Last weekend, there were several big stories about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his daughters. Andrew is apparently in the midst of a breakdown because he’s being forced to downsize from the enormous Royal Lodge down to a five-bedroom farmhouse in Norfolk. There’s a lot of talk about how difficult the unroyaling has been for Andrew, and they’re pouring it on thick in an attempt to convince the peasants that Andrew is being “punished” for real. Meanwhile, King Charles seems to be bending over backwards to ensure that Andrew’s daughters are still “royal” and part of the family. Reportedly, Princess Eugenie has cut off contact with Andrew in recent months, and Eugenie and Beatrice were notably attended all of the royal Christmas events (rather than spend the holidays with their parents). So what’s really going on? Well, the Mail’s Richard Eden claims it’s not what it seems.

A report in The Mail on Sunday that Eugenie had cut off all contact with her father, in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, left friends shocked and surprised. The newspaper’s Editor-at-Large, Charlotte Griffiths, reported that the 35-year-old princess was refusing to speak to Andrew and did not visit him at Christmas. This followed months of further damaging revelations last year about his relationship with the late sex offender Epstein.

Eugenie, who established The Anti-Slavery Collective to help counter sex trafficking, was said to be taking a dim view of her father’s refusal to apologise to Epstein’s victims. A source told The Mail on Sunday that the rift was like that between David and Victoria Beckham and their eldest son: ‘There is no contact at all, nothing. It’s Brooklyn Beckham level – she has completely cut him off.’

I have spent this week talking to friends of Eugenie and Beatrice – and they tell me, however, that all is not quite as it seems.

Here is what I’ve learned: It’s true that the princesses are avoiding being seen with Andrew and Fergie, who ducked down in the car she was travelling in to avoid being pictured attending the christening of Bea’s daughter Athena at the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace last month. However, one friend insisted that Eugenie will not be permanently estranged from her father.

‘Andrew’s main concern is that his daughters are not tainted by his difficulties, so he is keeping his distance from them,’ the friend says. ‘Bea and Eug feel very sorry for their parents. They are keeping in touch with them and making sure they’re OK. Both Andrew and Sarah want their daughters to remain part of the Royal Family and were happy for them to spend Christmas in Norfolk.’

Indeed, the plan to save the House of York is one with which King Charles is co-operating with his brother. While the King stripped Andrew and Fergie of their titles last October over their links to the sex-offending American financier, he made a point of keeping their daughters in the royal fold.

They remain Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York, so the House of York continues through them. Both women retain their places in the line of succession to the throne – ninth in Beatrice’s case and 12th in Eugenie’s. Bea, 37, also remains one of seven Counsellors of State, legally entitled to stand in for the King if he cannot undertake his official duties due to temporary illness or absence abroad.

[From The Daily Mail]

Yeah, I believe this. Sure, I also believe that Eugenie – seemingly more than Beatrice – actually wants some distance from her parents. But it seems likely that all of this “York estrangement” talk is a public-facing convenience to convince British taxpayers that Andrew is facing actual consequences, that one of his daughters isn’t speaking to him, that he’s being forced out of Royal Lodge, etc. We’ve also known for years that Andrew wants his daughters to have all the trappings of royalty, and it makes sense that Beatrice and Eugenie’s positions were part of the deal worked out between Andrew and Charles.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar, Fergie’s social media, Cover Images.