Duke’s deepening crisis spills over into daughter’s anti-slavery charity
Internet trolls savage online post of Princess Eugenie in the wake of her father’s fall from grace
THE catastrophic fallout from the Duke of York’s Newsnight interview has affected the charitable endeavours of his youngest daughter.
The Sunday Telegraph understands the Anti-Slavery Collective, set up by Princess Eugenie, 29, with one of her closest friends, has become embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
It is believed the charity has had to scale back some of its activities. In August, the princess was said to have postponed a podcast series about modern slavery when the “difficulties” surrounding her father began to emerge.
And when her charity published a photograph online last week, it attracted a stream of vicious comments. The photograph of Princess Eugenie with her mother, the Duchess of York, meeting Anuradha Koirala, an inspirational Nepalese activist, was intended to highlight work fighting human trafficking. But it became a vehicle for social media users to attack the Duke’s involvement with Epstein, a convicted sex offender accused of trafficking teenage girls around the world.
One, in a reference to Sarah, Duchess of York, said: “You really do not get it do you?” before going on to question why Ms Koirala would want to be associated with someone who “not only knew a man who ran a sex trafficking ring” but was married to someone accused of sleeping with an alleged victim who claims she was trafficked. The Duke has vehemently denied ever having slept with the alleged victim or any involvement with Epstein’s alleged trafficking activities. Another commentator said they found it “ironic” the princess was pursuing this particular cause.
A source close to the Yorks said of the deepening crisis engulfing the Duke: “This has been terrible for the children. The Duchess of York is trying to keep it together for them and is making sure they are in a good place. They are very upset. Imagine what it would be like if this was your father.”
Others expressed sympathy for Princess Beatrice, 31, who is due to marry next year, as this should have been one of the happiest and most exciting times of her life.
The wedding is now much more likely to be a muted affair than her sister’s lavish ceremony in October 2018, broadcast on television and featuring an open carriage ride through Windsor and a celebrity guest list to rival that of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Those close to Princess Beatrice insisted that a more low-key occasion was more to her liking in any case, not least because Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 35, her fiancé, has a young son and was previously engaged to his mother, Dara Huang, the American architect from whom he separated last year.
The Duke of York’s fall from grace means he is unlikely to be seen much in public before his daughter’s wedding, expected to be in the spring. The event will catapult him back into the public eye and coverage is unlikely to pass without reference to his association with Epstein and subsequent events.
It is impossible to know how far the Epstein investigation will have progressed by that point, but Buckingham Palace is understood to be braced for US authorities to issue the Duke with a subpoena, requesting he gives testimony under oath over his friendship with Epstein. Sources have suggested the summons is imminent.
The princesses’ roles as minor working royals have also been called into question. While both have full-time jobs, they are expected to continue with a limited number of royal engagements they carry out on behalf of the Queen. But the possibility that they could take on more royal duties may have been diminished for the time being.
The Anti-Slavery Collective referred queries to Buckingham Palace, which said it would not comment on the charity ’s activities.
‘The Duchess of York is trying to keep it together for them and is making sure they are in a good place. They are very upset’