PRINCESS BEATRICE
AND EDOARDO MAPELLI MOZZI ARE PROUD PARENTS TO A BABY DAUGHTER
Welcoming a beautiful baby girl into their lives and to the royal family was a moment of complete joy for Princess Beatrice and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, whose first child together made her entrance into the world last week.
Their daughter was born weighing 6lb 2oz at 11.42pm at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London on 18 September, with new mum Beatrice sharing their happy news on Twitter and giving thanks to the hospital team. “So delighted to share the news of the safe arrival of our daughter. Thank you to the midwife team and everyone at the hospital for their wonderful care,” she wrote. The little girl is a second grandchild for the Duke of York and his former wife Sarah. The proud grandmother was among the first to meet the new arrival, having returned to London from Balmoral the day before the Princess gave birth. A friend told hello!: “She is absolutely over the moon.”
SISTERLY JOY
And the baby’s aunt, Princess Eugenie, shared a loving message to the new family on Instagram, posting: “To my dearest Beabea and Edo. Congratulations on your new angel. I can’t wait to meet her and I’m so proud of you. We’re going to have so much fun watching our children grow up. Love Euge.”
She also posted a special message for the new arrival: “To my new niece. I love you already and think you’re just awesome from the photos. We’re going to have so much fun together. Love your Auntie Euge.” In a statement, Buckingham Palace announced: “Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice and Mr Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi are delighted to announce the safe arrival
‘Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well’
of their daughter on Saturday 18th September 2021, at 23.42, at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London. The baby weighs 6lb and 2oz.
“The new baby’s grandparents and greatgrandparents have all been informed and are delighted with the news. The family would like to thank all the staff at the hospital for their wonderful care.”
The statement also made reference to Wolfie, property developer Edo’s five-year-old son with his former fiancée Dara Huang, with the words: “Her Royal Highness and her child are both doing well, and the couple are looking forward to introducing their daughter to her big brother Christopher Woolf.”
CLOSE TIES
The besotted new parents were settling their daughter into family life at their London home last week and with Sarah not too far away at Royal Lodge in Windsor to help out and Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank still in the early stages of parenthood, the new family will have plenty of support and advice.
Earlier in September, the doting Sarah described her joy at being a “young grandma” at 61, saying it makes her “smile from my heart every day, because that is how it feels to be a granny”.
She said: “It is an extraordinary feeling when your child becomes a mother. Suddenly my little girlies have their own little ones.”
Beatrice’s daughter is likely to grow up enjoying a very close bond with her cousin August, who is just seven months older than her, as the two new mums share a special closeness and will delight in bringing up their children to enjoy many playdates and fun times together. Little August’s parents split their time between Frogmore Cottage in Windsor, the UK home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace.
The new arrival, who is 11th in line to the throne, is the Queen’s 12th great-grandchild,
‘The new baby’s great-grandparents are delighted’
Beatrice’s daughter will grow up enjoying a very close bond to her cousin
and the fourth to be born this year. August was born in February, while Lucas Tindall, son of Zara and Mike Tindall, arrived in March. Beatrice’s baby is the second of Her Majesty’s great-grandchildren to arrive since the death of her beloved husband the Duke of Edinburgh, following the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan’s daughter Lilibet in June, and must bring joy and comfort to the monarch.
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall posted a message to the family, tweeting: “Congratulations to Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi on the happy news of the birth of their daughter.”
PARED-DOWN NUPTIALS
Becoming parents follows the happy occasion of their wedding: the couple married in July 2020 in a private service attended by just a handful of guests, including the Queen and Prince Philip. Beatrice wore a vintage Norman Hartnell dress, borrowed from the monarch, for the ceremony at the Royal Chapel of All Saints near Royal Lodge, Prince Andrew’s family home at Windsor.
They had hoped to wed at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace followed by a reception in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, but the pandemic prevented their original plan from going ahead. Beatrice, who is vice president of partnerships and strategy at the artificial intelligence software firm Afiniti, first met Edoardo as a child and they grew close after spending time together at Eugenie’s 2018 wedding.
The couple announced the pregnancy in May this year. In August, hello! exclusively told how Beatrice believed her dyslexia was a “gift” because it has offered her different skills in life and that her own child or her “bonus son” Wolfie would be lucky if diagnosed with it.
Although she is not a full- time working member of the royal family, Beatrice holds several royal patronages, including the Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Charity.
