Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie pride themselves on being ‘working, young, royal women’ juggling being princesses and mothers.

The sisters say they find inspiration from their mother’s inner strength and are very protective of their father, even with the difficulties the Epstein scandal has brought into their lives.

However, a royal insider suggests that while Beatrice and Eugenie have grown into ‘smart and courteous women,’ their privileged upbringing has left them feeling ‘just as entitled as their parents.’

The source from the Daily Mail mentioned that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson believe their daughters are entitled to the luxurious life of princesses, with their support and free from the responsibilities of royal duties.

The Yorks have been willing to cart their children around the world on business trips and even introduce them to ‘shady’ friends  – if it secures the royal lifestyle they enjoyed growing up at Windsor’s Royal Lodge.

Andrew, in particular, has ensured his daughters have impeccable contacts in the Gulf states, especially among the super-rich of Saudi Arabia where both Beatrice and Eugenie have popped up in recent years.

‘They were never going to be working royals but have benefitted from their family connection. Andrew introduced them to many of his business contacts and foreign royals. They and Fergie have become friends with some shady people’, the Daily Mail’s royal source said.

‘Beatrice and Eugenie grew up in this rarefied world in which there was always someone to do everything for you. That was illustrated when Beatrice had her BMW stolen in 2009 after leaving it unlocked with the car keys in the ignition. I think she was used to her police protection officer looking after such things.

‘Whether you believe it was their decision [to not be working royals] or it was they and their father putting a brave face on things, he and they said they wanted careers instead of a life of ribbon-cutting. Andrew maintained it was their decision’.

The girls have travelled the world with their mother and father and have also been drawn into some of their scrapes over the years. 

Prince Andrew famously invited Jeffrey Epstein to Princess Beatrice’s 18th birthday party in 2006. 

There was also the mystery of a £750,000 gift from a millionaire. Andrew insisted it was for his eldest daughter’s wedding. 

A High Court case in 2022 also heard how Eugenie received £25,000 from the same benefactor, including a £15,000 ‘birthday gift’ sent almost six months in advance.

The Mail’s source has said that Beatrice and Eugenie have turned into great mothers as well as ‘intelligent, polite women’.

But Andrew Lownie’s bombshell biography of their father Prince Andrew, named Entitled and serialised in the Daily Mail, gave extraordinary claims about their childhoods.

The Duke and Duchess of York divorced when their daughters were in primary school. 

A sacked staff member revealed to Andrew Lownie what their life was like with their ‘wasteful’ mother. 

‘Every night she demands a whole side of beef, a leg of lamb and a chicken, which are laid out on the dining room table like a medieval banquet. It’s a feast that would make Henry VIII proud’, the worker said.

‘But often there is just her and her girls Bea and Eugenie and most of it is wasted. There is no attempt to keep it to have cold the next day. It just sits there all night and the next day it’s thrown away.’

The sacked colleague claimed that the spread was sometimes completely ignored and Fergie and her daughters would just eat posh crisps.

Andrew and his ex-wife are exceptionally proud of their daughters – and are known to love their husbands too.

Both parents were often away with royal work when the children were young, relying on nannies and the security of the girls’ top schools.

Andrew Lownie claimed in his book that Sarah Ferguson would struggle to ‘control’ her lively daughters.

‘When they were young she would hand them over to a nanny unless photographers were present’, he said.

‘Whenever Hello! magazine arrived for one of those six-figure photo-shoots, it was “completely staged from beginning to end”, with nannies hovering to take over the children after each shot’, he wrote.

Mr Lownie said that there have been accusations of snobbery.

His book claims that at one event, focused on outreach with local authority schools, there was a plan to invite some children to the royal box.

‘One of Andrew’s daughters objected and requested that she only be joined by “the sort of people who shop at John Lewis”,’ Mr Lownie said.

Beatrice and Eugenie both went to Marlborough, where Kate Middleton also attended.

One Marlborough parent of that era said they rarely say the Yorks.

‘I can’t remember the last time I saw either the Duke or the Duchess there. Many of us parents have talked about it, especially after we read that she had got that Mother of the Year award, and to be frank, we find it rather odd. Perhaps we just miss them, or perhaps it’s a question of security. And they do both do a lot of travelling, of course’, one said.

