{"id":586457,"date":"2026-04-05T05:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T05:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586457\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T05:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T05:42:09","slug":"andrew-mountbatten-windsor-scandal-william-and-kate-make-determined-move-to-avoid-beatrice-and-eugenie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/586457\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor scandal: William and Kate make \u2018determined\u2019 move to avoid Beatrice and Eugenie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Prince William and Princess Kate have made a shock move to avoid being dragged down by the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor scandal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, the disgraced former prince\u2019s daughters, have already experienced the flow on effects from their father\u2019s exile. Neither princess has been seen at a royal family event this year, even the traditional Easter events.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Both Beatrice and Eugenie featured in the Epstein files. According to a correspondence that has been attributed to their mother Sarah Ferguson, both princesses went to New York to visit the convicted paedophile in 2009 after he was released from prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-3mk41m-StyledText eze0guv9\">Sign up to The Nightly&#8217;s newsletters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-1r9pdr5-StyledSubText eze0guv8\">Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>By continuing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/thenightly.com.au\/subscription-terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sevenwestmedia.com.au\/privacy-policies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">At the time Beatrice was 21-years-old while Eugenie was 19-years-old. Ms Ferguson described Epstein as a \u201cfriend\u201d, \u201cpillar\u201d and \u201cbrother\u201d in the files, and also asked the disgraced financier, who was already covering the cost of her trip, to upgrade the trio\u2019s flights back to the UK.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">William and Kate have deftly swerved attempts to make them comment on the scandal, but are set to make a \u201cstatement\u201d on their allegiances this June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">This week, it was reported that King Charles will be inviting Beatrice and Eugenie to the Royal Ascot as a public demonstration of his support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">The annual event is typically frequented by many of the royals, but an expert has forecasted that a few seats may lie empty this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Jennie Bond, a former BBC royal correspondent, told <a class=\"css-hwy1qg-StyledTextLink ezegcyi0\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/royals\/william-kates-determined-move-avoid-36960239\">The Mirror<\/a> William and Kate might sit this year out, and send a message by doing so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThere are reports that (Beatrice and Eugenie) have already been invited to join the Royals at Ascot in June,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cThat might be easier because William and Catherine are not great racegoers and may not be at Ascot, and William is determined to put some clear blue water between his family and the Andrew scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Ms Bond said the princesses had done the right thing by stepping back from Easter events.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cI think it shows that they are sensitive to how difficult the situation is for the rest of the royal family. Their presence at the Easter service would draw a great deal of press attention and speculation at a time when it\u2019s important that the family puts on a united front,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">\u201cSo they\u2019ve done the right thing by making themselves scarce at Easter. I imagine they will both be spending time with their husbands and children privately and out of the spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Ms Bond said it would be better for everyone if the princesses maintained a low profile for the time being.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-9czhig-StyledParagraph e4e0a020\">Their father, Mr Mountbatten-Windsor will be spending this Easter alone at Sandringham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prince William and Princess Kate have made a shock move to avoid being dragged down by the Andrew&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,13935,1720],"class_list":{"0":"post-586457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-royals","12":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}