For now, she will delight in her new role as a mum, enjoying the first few weeks with her little girl.
Of all the Queen’s great-grandchildren, his destiny is unique. Born to be King, Prince George is third in line to the throne behind his father and his grandfather, the Prince of Wales – a line of succession that was illustrated in an official portrait with the Queen last year.
But while he has met Presidents and Prime Ministers and has three royal tours under his belt already, for now the football-mad eightyear- old is being encouraged to have as normal a childhood as possible by his devoted parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Speaking in 2016, the Duke said: “There’ll be a time and a place to bring George up and understand how he fits in the world. But
right now, it’s just a case of keeping a secure, stable environment around him and showing him as much love as I can as a father.”
A year later, he explained: “I want George to grow up in a real, living environment, I don’t want him growing up behind palace walls. The media make it harder but I will fight for them to have a normal life.”
‘I want George to grow up in a real, living environment, I don’t want him growing up behind palace walls’ Prince William
ROYAL DELIVERY
Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge entered the world to great fanfare on July 22, 2013, with crowds lining the streets outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington to catch a first glimpse of the newborn.
They were rewarded with a first “royal wave” from the day-old Prince, who moved his tiny hands about as he emerged from the London hospital in his mother’s arms.
By the time of his christening at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace three months later, George looked full of life and was clearly taking an interest in everything around him.
He enjoyed his first foreign holiday in February 2014 as his parents took him to the Caribbean island of Mustique, then two months later he joined them for his first official overseas tour to
New Zealand and Australia, where he was dubbed the “Republican slayer” after winning over a legion of new royal fans.
He won fans in high places, too; there can be few twoyear- olds who have welcomed a sitting US
President to their home in a dressing gown, but Prince George did just that when Barack and Michelle Obama called in at Kensington Palace.
Unlike previous generations of royals, whose children were educated at home or at exclusive prep schools before going to boarding school, the Duke and Duchess chose an independent school – Thomas’s Battersea – where the ethos includes a focus on kindness. George started there in 2017, after a year at Westacre Montessori nursery school near Anmer Hall in Norfolk.
INSTILLING VALUES
“My parents taught me about the importance of qualities like kindness, respect and honesty, and I realise how central values like these have been to me throughout my life,” Kate has said.
“That is why William and I want to teach our little children... just how important these things are as they grow up. In my view it is just as important as excelling at maths or sport.”
George and his family spent lockdown at Anmer Hall and, like many children of his age, the young Prince found home schooling frustrating. “He gets very upset because he just wants to do all of Charlotte’s projects. Spider sandwiches are far cooler than literacy work,” Kate said at the time.
But George proudly led his siblings in the Clap For Our Carers and helped deliver parcels of home-made pasta to vulnerable neighbours in Norfolk. He had plenty to keep him occupied too – making pizza, swimming and breeding chicks as well as art and crafts.
George, whom his father has described as “a bit of a rascal”, is said to be “helicopter crazy”. He loves riding his bike and mum Kate has been teaching him to play tennis, both in the grounds of Anmer Hall and at the exclusive Hurlingham Club in London.
The young Prince is a ‘massive fan’ of Sir David Attenborough
George has also been learning to play the guitar and, in a sign he has inherited his greatgrandmother the Queen’s love for horses, has been having riding lessons on a Shetland pony belonging to his father’s cousin, Zara Tindall.
Like his father, grandfather and greatgrandfather before him, George is already enthusiastic about nature and conservation and loves learning about dinosaurs and volcanoes.
‘He’s funny, feisty, cheeky and Diana would have loved him so much’
PRECIOUS GIFT
Kate has revealed that the young Prince is a “massive fan” of Sir David Attenborough, who gave him a 23-million-year-old fossilised shark tooth during a visit to Kensington Palace last year, when George and his siblings quizzed the veteran naturalist on video about his favourite animals.
In July, to mark his eighth birthday, the Prince was pictured grinning broadly and perched on the bonnet of a Land Rover Defender, in a touching nod to the late Duke of Edinburgh, who was a huge fan of the allterrain vehicles.
George cut a more formal figure at Wembley recently as he twice joined his parents in the royal box to watch Euro 2020 championship matches. Dressed in a smart shirt, tie and blazer, he was seen hugging William and Kate in excitement as England took the lead against Italy in the final, only to be heartbroken as they eventually lost on penalties.
