Last week was full of drama about Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, both of whom live in Royal Lodge on the Royal Windsor estate. Sarah’s 2011 email to Jeffrey Epstein was published two weekends ago, and in that email, Sarah apologized profusely to Epstein and basically told him that she still considered him a friend and she only bad-mouthed him to save her career and herself. In the wake of that, eight charities have now cut their ties with Fergie and there’s a lot of talk about how Fergie and Andrew should be forced out of Royal Lodge. Throughout it all, there’s been little mention of Princess Beatrice and Eugenie. That’s the nice thing about the York princesses being in their 30s, with their own families and lives. They don’t really live and die by their parents’ shenanigans at this point.

Well, one charity did want to cut their ties with Beatrice. The Mail’s Eden Confidential had a big piece about Outward Bound Trust, which Beatrice took over as patron from her father in 2019. Even though Richard Eden is trying to make a meal out of this, it actually sounds like a coincidence that Beatrice’s tenure as patron of the trust is coming to a close. Who even knows. One thing is for sure, though – Beatrice and Eugenie will never be called upon to become semi-working royals after their parents’ mess. From the Mail’s Charlotte Griffiths:

Princess Beatrice is said to have ‘lost all hope’ of becoming a working Royal thanks to the deepening scandal engulfing the House of York. Friends of Beatrice, the eldest daughter of the beleaguered Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, say she would have been keen to help ease the burden on King Charles and Prince William by carrying out more Royal engagements.

The King is said to have been impressed by her elegance and enthusiasm during recent joint appearances and is keenly aware of the need to boost the number of working Royals as he continues to be treated for an undisclosed form of cancer and the Princess of Wales recovers from her own battle with the disease. But with his strict stance against half-in-half-out Royals working for the Firm, nothing yet has ever come of their mutual appreciation. Now aides insist nothing ever will.

New files showing phone message logs, copies of flight logs and manifests for aircraft, as well as copies of financial ledgers belonging to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were released by Congressional Democrats in the US on Friday night, naming the Duke of York, as well as billionaire Elon Musk, among them. It comes after revelations about Prince Andrew in biography Entitled by Andrew Lownie, and the emergence of grovelling emails sent by the Duchess of York to Epstein. All are said to have cast doubt over whether it would be appropriate for 37-year-old Beatrice – ninth in line to the throne – to take on a more prominent role.

The Mail on Sunday understands that courtiers have concerns about further damaging revelations that will emerge about the duke’s relationship with the convicted paedophile after reports in this newspaper that the Epstein Files contain a cache of more than 100 emails that ‘could destroy Andrew’.

A source close to her said: ‘Beatrice does want to be a working Royal and she wants to do Royal events to help her uncle because she’d enjoy them and she would be good at the job. Charles apparently appreciates this . . . There had at one stage been a feeling that Bea could have been lined up one day. She’s never put a foot wrong, don’t forget – and she shouldn’t be punished for the sins of her father. But the King’s courtiers are concerned Andrew could try to ‘get in via the back door’ by exerting influence over her.’

[From The Daily Mail]

My theory is that Charles and William dangled the promise of “maybe you’ll be a working royal some day” in front of Beatrice and she thoroughly took the bait. That being said, Beatrice is basically the model for half-in working royalty already – she has a slate of private charity patronages, she appears at family events and some state events, and she generally keeps to “the rules.” My guess is that she will continue to just… do what she’s been doing for years already. No, she won’t ever be a “full-time working royal,” and maybe she wants to be. But she actually has what they said Harry and Meghan couldn’t have: a half-in relationship, with a high-paying job and invitations to all family events. Beatrice also volunteers for the King’s Foundation, and she attended a foundation event alongside Charles and Camilla this year.

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