But there are claims that Andrew took some interest in his daughters’ education.  

Mr Lownie’s book Entitled claimed that Prince Andrew had offered to act as patron of a London business school – but on the condition that Eugenie would also be accepted for an MBA course for free, in return.

The university apparently declined the offer.

The Mail’s source added today: ‘It was clear that Andrew wanted his girls to enjoy many of the privileges of being princesses’.

Beatrice and Eugenie are both happily married with children. 

Both are involved in successful businesses and pursuing their passion project charities.

Eugenie has Harry and Meghan’s former home at Kensington Palace – Ivy Cottage – while her older sister Beatrice lives in a £3.5million mansion in the Cotswolds. 

‘We want to show people who we are: working, young, royal women… not afraid of putting ourselves out there,’ Eugenie told Vogue in a joint interview with her sister, who she called her ‘rock’.

While Beatrice told the fashion bible: ‘We are the first: young women trying to build careers and have personal lives, and we’re also princesses and doing all of this in the public eye.’

King Charles, when Prince of Wales, made it clear they would not be able to be working royals – although the princesses have always insisted that they wanted jobs.

Beatrice and Eugenie are both very close to their mother, Sarah, Duchess of York, whom they call ‘Mumsy’. 

She divorced with their father in 1996 yet they still live together at opposite ends of their grand grace-and-favour family home, the Royal Lodge at Windsor.

The princesses have always claimed they wanted jobs and put a brave face on losing out on a taxpayer-funded ‘life of ribbon-cutting’.

In fact their proud mother was so defensive when asked about their future prospects she once shot back at journalists and told them: ‘Stop bullying the York family, please’.

Andrew Lownie’s Entitled claimed that Andrew’s has done all he could to include his children in deals and connections he has made with the world’s richest people. 

According to a former staff member, Andrew’s ‘entire family is deeply connected to the Middle East and every member of his immediate family has profited’.

The duke has made sure to include his family in some of his business deals with the richest people in countries like Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Libya and Dubai, people whose net worth runs into the hundreds of billions, he claimed.

‘Both Beatrice and Genie have deep ties to many Arab countries,’ said his source.

‘They’ve done business there and are treated like dignitaries. Everything was arranged by their father who made sure they got connected to the most powerful people in the Mid East.’

The Sunday Times also reported ‘the wife of an international politician’ had been ‘disgusted’ at offerings to Prince Andrew him from the Abu Dhabi royal family. 

‘Jewels, diamond watches and things … Even Princess Beatrice, who was there with him, got jewellery worth several thousand pounds’, it was said. 

‘The palace said it had no knowledge of these gifts’, according to the report.

And the girls have also been dragged into some of their father’s even more mysterious cash transactions.

In 2022 it emerged that Buckingham Palace told bankers a £750,000 gift to Prince Andrew was for his daughter Princess Beatrice’s wedding.

The Daily Mail obtained details of an astonishing phone call to his private secretary at the time – deepening the riddle over the money. 

The Duchess of York and Princess Eugenie were also been named in the High Court as having received large amounts of cash.

In a fraud case Turkish millionaire Nebahat Isbilen alleged she was tricked into giving the Duke of York the money by business adviser Selman Turk, who she says falsely told her the payment was because Andrew had helped her obtain a passport.

The duke’s former private secretary Amanda Thirsk gave the wedding explanation for the payment. Beatrice married Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in a private ceremony in Windsor in July 2020.

The Mail obtained a transcript of the phone call Mrs Thirsk received from Mrs Isbilen’s bank on November 14, 2019, querying the purpose of the £750,000 transfer from her account to the duke’s personal account at Coutts.

Mrs Thirsk, who was a senior member of the Royal Household at the time but no longer works there, said: ‘It’s a gift for the wedding, a wedding gift.’

But the cash arrived a full seven months before Beatrice and Edo’s low-key wedding with just twenty guests. 

The riddle of the money took a series of dramatic twists as court documents claimed Andrew’s ex-wife was sent payments totalling £225,000, while his younger daughter Eugenie received £25,000, including a £15,000 ‘birthday gift’ – five months before the actual day. 

The affidavit stated: ‘A payment of £10,000 was made out of the Alphabet account to EUGENIE OF YORK on 9 October 2019, under the payment reference TK008.’

The next day, a further payment was made.

