives too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Fergie’s Instagram.