Cloud hangs over future of princesses after father’s arrest

The futures of Princess Beatrice and her sister, Princess Eugenie, have been cast into doubt after their parents’ fall from grace.

In October, when their father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was stripped of his titles and honours after it became clear he had lied about ending his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, Buckingham Palace officials were at pains to stress that the king regarded the two sisters as blameless and, unlike their parents, they would be welcome to spend Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham. It remains the palace position.

But since then, additional document releases by the US Department of Justice of Epstein files have revealed Beatrice, now 37, and Eugenie, 35, went to visit the convicted paedophile financier at his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, with their mother, Sarah Ferguson, in July 2009, only five days after he was released from jail after serving 13 months inside for soliciting a minor for prostitution. At the time, they were 20 and 19 respectively.

The two sisters feature more than 300 times between them in the Epstein files. They appear to have been used to give tea and tours of Buckingham Palace to some of Epstein’s contacts. Andrew sent Epstein Christmas cards with their photographs. “The girls were part of the bait for Epstein,” the royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said.

In 2017, Eugenie co-founded the Anti-Slavery Collective, which aims to help victims of modern slavery, including sex trafficking, but she has never discussed how that clashes with the allegations that Epstein and his sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell trafficked young women to have sex with Andrew. She is also a director at the art gallery Hauser & Wirth, and Beatrice is a strategic adviser in the tech sector for US multinational Afiniti. Their royal status has helped open doors and win clients but might now also raise eyebrows.

Neither princess has spoken about the revelations involving them or their parents, although friends have said they are in shock at their fate. Both have their own careers, young families and charity patronages but receive no money from the taxpayer and do not undertake official duties representing the monarch.

They do, however, have royal residences. Palace officials say both pay market rent for their royal residences but the market is skewed by the fact that only certain people with security clearance can live in royal residences. There have been unconfirmed reports that Beatrice pays £20,000 a year for her flat in St James’s Palace compared with a market rate for similar properties of about £150,000.

Neither Beatrice nor Eugenie, who is reported to have been away on a skiing holiday, responded.

Photograph by Karwai Tang/WireImage