OUR ROYAL PAIN
They live in palaces and jet off on luxury hols... but being a modern princess can be tough, apparently
HOLDING down a job, making time to see your friends and trying to fit in is tough at the best of times.
But it’s even tougher if you’re a princess, according to the Queen’s granddaughters Beatrice and Eugenie.
In a joint interview, the pampered pair bemoaned criticism of their lifestyles and fashion choices, even though Princess Beatrice took eight holidays in 15 months and Princess Eugenie took 25 days off during the first 10 weeks of a new job.
And they boldly claimed they are the first royals having to balance careers with their personal lives.
Beatrice, 29, said: “It’s hard to navigate situations like these because there is no precedent, there is no protocol.
“We are the first: we are young women trying to build careers and have personal lives, and we’re also princesses, and doing all of this in the public eye.”
Eugenie, 28, said: “Nowadays it’s so easy to recoil when you see a perfect image on Instagram – but it’s important that it’s real. We’re real.
“We want to show people who we are as working, young, royal women, but not be afraid of putting ourselves out there.”
The sisters lived together for 10 years in an apartment at St James’s Palace, although it is understood father Prince Andrew meets the £20,000-a-year cost. Eugenie has recently moved into a flat in Kensington Palace with fiance Jack Brooksbank and is said to pay a “market rent”, although it is widely thought this is nowhere near the £7,000a-month average in the exclusive area of West London.
Beatrice is the vice-president of partnerships and strategy for Afiniti, a US-based technology company, and Eugenie is an associate director at contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth.
They told Vogue magazine they were ribbed over the extravagant hats they wore to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in 2011 and said previous mockery of their fashion taste had in the past reduced them to tears.
But they said there was “no
point being angry with anyone for beating us up – we just need to shine light and love in the world”.
Eugenie recalled one occasion, on the day of a garden party at Buckingham Palace, when the criticism was simply too much.
She said: “There was a horrible article that had been written about Beatrice and she got really upset.
“We were just about to step out and she had a bit of a wobble and cried. I was looking after her.
“And then about an hour later, I had a wobble and started crying and Bea was there for me.”
Eugenie also revealed she is banning plastic from her wedding to Brooksbank at Windsor Castle in October, which is likely to set public funds back millions of pounds.
The decision was apparently inspired by her work with Project Zero, an environmental charity dedicated to protecting marine life.
“My whole house is anti-plastic – and Jack and I want our wedding to be like that as well,” she said.
The sisters, who say they are “each other’s rocks”, confirmed that Beatrice would be maid-of-honour.
She said: “Euge is amazing. She’s a very modern bride.”
Eugenie insisted that she had not turned into a “bridezilla”.
“I’m not stressed at all, she said. “It’s nerve-racking because you want it to be perfect, but then you realise that you’re going to be with the person you love forever and nothing else really matters.”
They also revealed that one of the biggest fights they had ever had was a dispute over a pair of Converse trainers.
“We have the same size feet and both of us had identical pairs,” Beatrice said. “One pair got trashed and the other sister may have swapped them.”
Royal expert and biographer Ingrid Seward, who knows the sisters, said they had been criticised unfairly and were both “great fun... super friendly and always cheery”.
The editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine said: “It is a very tough gig being the Queen’s granddaughters, being a princess and keeping a normal job. It’s such a balancing act and they handle it all so well.”
But Graham Smith, CEO of antimonarchy group Republic, said: “They need to grow up, step back and get a sense of perspective. The big problem the royals have is they have no idea how the rest of us live.
“If Eugenie and Beatrice think it’s tough being a royal they might want to spare a thought for single parents who have to face going to foodbanks just so they can give their kids breakfast.”
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