Prince Andrew’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie put on defiant display as they both step out within hours of their father being sacked by the Queen
- Prince Andrew dramatically stepped back from public royal duties yesterday
- Comes after TV interview over Jeffrey Epstein raised more questions for him
- Royal experts now say roles of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie will be affected
Prince Andrew’s daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie put on brave faces last night as they faced the prospect that their father’s stepping back from royal duties will spell the end of their own royal roles.
Princess Beatrice, 31, visited a private member’s club in Mayfair while Eugenie, 29, attended an event run by an elephant charity of which she is patron.
They both smiled for cameras but must be privately wondering what their future position will be following their father’s fall from grace.
Prince Andrew has always championed his daughters as ambassadors for the monarchy, but with his own position now significantly diminished, their public roles are likely to fall by the wayside.
Their are questions over the future of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie after their father’s disastrous Newsnight interview led to him stepping back from royal duties. Princess Beatrice was seen heading to a private member’s club in Mayfair last night while her sister Eugenie attended an elephant charity event elsewhere in London
Princess Beatrice was accompanied with her fiance Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi last night. Royal experts say their planned wedding next year will now have to be a more modest affair
Prince Andrew leaves Buckingham Palace after spending the afternoon there behind a desk on Tuesday – the first time he had been seen since his BBC interview
Princess Beatrice is due to marry her partner Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi next year but royal biographer Christopher Warwick said the scandal would probably mean her wedding will be a much smaller affair than that afforded to her sister.
Mr Warwick said: ‘I think – fairly or unfairly – it has cast a shadow over the York family but more broadly his stepping back from official duties has kind of lifted that shadow that was about to be cast over the whole royal family.’
Beatrice is currently an ambassador for the Street Child charity as well as number of other organisations, including the English National Ballet School, the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre and The York Theatre Royal
Meanwhile Eugenie, who married her husband Jack Brooksbank in October last year, has always worked to support the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, where she underwent back surgery at the age of 12.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward said this morning that she feels ‘very sorry’ for the princesses
The current mood is a huge contrast to last October, when the country celebrated Princess Eugenie’s wedding and Prince Andrew was a proud father of the bride
Eugenie is also a patron to a number of campaigns including The European School of Osteopathy, the Tate Young Patrons and the Big Cat Sanctuary. Both sisters are both patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust.
But royal experts fear their public standing will be damaged by the scandal surrounding their father.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward said on Good Morning Britain today: ‘We all feel very sorry for princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.’
Meanwhile, former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt tweeted: ‘Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Eugenie will now have to focus exclusively on their non-royal day jobs. Their father can no longer champion their part-time royal roles.’