PRINCESSES BEATRICE and EUGENIE Baby plans bring holiday happiness to THE QUEEN
IS BLOOMING AS SHE HINTS AT HER DUE DATE — WHILE SISTER EUGENIE PLANS A FAMILY CHRISTENING FOR BABY AUGUST
With only weeks to go before the birth of her first child, Princess Beatrice showed how she has blossomed into pregnancy as she and her businessman husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi joined friends for lunch last week.
Wearing a floral jacket over a black summer dress and carrying a Gucci handbag, the mother- tobe looked in good spirits as she chatted to Edoardo outside London private members’ club George, where they were celebrating a friend’s birthday.
Beatrice’s friend Lady Emily Compton, daughter of the Marquess of Northampton, who has been styling the Princess in recent months, also joined the celebrations, which were marked by a big bunch of balloons.
While it is not known when the Princess, who turned 33 at the beginning of this month, is due to give birth, in an exclusive interview with hello! she hinted the Queen’s 12th great-grandchild is expected in October.
Speaking to our digital guest editor Giovanna Fletcher about her dyslexia as part of last week’s Back to School special, the royal said: “My husband’s also dyslexic so we’ll see whether we’re having this conversation in a couple of months’ time with a new baby in the house.”
WISE WORDS
In another exclusive interview with
hello! this month, Beatrice’s mother Sarah, Duchess of York spoke of sharing parenting advice with both Beatrice and Eugenie, who flew into Aberdeen with husband Jack Brooksbank and their six- month- old son August almost two weeks ago to holiday with the Queen at Balmoral Castle.
“I pass on a gazillion tips, every day,” she told us. “For example: ‘Welcome to my world – you’re going to worry about your child for the whole of its life. You care more about your children than anything else on the planet.’
“But ultimately, I say: ‘You’ve done so well, just keep your confidence. Mothering is intuitive so you don’t need to be told: you’ll know.’”
A baby may not be the only change on the cards for Beatrice and her property developer husband, who also has five-yearold Wolfie, whom Beatrice affectionately calls her “bonus son”, from a previous relationship.
As a growing family, the
couple may well want to settle into their own home after living in an apartment at St James’s Palace in London since their scaled- down wedding at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor last July.
According to reports, Beatrice and Edoardo have been looking at places in and around the Cotswolds, including a sprawling property near Blenheim Palace with a “party barn” and swimming pool, thought to be on the market for £3m.
It’s an area with which they’re already familiar, having spent some of lockdown living with Edoardo’s mother Nikki Williams-Ellis at her house in Chipping Norton.
They will also have a ready-made social set in situ – the Duke of Sussex’s polo- playing friend the Marquess of Blandford and his wife Camilla have their ancestral seat at Blenheim, while Zara and Mike Tindall live at Gatcombe Park in
Gloucestershire. Ellie Goulding, a good friend of Beatrice’s, also lives nearby.
However, it is likely the couple will also want to retain a base in London, as after their stay at Chipping Norton, Edoardo said: “It was magical, but I certainly didn’t get to the end of lockdown and think I wanted to live in the countryside for the rest of my life.”
ROYAL ROMANCE
Beatrice and Edoardo would not be the first members of the royal family to have a country bolthole. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge live at both Kensington Palace in London and Anmer Hall in Norfolk, where they spent most of lockdown, while the Prince of Wales also has Highgrove House in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.
Wherever they decide to put down roots, it’s clear the couple’s relationship is as strong – and romantic – as ever. To mark their first wedding anniversary last
month, Edoardo posted a selfie of the two of them together with what looked like a sunny holiday location as their background.
“I can’t believe it has been 1 year,” he wrote. “Every second of every day since has been so full of joy, happiness, laughter and love.
“You are the kindest, loveliest and most beautiful person in the world. Thank you my darling for every second.”
The couple will also no doubt be crossing their fingers that their baby’s arrival doesn’t coincide with the rearranged christening of nephew August.
The original service was due to take place this month at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor, close to the Sussexes’ old home Frogmore Cottage, where Eugenie and Jack are now living. But it had to be postponed when one of the team organising it was “pinged”, Sarah told hello!.
“We just had to shut under the law. The whole christening off.
Thank goodness we checked – imagine if the Queen arrived,” she said. “I think [August] might be a bit too big for the christening robe when we eventually do it.”
The doting grandmother added: “Baby August is phenomenal. He’s a very strong little chap. And Eugenie is a great mother, so I’m very proud of her.”
A christening is unlikely to happen before the Queen returns from Balmoral in October and will be a happy reunion for the family, who, like the rest of the country, have not had much opportunity over the past 18 months to gather for social events. As Eugenie is a close friend of cousin Prince Harry, there’s even a chance he could come over from the US to join the fun.
But with babies and christenings on the horizon, there’ll be no shortage of celebrations to be enjoyed by the royal family in the months to come.
‘August is phenomenal. And Eugenie is a great mother, so I’m very proud of her’ Sarah, Duchess of York