Before she settled into life as a married mother-of-two, Princess Beatrice was known for her constant luxury holidays, and now questions are being asked about who paid the bills for the jet-setting lifestyle that defined her 20s.
The eldest daughter of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson, now 37, juggles her duties as a royal with her job as chief executive of BY-EQ – the tech advisory firm she founded in 2022 – and motherhood.
But a decade ago, Beatrice – caught in the crossfire between the Epstein Files and her parents’ association with the paedophile – was known for taking lavish holidays worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
In 2015, Beatrice booked time off for 17 holidays as she hit the slopes in Verbier, partied in St Tropez and Ibiza, and lounged on yachts with some of the world’s most rich and famous.
While her endless holidaying drew scrutiny at the time, questions of how Beatrice could afford these trips were largely left unanswered.
‘Her salary at Sony at the time was £19,500, which would not go far, while her lifestyle was obviously ridiculously excessive,’ said royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.
‘It now seems clear that their father’s dodgy business deals when Special Trade Envoy and their mother’s alleged financial dependence on Jeffrey Epstein, could have been pivotal to her life of luxury,’ he added.
‘Beatrice was able to live it up,’ Mr Fitzwilliams said, ‘but now we wonder at whose expense?’
In 2015, Beatrice booked time off for 17 holidays as she hit the slopes in Verbier, partied in St Tropez and Ibiza, and lounged on yachts with some of the world’s most rich and famous
While her endless holidaying is a thing of the past, the royal expert said it has ‘become part of the present’ in light of the Epstein Files
Today, Beatrice is married to millionaire property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and they have two daughters, Sienna, four, and Athena Rose, one.
She is also stepmom to Christopher ‘Wolfie’ Woolf, Edoardo’s son from his relationship with ex-fiancée Dara Huang.
While her endless holidaying is a thing of the past, the royal expert said it has ‘become part of the present’ in light of the Epstein Files.
Some of the new findings will be especially concerning to Beatrice.
The Daily Mail has found an email from Epstein in 2015 where he told a friend not to worry about meeting Beatrice at an event in Mexico because she ‘liked’ him.
It was also in 2015 that Beatrice raised eyebrows after she was photographed sunning herself on Roman Abramovich’s £1.5bn super-yacht in Ibiza.
At the time, Beatrice was in a relationship with Uber executive Dave Clark, who was waiting for her on the former Chelsea FC owner’s luxurious vessel – equipped with two swimming pools, a pair of helipads, a cinema, saunas and a beauty parlour.
Photos showed the then-26-year-old Beatrice and Dave relaxing on the Russian oligarch’s yacht Eclipse in July – less than four weeks after she moved to New York to start a new job with a private equity firm.
Later in the day, Beatrice was whisked off to another luxury line owned by Hollywood mogul David Geffen, where she joined Oprah Winfrey, her best friend Gayle King, and Disney CEO Bob Iger for drinks.
It followed a series of lavish holidays around the world – including four skiing breaks (including three at her parents’ £13million chalet in Verbier), two trips each to St Barts, New York and Italy.
Beatrice – caught in the crossfire between the Epstein Files and her parents’ association with the paedophile – was known for taking lavish holidays worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. She is seen here with her younger sister Eugenie (left) and former Duchess of York
The total cost of her globetrotting adventures – including 15 luxury foreign trips in 2015 – was estimated by a travel company to be worth an eye-watering £300,000.
Considering Beatrice was working a £20,000-a-year role at Sony before she accepted the private equity job, questions were raised about who was funding these splashy trips.
While some sources suggested Beatrice could be enjoying the perks of being a royal, others speculated she was leveraging her royal title to claim these freebies.
Before moving to taxi giant Uber, Beatrice’s former boyfriend Dave was already earning a six-figure salary at Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic as Head of Astronaut Relations.
One source said: ‘Let’s face it, it doesn’t do Virgin any harm that the company gets a mention every time Bea appears on Dave’s arm.’
Another said ‘her father buys a business-class ticket on British Airways, but they always bump her to first’.
