Princess Beatrice has been spotted for the first time since her mother, Sarah Ferguson’s email scandal.
Sarah, the Duchess of York, came under fire last week after an email she purportedly sent to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was revealed.
The ex-wife of Prince Andrew allegedly sent Epstein an email in 2011, in which she seemed to apologise for publicly shunning him, according to the Mail on Sunday.
She was axed by seven charities following the controversy, and New Idea understands that her daughters, Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, will be publicly cutting ties with their mother.
Amid the controversy, Beatrice finally broke her cover during a loved-up outing with her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, in London on September 25.
The daughter of Sarah and Prince Andrew was supported by her partner as he lovingly walked with his arm around her.
The couple shared a kiss during one intimate moment during their low-key day trip out in England’s capital.
Meanwhile, her younger sister, Eugenie, broke her silence as she returned to Instagram last week.
She made no reference to the uproar and instead took to Instagram to promote her own charity ventures.
She shared photographs of herself hosting an event with The Anti-Slavery Collective, which she co-founded in 2017 alongside Julia de Boinville.
Eugenie proudly promoted her charity work, writing: “The Anti-Slavery Collective have been working on a project showing the connection between fake fashion & forced labour.
“I was very proud to host an event to coincide with UNGA and NYC Climate Week to launch this exciting new project, and shine a light on this underreported human rights scandal.
“The Anti-Slavery Collective launched a new short film and hosted a roundtable for fashion insiders, re-seller platforms, designers, brands, behavioural scientists, fashion press, and illicit trade experts.
“This is only the beginning, and I can’t wait to see this project unfold!”
New Idea revealed that Beatrice and Eugenie have reportedly been left with no choice but to now publicly cut off their mother.
“Their natural instinct is to defend their mum, but it’s unfortunately indefensible,” a York source said.
“They have their own families to think about, but this would be a double betrayal for their mum to now be caught up in this Epstein mess with their dad. They both have no choice but to keep their contact to a minimum, and this has cut Sarah deeply. She’s horrified this has come out.”
Their mother, Sarah, was axed by seven charities this week, after her alleged email to Epstein was made public.
Children’s hospice Julia’s House was the first to remove Sarah, saying it would be “inappropriate” for her to continue in her role.
The Teenage Cancer Trust, the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the Children’s Literacy Charity, the National Foundation for Retired Service Animals, the British Heart Foundation, and Prevent Breast Cancer all followed suit.
According to the BBC, Sarah’s spokesperson declined to comment on the charities’ decisions.
The backlash came after the Mail on Sunday published a 2011 email purportedly sent by Sarah to Epstein after she publicly claimed to have cut ties with him.
Sarah had previously told journalists, “I will never have anything to do with [Epstein] again,” after mounting pressure over her and her ex-husband, Prince Andrew’s links to the paedophile.
Speaking to the Evening Standard at the time, she had apologised for accepting £15,000 ($30,000) from Epstein to help pay off her debts and described it as a “gigantic error of judgement”.
However, just a month later, Sarah allegedly wrote to Jeffrey and told him she had given the interview to protect her career as a “children’s philanthropist”.
“I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read, and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that,” she allegedly said.
In June 2008, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail on charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from someone under 18.
After his release from jail, Epstein faced allegations from multiple women claiming to be his victims, and he was arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2019.
He was accused of paying underage girls for massages and molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and, as he awaited trial, he was found dead inside his New York cell in August 2019. Investigators concluded that he killed himself.
In December 2021, Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was found guilty of helping Epstein sexually abuse young girls.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022, and her appeal against her sex trafficking conviction was rejected by a US court in September 2024.
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