‘The bank records for Mr Turk’s account show that, on 10 October 2019, Mr Turk made a payment of £15,066.05 to EUGENIE YORK under the payment reference BIRTHDAY GIFT.’ 

The solicitor noted that the payment was made some five months before Eugenie’s birthday on March 23.

Selman Turk was later imprisoned after being found to have committed several offences of contempt of court, following a row over money linked to fellow Turkish national Nebahat Isbilen. 

The Duke of York also reached a confidential settlement with Turkish millionairess Ms Isbilen. 

In later life, the young Yorks have perhaps seen their parents’ troubles with money and tried to build empires of their own. 

The girls have also made it known that they would be happy to do more royal duties but King Charles is more keen to slim down the family and its costs to the taxpayer. 

Princess Beatrice lives in £3.5million Cotswold farmhouse with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

And her businesses have done well.

The princess described BY-EQ as ‘an advisory organisation focused on adding more exceptional emotional intelligence in an age of artificial intelligence’. 

In its first year, it reported a modest £39,000 profit. However, accounts for 2024, BY-EQ’s second year of trading, report an astonishing increase to just under £500,000 in earnings.

After bills of £214,615, Beatrice retained £274,846 in accumulated profits.

She also describes herself as a Private Equity Analyst and recently set up Purpose Economy Intelligence Limited in 2025 with Luis Alvarado Martinez, 36, who is Spanish, but resident in Switzerland.

Bea is also on the board of Franks Foundation and Big Change Charitable Trust. She is a Patron of Teenage Cancer Trust

Her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi runs a property and interior design business which is largely profitable with the main companies Banda Limited and Banda Design studio worth a combined £1.7m.

Beatrice has two daughters, Sienna and Athena, with her husband.

This year, Edo expanded his Banda interior design company to include fitting out private jets. ‘It’s escapism,’ he explained of their appeal. ‘When you’re in the air there are no people constantly asking you questions or children hanging off you.’

Princess Eugenie lives in Ivy Cottage, Kensington Palace and in a £3.6million villa on a golf resort in Portugal.

‘It’s not clear to me why Eugenie has still got Ivy Cottage. I’m sure it will be claimed she pays a commercial rent but I’m sceptical’, the Mail’s royal source said today. 

Her linked in profile says she is a Co-Founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective & Associate Director of Hauser & Wirth, where she has worked since 2015.

She is not listed as a director of Hauser &Wirth on Companies House.

She supports various charitable organisations such as Tate Modern and The Serpentine and holds various Ambassador and Patron roles at charities including Blue Marine Foundation, Teenage Cancer Trust, the European School of Osteopathy, and the Elephant Family, a wildlife charity.

Very little is known about her finances. 

Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are said to have the promise of big inheritances from multiple trusts, including one established by their great-grandmother, Queen Mother. 

There is also reportedly one each set up by the late Queen Elizabeth II after their parents’ divorce.

Details are not clear but they may be set to mature when they turn 40. Beatrice is 37 and Eugenie is 35. 

Both Eugenie and Beatrice were named on Land Registry documents relating to the purchase by their mother Sarah Ferguson, of a £4.25million mews house in south west London in 2022 which has just been sold for £3.85million. 

The property transfer names the two princesses as personal representatives, of Sarah Ferguson.

Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbank is doing well in business. 

They have two children, August and Ernest.

Jack runs drinks wholesale business AEB Consultants Limited which is a healthy £543,357 in the black as of 2024.

He also runs the marketing of Costa Terra Golf and Ocean Club in Portugal, which is a 300-home development where the couple spend much of their time.

Jack is known for his discretion and diplomacy – staying on impeccably good terms with senior members of ‘The Firm’.

He’s even on friendly terms with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, whose score-settling memoir Spare caused so much upset in the corridors of Buckingham Palace.

He has quietly gone about the business of building his career, moving his young family, including Eugenie and their two young sons August, three and Ernest, eleven months, to Portugal, where he now works as a marketing executive for the exclusive Costa Terra Golf and Ocean Club, an hour’s drive south of Lisbon.

The exclusive resort is the brainchild of the American property tycoon Michael Meldman, who created the £45-a-bottle Casamigos tequila brand with his film star friend George Clooney before selling the company to the drinks giant Diageo in a billion-dollar deal.