Princess Beatrice and her sister Eugenie were nine and eight years old, respectively, when they first encountered Jeffrey Epstein — whom their mother reportedly referred to as “nice Jeffrey,” according to a new report in the Daily Mail.
The children would one day visit Epstein’s private island, Little Saint James, but the earliest official trace of contact appears in a 1998 flight log listing a meeting in Nassau under the entry “Princess Sarah Ferguson and kids.”
Over time, Epstein wove himself ever more tightly into the fringes of the royal world.
In 2006, for example, he and Ghislaine Maxwell—and names like Harvey Weinstein—attended Beatrice’s 18th birthday celebration at Winter Castle.
It was a stark sign of how successfully Epstein embedded himself in elite circles, including those surrounding the royals.
Prince Andrew largely dodged the fallout from Virginia Giuffre’s 2014 allegations—until his disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview hastened his downfall.
This week, the Epstein scandal brought down his wife, Sarah Ferguson, after she admitted sending sycophantic emails to Epstein just six weeks after publicly vowing never to speak to him again. The damage to her reputation has been total; the question now is whether the scandal will drag her daughters down with her.
Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, have tried to maintain lives outside the glare of their parents’ malfeasance; Beatrice lives in the U.K., married to property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and Eugenie spends much of her time in Portugal with her husband, Jack Brooksbank.
The princesses have long avoided public appearances with their father but have not retreated from association with their mother. They are often photographed with her at charity events; they have called themselves “the tripod.”
Whether that bond will survive this reckoning is uncertain.
Previously, when scandals struck their parents, they have defended them vigorously in private. For example, in 2010, Fergie was caught in a sting offering access to Prince Andrew for £500,000 ($600,000).
Fergie said it was Beatrice, then age 22, who took the lead in supporting her.
It was only a few months after that controversy, however, that she accepted £15,000 ($18,000) from Epstein, suggesting that the lessons of the scandal had not been learned.
Beatrice and Eugenie have long quietly lobbied for a role as future “working royals,” and, given their relative youth amid an aging core group, the suggestion had been steadily gaining traction.
Beatrice was present at the King and Queen’s garden party this year; Eugenie was tapped by the King’s Foundation to mentor its “under-35 network.” However, their prospects are now darkened.
If there is any suggestion—however tenuous—that the princesses themselves benefited from Epstein’s patronage, their path back into the fold could slam shut.
The core question now is: can the princesses’ reputations remain unsullied?
Many will instinctively want to draw a bright line: the scandals of the parents should not define the children.
But hanging over all this is the knowledge that the parents did use the children as part of their schemes, and not just by inviting their sleazy friends to the kids’ birthday parties.
If there is any suggestion — however tenuous — that the princesses themselves benefited from Epstein’s patronage, their path back into the royal fold will be barred forever.
The taint has already taken shape in black-and-white court filings.
In the High Court case of Isbilen v. Turk, a series of transactions placed Eugenie and Beatrice uncomfortably close to controversy.
In October 2019, two payments totaling £25,000 ($30,000) were deposited into Princess Eugenie’s personal bank account. She later explained that she had believed the money was from a “long-standing family friend” to help cover catering costs for a party. A month later, in November 2019, a much larger sum — £750,000 ($950,000)— arrived in Prince Andrew’s personal account.
When questioned by bankers, Andrew’s office described it as a “wedding gift” for Princess Beatrice, who would marry the following year.
The innocent gift explanation soon unravelled, and in March 2021, the entire amount was repaid.
For Beatrice and Eugenie, the quandary they are caught in is brutally simple.
They are not accused of wrongdoing, yet the shadow of their parents’ choices still hangs over them.
The records do not allege complicity, only proximity. But in the royal arena, where image is everything, proximity alone can be enough to close doors that once seemed to be opening.
Their future now rests less on what they have done than on what may yet emerge.
If no further stain touches them, the passage of time may allow the sisters to reassert their independence and reclaim the possibility of public service.
However, the monarchy is unforgiving, and the family’s instinct for self-preservation is even stronger. Even without blame, Beatrice and Eugenie may find themselves permanently confined to the margins—not because of who they are, but because of who their parents chose to be.
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The post How Fergie’s Epstein Mess Could Hurt Beatrice and Eugenie appeared first on The Daily Beast.
