Prince Andrew has reportedly broken cover after the arrest of his friend Ghislaine Maxwell to attend his daughter’s secret wedding.
Princess Beatrice, 31, was due to marry Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 37, at the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace on 29 May, but their plans were dashed by the coronavirus pandemic and no new date was given by the palace at the time.
The couple are now said to have tied the knot in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle after exchanging vows at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, in the grounds of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s home of Royal Lodge, in Windsor Great Park.
The Duke of York, 60, is believed to have attended the ceremony along with The Queen, 94, and the Duke of Edinburgh, 99, making it the first time Andrew has been with the Queen since the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Duke has been keeping a low profile at his lodge in the grounds of his mother the Queen’s estate but was pictured smiling while driving a Range Rover earlier this week – hours after his friend Ghislaine Maxwell was told she must remain in jail for at least a year pending her trial on sex trafficking charges.
Prince Andrew, pictured on Wednesday, is thought to have been in attendance at Princess Beatrice’s secret wedding today along with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh
Princess Beatrice has married Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in secret in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle after exchanging vows at the Royal Chapel of All Saints
The Duke of York’s smiles came despite Maxwell’s incarceration in New York over her links to Jeffrey Epstein and days after Donald Trump ‘s Attorney General insisted that his prosecutors ‘definitely’ want to speak to the royal about his friendship with Epstein and his alleged madam.
Prince Andrew has been involved in a war of words with the US authorities over whether he will assist their inquiries into the sex crimes of his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell last summer.
Ms Maxwell was arrested on July 2 after a raid on her remote mansion in New Hampshire and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn after being charged with child sex trafficking and perjury.
Epstein’s ‘sex slave’ Virginia Roberts claimed she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with Andrew three times when she was 17 – claims Andrew has strongly denied.
Last week the US Attorney General Bill Barr said that Andrew must speak to the FBI and his team ‘definitely’ want to interview him.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Beatrice’s grandparents, have both been in isolation at Windsor Castle. Photos show Her Majesty looking resplendent in green as she left Royal Lodge today.
It is not known whether Beatrice’s younger sister Princess Eugenie, 30, and brother-in-law Jack Brooksbank were present.
The Queen and Prince Philip leave the Royal Lodge, Windsor, following Beatrice and Edo’s wedding
The Queen was dressed in a vibrant blue coat with matching hat for the wedding today
Ghislaine Maxwell, pictured in 2013, was told she must remain in jail for at least a year pending her trial on sex trafficking charges
Weddings of up to 30 people can take place under current government guidelines. It is not known who else was among the congregation but the couple star-studded engagement party was attended by guests including close friends Ellie Goulding and James Blunt.
Edo, who has a son from a previous relationship, is the son of Nikki Shale and Italian aristocrat Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi.
Nikki split with Mapelli Mozzi when Edo was young, while her second husband Christopher Shale, a senior Tory and a close friend of former prime minister David Cameron, died of a heart attack at Glastonbury Festival in 2011.
Edo and Beatrice became engaged on holiday in Italy last year and had been due to tie the knot in front of 150 guests in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace in London on 29 May with a lavish reception planned for the garden of Buckingham Palace.
The couple announced that they were ‘postponing’ their big day shortly after the government announced the UK’s lockdown on March 23rd.
Princess Beatrice was due to marry Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 37, at the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace on 29 May, but their plans were dashed by the pandemic
Princess Beatrice with sister Princess Eugenie and parents Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew
The plans at risk of being overshadowed by the ongoing controversy surrounding Prince Andrew’s relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
However it was thought Prince Andrew still planned to walk Beatrice down the aisle.
Princess Beatrice spent lockdown with Edo and future mother-in-law Nikki Shale at her £1.5 million country house near Chipping Norton.
Eugenie, Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew were all in isolation at the Royal Lodge.