Many royal watchers were stunned to see Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie at their cousin Peter Phillips' wedding last weekend, amid their parents' ongoing humiliation from the Epstein Files fallout. It is not that either Beatrice or Eugenie has done anything wrong, but their controversial decision to visit Jeffrey Epstein in New York after his release from prison has come under scrutiny all year. That has been compounded by revelations last week that King Charles has been personally paying the heavily subsidised rent for the princesses' palace apartments, despite neither being working royals.
The Wedding and the Elephant in the Room
We all knew Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor were persona non grata at the nuptials of Princess Anne's son Peter and NHS nurse Harriet Sperling at All Saints Church in Kemble, near Cirencester. Also, it would have been an earthshattering shock if Prince Harry and Meghan Markle turned up, given Harry's repeated concerns about his family not being safe on the streets of Britain. But Beatrice and pregnant Eugenie were a 'will they/won't they' and in the end they braved the world media's glare and rocked up with respective husbands Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank. The day also offered fascinating interactions between the sisters and other royals; Prince William and Mike and Zara Tindall all warmly embraced them.
But as the confetti settles after the royal marriage, the elephant in the room — Beatrice and Eugenie's future position within the family — is still being questioned.
Funding and Scrutiny
Last week's release of the first National Audit Office (NAO) report into royal residences for 20 years revealed Charles' funding of Beatrice and Eugenie's heavily subsidised London palace rents. Eugenie currently has access to a free three-bed property on Kensington Palace grounds while Beatrice has a free flat in St James's Palace. Crucially both of those palaces are maintained by taxpayers, through the Sovereign Grant. Norman Baker, the former Home Office minister, said it was "outrageous to subsidise luxury accommodation" in this way and that the public was "being taken for a ride".
Can the Royal Family afford to keep tiptoeing around the issue of the extended York family indefinitely, or should they be brutal and cast them off, like amputating an infected limb on the battlefield? King Charles is immensely fond of the princesses and naturally protective over them — again, we must stress they have done nothing wrong. The trip to see Epstein in July 2009 with their mother was a bad moral judgement call but they were barely out of their teens. Beatrice was 20 and Eugenie 19.
William's Decision and Eugenie's Future
Prince William, however, has a huge call himself to make regarding who he wants in his future line-up of working royals and if the sisters should appear. It is unlikely Beatrice and Eugenie will formally appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony again. Edward and Sophie will be there, as will Princess Anne and you could imagine Zara and Mike Tindall maybe being offered a role to occasionally represent the Royal Family in sporting or equestrian events. But in years to come, could William see a working royal role for either Beatrice or Eugenie? Eugenie, at least, might now take that awkward decision out of his hands.
Currently she and husband Jack split their time between their Comporta home in Portugal, and — since 2018 — the three-bed Ivy Cottage abode on the Kensington Palace's grounds. The Ivy Cottage home has been under scrutiny in recent days, but it may soon be too small anyway for a growing family of soon-to-be five. Eugenie previously claimed living in Portugal is her "dream" life, telling Jessie and Lennie Ware on their Table Manners podcast: "I can go to the supermarket in my exercise gear and my hair piled on my head and not mind. Not care. No one cares." In an interview with HELLO!, she also admitted her sons August, 5, and Ernest, 3, love it there: "They love swimming. The sea in Portugal's a little bit rougher, so we've got our feet in, but Augie is a fish. He literally loves it and we have whales and dolphins all across the walls."
Couple that with reports William has privately "already effectively banished" Beatrice and Eugenie from formal working royal roles and Eugenie's future looks rosier abroad — like her mother's. With Andrew and Fergie completely out of the frame regarding future royal functions, and Eugenie possibly staying abroad, William's life becomes a lot easier. Peter Phillips's wedding guest list was his own choice — but when William is king, the royal line-up will look completely different.