Perhaps the best summary of the young Prince comes from his godmother Julia Samuel, a close friend of his grandmother Diana, Princess of Wales. She recently said of George: “He’s funny and feisty and cheeky and [Diana] would have loved him so much.”
While she’s outnumbered by her brothers, Princess Charlotte is very firmly “in charge” at home, according to her mum the Duchess of Cambridge.
Despite this, the young royal is protective of both boys – a loving bond that has even been remarked upon by her greatgrandmother the Queen, who, when told how a little girl visiting Sandringham “looked after” her older sibling, said: “It’s like that with Charlotte and George.”
Born Charlotte Elizabeth Diana on 2 May, 2015, the little girl not only shook up the line of succession – the law of primogeniture was changed to allow female children to take their place ahead of younger brothers in line for the throne – but she also gave her parents a new perspective on life.
“Having a daughter is a very different dynamic,” said Prince William. “I’m learning about having a daughter and having a girl in the family.”
Charlotte’s early years were spent at the family’s Norfolk home Anmer Hall and she was only seen a handful of times in public – aged two months at her christening in Sandringham and, later that year, giggling at a soft toy dog in stunning images taken by her mother.
‘ Having a daughter is a very different dynamic’ The Duke of Cambridge
She made her Buckingham Palace balcony debut in June 2016 – showing off her first royal wave – then in September, joined George and their parents in Canada on their first official tour as a family of four.
Her second tour came the following year on a trip to Poland and Germany, where, upon landing in Berlin, the Princess dipped into a curtsy and sweetly accepted a miniature posy of flowers, proving to be a natural at royal duty.
TAKING CENTRE STAGE
After those early years in the countryside, Charlotte became a city girl with the family’s move to Kensington Palace when Prince William ended his career as an air ambulance pilot.
This included starting at Willcocks Nursery in January 2018, where the Princess’s activities included pottery and poetry – as well as appearing in her first nativity play. That may have sparked off her love of putting on a show at home, which Kate revealed when meeting the stars of Mary Poppins in 2019.
Known affectionately as Lottie, while her mum lovingly calls her “poppet”, the royal certainly has a habit of stealing the show on public occasions.
Soon after her third birthday, when on flower girl duty at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (a role she has also played for Princess Eugenie and her aunt Pippa Middleton), Charlotte was pictured poking her tongue out as she arrived at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.
‘Charlotte is really into gymnastics’ Kate
She also gave the cheeky salute when she spotted her grandfather Michael Middleton while with her parents at the King’s Cup Regatta on the Isle of Wight.
Her mischievous streak emerged once again at little brother Louis’s christening in 2018, when she told the press photographers: “You’re not coming in!”
‘I like spiders. Do you like spiders too?’ Princess Charlotte
DANCING QUEEN
Like many young girls, Charlotte loves unicorns and the colour pink and has taken up ballet, joining other youngsters at a weekly class in South London in an echo of her dance-loving grandmother Diana, Princess of Wales.
She became “so keen” on dance lessons after watching a performance of The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House in December 2018, Kate has said.
As well as this, the Princess has a natural aptitude for sports, including cycling, football, swimming and tennis.
“Charlotte is really into gymnastics; she’s doing cartwheels, handstands, everything,” her mum said last year.
Along with her brothers, Charlotte spends plenty of time outdoors, cycling, playing on the beach and catching up with their cousins.
Her home schooling activities during lockdown, meanwhile, included spider hunts in the garden and making “spider sandwiches”. She later asked Sir David Attenborough: “I like spiders. Do you like spiders too?”
Earlier this year, a photo taken by Kate of six-year-old Charlotte gently cradling a butterfly was posted on Instagram by Kensington palace to mark the Big Butterfly Count census initiative.
Her interest in nature has been encouraged by her parents, with Kate telling Giovanna Fletcher on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast: “I’ve got this one photo of Charlotte smelling a bluebell and really, for me, it’s moments like that that mean so much to me as a parent. And I try every day to put moments like that in, even if they’re small or even if I don’t have time. But that in an ideal world is what I would like to do.”
As well as publicly joining the clap for carers, lockdown gave Charlotte lots of time to spend on arts and crafts and to join in family cooking sessions making cheesy pasta and pizza.
The Cambridges also spent an afternoon making homemade pasta to deliver to local people in need. In photographs shared to mark her fifth birthday last year, Charlotte was seen loading a van with food and delivering meals to elderly people who couldn’t get out because of Covid, showing she’s a Princess with a heart.