Why would they want to break up this family?
An impassioned cry from father of fiancee ditched by Beatrice’s new boyfriend …
THEY are the happy pictures that could come from any family album – a young boy doted on by his overjoyed parents.
But this smiling trio is no more – and Princess Beatrice has found herself facing questions over whether she may have been instrumental in their split.
At a time when she should be enjoying the excitement of a new relationship with Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, Prince Andrew’s eldest daughter is the subject of claims that the property developer sacrificed his engagement to the woman in the picture to be with her.
Mr Mozzi, 35, is said to have been seeing Beatrice while still sharing his life and London home with Chinese-American Dara Huang and their two-year-old son, Christopher ‘Wolfie’ Woolf.
The princess and businessman are understood to have started the romance at the Windsor wedding of her sister Eugenie in October.
Now, Miss Huang’s family has questioned why the 30-year-old royal became involved with Mr Mozzi – known as Edo – given his family situation. Her father, PoTien, a retired scientist with US space agency NASA, said: ‘Why would they want to go and break this up? I can’t understand it. It’s not fair but the Royal Family are so powerful. What can I do? I can’t do anything.’
Po-Tien, 80, believes his Harvard-educated architect daughter, 37, only found out about Mr Mozzi’s relationship when it was reported in the Press. Speaking from the family home in Florida, he said: ‘Dara came back here from London for Thanksgiving with Wolfie.
‘She didn’t know anything about it and the next day her friend emailed the newspaper report to her.
‘She showed me and her mom and then we knew what was going on. It’s a sad time and sad situation. We don’t know how Dara is going to take care of it. I’m upset but there’s nothing I can do about it.’
He added: ‘Being angry is no solution. These things happen in all the world – today it happened in my home.
‘No matter what we say it doesn’t help, so let him go.’
His wife Lily, 69, last month told the Mail on Sunday of her shock at learning that the relationship had broken down, describing it as a ‘terrible situation’. The family revealed pictures of their daughter alongside Mr Mozzi and their new-born son, showing them smiling happily together.
The couple are understood to have become engaged around a year ago after meeting in 2015 but had no plans to marry in place.
In photographs from Christopher Woolf’s christening, the baby is seen wearing a white outfit with golden wings given to the couple by Beatrice’s mother, Sarah Ferguson. Beatrice’s family has been friends with Mr Mozzi’s for many years.
Po Tien added: ‘Edo came for Christmas here last year and we have travelled to England to meet Edo’s family. I asked Edo and Dara when they were going to get married, I even emailed Edo about it, but they said they didn’t want to rush. Everything was pretty and so nice until this happened.’
A palace aide has previously said: ‘She [Beatrice] would never allow herself to break into another couple’s happiness, especially if there was a small child.’
Mr Mozzi was educated at the £12,775-per-term Radley College in Oxfordshire before going on to study politics at the University of Edinburgh.
He set up the property company Banda in 2004 at the age of 27, which specialises in high-end development projects.
Beatrice, 30, has been single since breaking up with her boyfriend of ten years, Dave Clark, in 2016.
Reports suggested the pair split after Beatrice gave him an ultimatum to marry her, though friends said they had been ‘drifting apart’ in the last months of the relationship. Mr Clark, a former executive at taxi firm Uber, married US businesswoman Lynn Anderson in July this year.
Asked about her parents’ remarks, Miss Huang declined to comment last night.
A friend of Mr Mozzi said: ‘As always in these cases there are two sides to the story.’
Buckingham Palace also said it would not be commenting on the claims.
‘Being angry is no solution’ ‘Two sides to the story’