Now ITV says it won’t provide a live screening of Princess Beatrice’s wedding to Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi hours after the BBC pulled out
- BBC said it will not offer extended live footage and ITV has now done the same
- Its despite devoting whole morning schedule to Eugenie’s 2018 wedding
- Comes amid claims event has been overshadowed by the Andrew scandal
Her younger sister’s wedding was watched by an audience of three million during an ITV special lasting more than three hours.
But last night it emerged that Princess Beatrice will not receive the same treatment after the broadcaster announced it ‘definitely won’t’ be televising her wedding live.
ITV made the decision despite devoting a whole morning schedule to Princess Eugenie’s 2018 wedding to wine merchant Jack Brooksbank, 34, at Windsor Castle.
ITV will not be showing full live coverage of Princess Beatrice’s royal wedding, it has been revealed. Pictured is Beatrice with Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi
Beatrice, 31, announced her engagement to Italian property tycoon Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 37, in September. Mr Mapelli Mozzi shares a son with his ex-fiancee, American architect Dara Huang.
Beatrice has seen her happiness overshadowed by the ongoing scandal surrounding her father, Prince Andrew, with royal experts suggesting he has become so ‘toxic’ that her wedding ceremony could even be held privately.
Royal experts suggesting that after the Prince Andrew controversy the wedding could even be held privately
Last night ITV said it ‘definitely won’t’ be covering the wedding in its daytime schedule. It comes after the BBC also confirmed it would not broadcast the nuptials live, but that it would still offer ‘news coverage of the wedding across our channels’.
A friend of the York family insisted last night that there had never been any plans to televise Beatrice’s wedding and any suggestion that she had been snubbed or shunned because scandal surrounding her father’s friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was ‘plain wrong’.
For Eugenie’s wedding, Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford presented an extended This Morning special for more than three hours.
It featured the build-up from 9.25am, the ceremony itself from inside St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle at 11am, and a discussion about the wedding afterwards. Under normal circumstances, the BBC is offered the rights to show royal occasions for free – but it has decided against doing so for either of the sisters, who are ninth and tenth in line to the throne. Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on details regarding the wedding, including where and if it would be shown on television.
Princess Eugenie’s wedding (pictured) to Jack Brooksbank was broadcast by ITV in 2018 and pulled in three million viewers
It is widely expected to be held in late May or early June, and among the venues being considered is St George’s Chapel. The York family friend stressed: ‘At no point was this [televising] an option’, and added that the couple ‘have never had plans for a large wedding’.
In what appeared to be a gesture of solidarity, the Queen gave Beatrice permission to invite her fiance to Sandringham for Christmas.
It is only recently that the Queen, who is head of the Church of England, has relaxed the rules on allowing unmarried couples to stay at her Norfolk estate.
Last month a source at Sandringham told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s clear that Her Majesty wants to support her granddaughter, who is getting married at a very difficult time for her family. But everyone feels Bea deserves to be happy.’
Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and Princess Beatrice attend day one of Royal Ascot together in 2019
The BBC’s controversial Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew over the Jeffrey Epstein (pictured) scandal may have affected its decision