Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s sixth wedding anniversary is coming up on July 17th. They were married quietly in 2020, in the middle of that pandemic summer, on the Windsor estate. It was said at the time that Beatrice was adamant about having her wedding during the pandemic because she wanted her grandparents, QEII and Prince Philip, in attendance. That ended up being a smart decision on her part, because Philip was dead less than a year later. Beatrice also wore one of QEII’s old dresses, and the queen let Beatrice borrow a tiara as well. I’m including some of the wedding photos released by the palace at the time. So, how are Beatrice and Edo holding up after six years? Not well. From the Daily Mail:

Princess Beatrice’s husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi may have a ‘vested interest’ in preserving his royal connections amid rumours of ‘marriage troubles’ ahead of the couple’s sixth wedding anniversary, an expert has said.

Beatrice, now 37, tied the knot with property developer Edo, now 42, during a hastily arranged ceremony at the Chapel of All Saints on the Windsor estate, after the Covid pandemic forced the couple to cancel a larger wedding. However, the nuptials were somewhat overshadowed by Beatrice’s disgraced father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, after the Epstein scandal forced him to step down from public life in November 2019.

Six years later, the couple’s anniversary on July 17 faces a similar eclipse after new revelations about Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein allegedly forced a ‘distance’ between Edo and Beatrice in recent months.

In March, Edo, who is descended from Italian nobility, jetted off to Florida to promote his high-end interior design studio Banda Property, rather than remain by Beatrice’s side during the fallout from the release of the Epstein Files. Against the backdrop of Edo’s glossy Instagram feed – including pictures of sun-kissed boardwalks and private yachts – sources told the Daily Mail that the couple’s relationship hadn’t been ‘great for a while’.

But a royal expert has now suggested the princess’s husband may not be ready to give up his connection to The Firm just yet, while highlighting Edo’s recent message of support for the Princess of Wales after the Three Peaks Challenge.

Noting it has been speculated that Catherine is not especially close with either his wife or sister-in-law, Princess Eugenie, Richard Fitzwilliams told the Daily Mail: ‘Edo clearly has a vested interest in steering a stable ship, with a firm like Banda Property reliant on reputation. Good relations with the Waleses, therefore, have an added importance for him.’

[From The Daily Mail]

As someone who has covered a lot of the speculation about Beatrice and Edo, I find it interesting that the commentary is so inconsistent, actually. By some accounts, Edo is more than ready to cut his ties and relocate to America or somewhere else, just to get away from all of the scandal. By other accounts, Edo is desperate for any connection to Beatrice’s family, to the point where he’s willing to put up with any indignity just to protect his financial interests. The answer is probably somewhere in-between. Something Edo and Beatrice should be aware of in the coming years is how much will probably change for them specifically when Prince William becomes Scooter King. Edo will want to have a Plan B, you know? Also: I find it interesting that Beatrice, Edo and Princess Eugenie all avoided both Royal Ascot and Wimbledon this year.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Buckingham Palace.