Princess Beatrice went shopping with her baby on Thursday, just hours
before the Queen stripped her disgraced father, Prince Andrew, of his honorary
military roles and he gave up his HRH style, which she is still allowed to use.
The 33-year-old royal was photographed out in London at 2:30pm
yesterday, about two-and-a-half hours before Buckingham Palace issued the
statement leaving Duke of York’s status as a member of the Royal Family in
tatters.
Beatrice, who is also styled as Mrs. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi after her
marriage to the property developer in July 2020, window shopped on King’s Road
in Chelsea while pushing her three-month-old daughter, Sienna, in a pram.
 |
| Princess Beatrice is spotted after her disgraced father was stripped of royal HRH title that she can still use |
The Queen’s move is a humiliation for Andrew and comes after the lawsuit
against him took a major step forward on Wednesday when a judge threw out his
motion to dismiss the sexual assault case and ruled it can go to trial. Andrew,
who was born an HRH, will not use it in any official capacity and has also been
stripped of his remaining royal patronages in a decision that represents the
61-year-old’s complete removal from official royal life.
The dramatic move is also being seen as an attempt to distance the
monarchy from Andrew, who was once second in line to the throne as the spare to
the heir, in the year of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
Beatrice and her mother, Sarah Ferguson, were said to have been among
the key figures pressing Andrew to go ahead with the disastrous BBC interview
in November 2019 about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Beatrice and
Andrew are thought to have met Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis and the
programme’s deputy editor, Stewart Maclean, at Buckingham Palace three days
before filming to discuss the scope of the interview.
But the Princess, with the benefit of hindsight, was left mortified that
she did not do more to stop the interview going ahead – and it also left her
and younger sister, Eugenie, in a difficult position as members of the Royal
Family. One of the most infamous moments of the interview, which saw Andrew
deny sleeping with then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, included how he had spent
the day in question with Beatrice at a Pizza Express in Woking.
The Duke said that one of an alleged three encounters with Ms. Giuffre –
all of which he denied – on March 10, 2021, did not happen because he spent the
day with his daughter for a party in the afternoon. Andrew said during the
interview: ‘I was with the children and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express
in Woking for a party at, I suppose, sort of 4pm or 5pm in the afternoon.’ When
asked why he would remember these 18 years later, he said: ‘Because going to
Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing
for me to do.’
The decision by the Queen to strip Andrew of his titles paves the way
for Andrew to seek an out-of-court settlement with Ms. Giuffre without the fear
of his decision – likely to be viewed unfavorably by the public – being
associated with the royal family.
The development comes after more than 150 veterans joined forces to
express their outrage, writing to the Queen to demand the Duke’s removal from
the honorary military positions.
 |
| Prince Andrew was seen speaking about his links to Jeffrey Epstein in an interview with BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis in November 2019. |
Royal author Penny Junor questioned whether the Queen should have
insisted the titles and patronages be returned sooner: ‘I think it was a huge
embarrassment that retired serving military personnel was demanding that
titles be removed. That just becomes embarrassing and it becomes damaging to
the Queen because the Queen is then seen as protecting her son.’
A royal source said the issue had been widely discussed with the royal
family, making it likely that the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge were
involved in crisis talks over the matter.
Buckingham Palace said in a statement yesterday: ‘With the Queen’s
approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and royal
patronages have been returned to the Queen. The Duke of York will continue not
to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private
citizen.’
