Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie made a rare appearance with the Royal Family when they attended their cousin Peter Phillips’s wedding to Harriet Sperling on June 6. The duo’s disgraced parents, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson, were not invited to the royal wedding of the year, but the York sisters attended alongside King Charles, Prince William and the rest of their family. Despite being “warmly welcomed,” royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said that fans shouldn’t expect the sisters to be making official family appearances soon.
“This was a private royal event, therefore it was natural that Beatrice and Eugenie attended and were warmly welcomed,” Fitzwilliams told GB News. “However, their problem remains that they are still in the eye of an unravelling storm, however unfairly, because of their parents, who are notorious.”
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie arrived at the church with their husbands Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank on June 6.
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Princess Eugenie hugs Zara and Mike Tindall’s daughter, Mia, at the wedding.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Ex-Prince Andrew was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, and the investigation into the former Duke of York has since expanded into other offenses such as possible sexual crimes. Ferguson, on the other hand, has been staying out of public life, and was eventually spotted at a resort in the Austrian Alps in April.
Andrew and Sarah’s daughters have also been keeping a low profile until early May, when Princess Eugenie announced she was expecting her third child. The York sisters have been pictured out and about in London, but Peter and Harriet’s wedding is the first time they’ve been seen with the Royal Family since their father’s arrest.
Zara Tindall (in blue) and her husband, Mike Tindall (far right), welcomed the group to All Saints’ Church.
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Princess Beatrice greeted Prince William with a kiss on the cheek.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Although they were pictured hugging and kissing their royal cousins at the wedding, held in the village of Kemble, England, Fitzwilliams points out that a public appearance for Eugenie and Beatrice is a different matter.
“It will therefore present a problem as their presence at an official royal event would, at this time with their parents in disgrace, overshadow it,” he said.
Multiple royal sources have reported that the sisters were banned from Royal Ascot this year, but in April, Hello! magazine reported that The King extended an invitation to his nieces if they’d like to come.
“The question is, would they want to go to a public event of that nature?” a friend of Beatrice and Eugenie told the outlet. “They will get criticism whether they go or not—and not just that event. They just can’t win.”
