‘The York sisters do not suppose they’ve achieved something unsuitable’: Why Princess Eugenie’s buddies worry she’ll undergo identical destiny as Fergie due to this misstep. I urge BOTH her and Beatrice to behave now – RICHARD EDEN
When Princess Eugenie held her inaugural Force for Freedom Gala at London’s Battersea Arts Centre in 2023, friends including pop superstar Ed Sheeran, Bohemian Rhapsody actor Rami Malek and You’re Beautiful singer James Blunt had been among the guests.
The event – also attended by Eugenie’s mother, then the Duchess of York, and her elder sister Princess Beatrice – raised an impressive £1.1million for The Anti-Slavery Collective, which King Charles’s niece founded with business consultant Julia de Boinville in 2017. The pair were inspired by a trip to Kolkata, India, five years earlier where they were ‘shocked to discover the extent to which slavery still exists’. Their charity aimed to raise awareness and funds to help eradicate the problem altogether.
But how long can Eugenie remain as a trustee of The Anti-Slavery Collective?
This week it was disclosed that she had stepped down as patron of a separate charity, Anti-Slavery International – the world’s oldest human rights organisation.
The decision followed the release of millions of documents and emails relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s role in sexual abuse and trafficking women around the world. The Epstein files have disclosed the sickening closeness of the friendship between the late sex offender and Eugenie’s mother and father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Eugenie’s profile has been removed from the charity’s website, which previously praised her work ‘across the board with leaders in the fight against modern slavery’.
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie attend The Anti Slavery Collective’s Winter Gala at Battersea Arts Centre in 2023
Guests who appeared at the inaugural charity gala included pop superstar Ed Sheeran
You’re Beautiful singer James Blunt went to the 2023 Winter Gala with his wife Sofia
When the late Virginia Giuffre said she had been trafficked by Epstein at the age of 17 to have sex with Andrew in London in 2001, he claimed he was ‘at home with the children’ on the night in question. Neither sister has provided any comment on his account.
As disclosures from the Epstein files continue into how much the sisters knew of the late sex offender and how little they did about it, their benefit to charities looks more and more questionable.
They now face the drip, drip, drip of stories about how they may be dropped by organisations they once boosted by their association.
It’s reminiscent of the situation last September when their mother, Sarah Ferguson, was ditched as a patron or ambassador by a string of charities after an email from 2011 was published by The Mail on Sunday in which she called Epstein her ‘supreme friend’ and seemed to apologise for her public criticism of him.
I had always been one of the biggest cheerleaders for Beatrice and Eugenie but, after what I have read in the Epstein files, I believe they should step down from their public roles altogether. The best thing for them would be if they became private figures and enjoyed their lives with their husbands and children away from the public gaze.
However, one of their friends says this is unlikely to happen.
Princess Eugenie of York and Julia de Boinville founded The Anti-Slavery Collective in 2017
The Epstein files have disclosed the sickening closeness of the friendship between the late sex offender and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
‘Bea and Eug have a great sense of public duty,’ the pal tells me, using their nicknames. ‘They were always happy to carry out engagements when asked by their grandmother [the late Queen Elizabeth] or by other members of the family. They don’t see why they should slope away like criminals when they’ve done nothing wrong.’
The Mail on Sunday disclosed this week that Andrew pushed for his daughters to receive £100,000 in secret payments from a controversial billionaire, David Rowland, he was helping while trade envoy. MPs demanded to know whether the payments were made in return for Andrew’s help in pushing Rowland’s commercial ventures.
Revelations such as this may continue to taint the princesses and the organisations with which they are associated.
If they have learned anything from the experience of their greedy, lying parents, they will set an example by withdrawing immediately from public life.
