For the most part, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie stay out of the public eye. They don’t seem to enjoy all of the drama and attention that comes from being a member of the Royal Family. Instead, each of them focuses on quietly living their own lives.
There is a darker reason for these two keeping a low profile, though. It’s bad enough that these two have to live in the shadows of their father’s sex scandals and connection to Jeffrey Epstein. But as it turns out, these two gals have had a “royally” sad life!
Don’t believe it? Let’s take a closer look at the tragedy behind the tiaras.
Painful parental divorce
If not for the ongoing scandal of Charles and Diana’s relationship imploding, the world might have paid more attention to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson splitting up. While this divorce didn’t rock the world, it did end up rocking the lives of Beatrice and Eugenie.
Royal guru Tom Quinn dished about this in the 2020 documentary Beatrice and Eugenie: Pampered Princesses? There, he said that “Beatrice and Eugenie had a very odd childhood, where their parents were, on the face of it, remained friends, but they were seeing other people from quite early on.” Continuing, he claimed, “And I think that was quite probably damaging in a subtle but kind of long-lasting way.”
Making matters worse was the fact that the girls had to act differently depending on whose company they were in. Fergie kept making headlines that shamed the royal family, especially when she was busted trying to sell media access to Prince Andrew.
As Quinn pointed out in a different documentary, When Fergie Met the Monarchy, “The wild side of them can come out when they’re with Sarah, and it certainly does” when the gals were with their wild mother. “Then the restrained side they perform for the Royal Family.” Ultimately, this is the perfect portrait of two women caught between different worlds.
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Eugenie’s family tragedy
One tragic truth about these princesses is that even when something goes right, it’s overshadowed by something negative. Most recently, this occurred during the christening of Princess Eugenie’s son August.
This should have been a joyous occasion, but Eugenie had to smile through the tears. Her father-in-law, George Brooksbank, had died just a few days before due to Covid-related health issues. As an insider told the Daily Mail, “George had been in hospital with Covid-19 last year and was not the same after that. He had been unwell for some time.”
Eugenie made it through the day with the help of Queen Elizabeth, who was also present. You could say that Elizabeth was an expert at navigating family tragedies and getting the most out of life.
Bad breakups for Beatrice
Thanks to fairy tales, we tend to associate princesses with living “happily ever after.” This finally happened to Beatrice when she married Edoardo Mozzi. Before that, though, she had some stunningly bad breakups.
Before Beatrice married her “Edo,” she was in a long-term relationship with Dave Clark. The two were together for over 10 years, and Beatrice even moved to New York so she could live with him. What led to their breakup, allegedly, was that Beatrice finally asked him for commitment in the form of getting engaged. As an insider revealed to Express, “Beatrice has become a lot more assertive and confident recently. She gave Dave an ultimatum, but it backfired because he did not ask her to marry him.”
To make matters worse, Clark began dating his now-wife only two months after breaking things off with Beatrice. However, none of this is as weird and ugly as Beatrice’s teenage romance with an American bad boy.
When Beatrice was 17, she dated Paolo Liuzzo. Before the two met, Liuzzo had beaten a man to death and gotten convicted of assault and battery. The press went wild over Beatrice dating such a bad boy. However, as the New York Post reports, she finally broke up with him after he joined her for a family skiing trip to the Alps. Leaving the country like this violated Liuzzo’s parole, and the fresh round of headlines concerning her criminal boyfriend was too much for Beatrice to handle.
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A close relationship with Queen Elizabeth
It’s fair to say the death of Queen Elizabeth shook the entire world to its core. However, her death particularly resonated with Beatrice and Eugenie because they were very close to the Queen.
For example, Town & Country reports that Eugenie would attend functions she would otherwise skip just to get some time with her grandmother. And Eugenie went on to write in glowing terms about Elizabeth for the Spectator. In her article, Eugenie describes how much she wants Elizabeth to be an influence on her son, August. “I’d love Augie to have her patience, her calmness and her kindness, while always being able to laugh at himself and keep a twinkle in his eye.”
And Beatrice honored Elizabeth in a very special way. When scheduling her wedding (which was attended only by her family members), Beatrice made sure to schedule everything so Elizabeth could attend. As reported by Grazia, Beatrice borrowed one of the Queen’s old gowns and updated it for a modern wedding ceremony. And the Queen so loved Beatrice that she loaned the young princess the Queen Mary Diamond Tiara. This is the same tiara Elizabeth made when she got married to Philip!
Dealing with dad’s legal woes
These days, the main drama Beatrice and Eugenie have to navigate has nothing to do with their own lives and behavior. Instead, the source of drama is dear old dad, Prince Andrew. In recent years, Andrew’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein have become public knowledge. There was also a nasty sex abuse lawsuit against him from Virginia Giuffre. While this lawsuit ended with a settlement, the accusations that he had sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl continue to haunt Andrew.
The prince was stripped of his military titles, his royal patronages, and can never again be referred to as “his royal highness.” And this ended up putting Beatrice and Eugenie in an awkward position. Publicly, they support their father, but they don’t want to become the black sheep of the royal family. And there are rumors that both King Charles and Prince William made the decision to punish Andrew by stripping titles and patronages.
Now, as an insider revealed to Express, “Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice are seemingly struggling to remain cordial with Prince William, Catherine, and Charles.” This is just the princesses’ luck: they now have to navigate an entirely new set of family and relationship drama, and all due to a scandal they had nothing to do with!