Princesses’ dreams hit by Queen’s charity snub
THE hopes of Princess Beatrice and her sister Eugenie to be treated as ‘major’ royals have been dealt another blow after they were overlooked in a shuffle of the Queen’s charity roles.
Late last year the Queen gave up 25 of her charity patronages to reduce her workload in her 91st year – and set about reallocating roles to other family members. But Prince Andrew’s daughters missed out.
Andrew, who inherited three patronages from his mother, will no doubt be unimpressed that his daughters have been snubbed.
He has been fighting for years to secure them fulltime working royal status but his efforts have been rebuffed by Buckingham Palace, with Prince Charles reportedly encouraging the side-lining of his nieces to slim down the Monarchy.
Andrew has denied that he is locked in a battle with Charles, even releasing a letter on social media to make it clear – although that missive has since been deleted. Beatrice, 28, is already patron of nine charities but has been unemployed since July last year. She is said to be working on developing a business app, but nothing has so far come of it. However she has been raising charity funds through sports challenges with friends in the Branson family.
Luckily for Beatrice, I hear her doting father has now handed her a consolation prize – one of his charities, the English National Ballet, the patronage of which he inherited from Princess Diana.
Eugenie, 26, works at an art auction house and is patron of several charities, including the late Mark Shand’s Elephant Family.
Although the sisters were left empty-handed by the Queen’s reshuffle, other royals picked up soughtafter charities.
The Duchess of Cambridge has taken on charities including Action For Children, and the Duke of Cambridge the Royal African Society and two others. Prince Edward has the Edinburgh Festival while Prince Harry takes on two more charities and the Princess Royal three.