Those closest to the princess, however, insisted most of the funding came from her parents – but the release of the Epstein Files has now raised separate concerns about Andrew and Fergie’s finances.
Epstein complained to friends about the disgraced ex-duchess’s scrounging ways in messages that suggest he bankrolled Fergie for 15 years.
Today, Beatrice is married to millionaire property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and they have two daughters, Sienna, four, and Athena Rose, one
The paedophile – who died in prison while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges – made the claim while complaining about Fergie’s interview with the London Evening Standard in 2011.
Speaking to the newspaper, she issued a ‘heartfelt apology’ for £15,000 from Epstein and called it ‘a giant error of judgment’.
The comment angered the financier, who sent an email to his friend, French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, that day, complaining: ‘The duchess that I have financially helped for 15 years said that she wants nothing to do with a paedophile and child sex abuser. It has caused quite a stir.’
The latest instalment of documents released by the US Department of Justice revealed the ex-Duchess of York begged Epstein to employ her as his house assistant because she ‘desperately’ needed the money.
At the time, Epstein was under house arrest in Florida after his conviction for soliciting underage sex for girls as young as 14.
When she wasn’t pleading for a job, Fergie was proposing marriage to the financier.
Emails buried within the Epstein Files revealed Ferguson told Epstein ‘just marry me’ six months after he was released from jail in January 2010.
Epstein had been released from Palm Beach County Jail in July 2009, having served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for child sex offences.
Beatrice and Eugenie are caught in the crossfire between the Epstein Files and her parents’ association with the paedophile
When writing to Epstein in another email dated September 2009, Ferguson made further remarks about marriage, suggesting he wed an unnamed woman with a ‘great body’, adding: ‘Ok, well marry me, and then we will employ her.’
It also beggars belief that Fergie might have sponsored her daughter’s luxury holidays, considering Epstein sponsored their flight tickets when they visited him in Florida after he was released from jail.
While Ferguson has already admitted she received £15,000 from Epstein, the Yorks’ biographer Andrew Lownie estimates the actual sum is far higher.
‘A mutual friend of Andrew and Epstein has claimed, “I think that Sarah has actually received hundreds of thousands of dollars’ from Epstein,”‘ Mr Lownie wrote in his book Entitled, adding: ‘Ferguson denies this.’
The latest batch of Epstein files showed the paedophile helped pay off around $60,000 worth of debts she owed to a former assistant.
Meanwhile, the former Duke of York was repeatedly accused of ‘cashing in’ on connections with oil-rich trading partners and of lavishing millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on private jets and helicopters during his time as the UK’s global trade ambassador.
At the same time, he faced intense scrutiny over how he could afford his high-flying lifestyle – much less pay for Beatrice’s excursions – on a Navy pension estimated at £20,000 a year and an annual allowance from the Queen of around £250,000.
He finally stepped down from the role in July 2011, following outrage over the now-notorious photographs of him walking through Central Park with Epstein weeks after he was released from prison in July 2009.
Those closest to the princess, however, insisted most of the funding for her holidays came from her parents – but the release of the Epstein Files has now raised separate concerns about Andrew (pictured) and Fergie’s finances
Earlier this month, sources close to the sisters said they were ‘appalled’ and ’embarrassed’ by a photo of Andrew crouching over an unidentified woman lying on the floor in the newly released files.
They are believed to be ‘aghast’ at their mother’s sycophantic emails, calling Epstein a ‘legend’ and proposing marriage to him, and Eugenie must surely have been left mortified after her mother told the sex offender she was off on a ‘s***ging weekend’.
A source close to Eugenie and Beatrice told the Daily Mail: ‘They are aghast at what they have read. They are mortified by the emails their mother has sent to Epstein. It is so embarrassing for them.’
They added: ‘We don’t believe the girls [Beatrice and Eugenie] were told much about what has just emerged [in the latest Epstein Files release], and they will simply be aghast at just how close their parents were to this appalling man.’
A royal insider claimed earlier this month that while Beatrice and Eugenie have matured into ