I’ve said this before, but it’s worth noting: Princess Beatrice benefits from being lumped together with her sister Eugenie. Reporters treat the princesses like they’re doing the same things and have the same relationships with their parents and the rest of the family, but that’s not so. Beatrice has always been closer to her father, and Beatrice seems to have inherited her parents’ grifter genes. Let me say it this way: I have no idea what Beatrice actually does for a living, but she has a fancy job title, side businesses and she’s always visiting the Middle East. Eugenie, on the other hand, lives a much more above-board life, working at an art gallery and being involved in the art world. And she’s been distancing herself from her parents AND the royal family for several years now. She spends more time in Portugal, where her husband has a good job, and there are rumors that she will eventually move out of the UK permanently.

Now, it was said that Beatrice and Eugenie have always been especially close to their mother. But the events of the past month have taken a toll. Especially when Sarah’s 2011 email to Jeffrey Epstein was published, which seemed to be the breaking point across the board for all of Fergie’s relationships, patronages and side-gigs. Well, now that Sarah and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are being evicted from Royal Lodge, what’s going on with their relationships with their daughters? Becky English at the Mail says it’s the worst it’s ever been.

The message was short but to the point: ‘The tripod has collapsed’. Let me explain. Famously close, ‘the tripod’ is the nickname used by Sarah Ferguson and her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, to describe their mutually supportive relationship. ‘Mummy, Bea and I call ourselves ‘the tripod’. They are my best friends in the world,’ gushed Eugenie in an interview in 2008.

Sadly for the two princesses – who retain both their HRH titles and membership of the ‘House of York’ because the King is keen to ensure his nieces are not tainted by the ‘sins of the father’ – recent events have inevitably placed a strain on family relations. Not on the sisters’ relationship with their father, though, I am told. In fact multiple sources tell me both princesses have gone out of their way to strongly support beleaguered Andrew in recent weeks. Both girls are said to be deeply worried about his mental wellbeing, with Andrew having become a virtual recluse at Royal Lodge.

Indeed, my contacts tell me it is actually the former Duchess of York’s relationship with her daughters that has come under most strain. In particular the girls were said to have been deeply shocked by the publication in the Mail on Sunday of an email sent by Sarah to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein apologising for calling him ‘the ‘P word’ in an interview distancing herself from him in 2011.

In public Sarah called her involvement with Epstein a ‘gigantic error of judgement’ and said she abhorred paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children. She also apologised for borrowing money from him at the time to settle her spiralling personal debts. In private she emailed him shortly afterwards, however, strongly distancing herself from the remarks and calling him a ‘supreme friend’. ‘I know you feel hellaciously let down by me,’ she said. ‘You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.’

The revelations have caused severe embarrassment to her daughters, particularly Eugenie, 35, who has diligently worked to highlight the plight of modern day trafficking with her charity The Anti-Slavery Collective.

‘Beatrice and Eugenie are lovely girls and they have been left bereft by this all,’ a family friend tells me. ‘I would actually go so far as to say that they are even more disappointed in their mother than their father now. The tripod has collapsed. Obviously they will continue to support their parents, but they feel so let down. They are genuinely fearful for their father and have grave concerns about what he will do for the rest of his life. They also love their mother dearly, of course they do. She’s a wonderful grandmother, too, and they are deeply concerned about how this is all affecting her mentally as much as their father. But I think it’s fair to say the scales have also somewhat fallen from their eyes.’

[From the Daily Mail]

“It’s fair to say the scales have also somewhat fallen from their eyes.” I believe that. You have to understand, Andrew and Sarah were terrible parents across the board. The princesses have even indicated over the years that they’ve always felt like they were the ones looking after their mother and being “the parent” to her. Sarah demands that of Eugenie and Beatrice as well, that they have to be responsible for her and look after her and be the adults in their relationship. Sarah and Andrew thought nothing of bringing their daughters around predators and deviants constantly. Anyway, it sounds like Bea and Eugenie have gotten to the point where they just need some space and time. They’re grown women with their own families too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, Sarah’s IG.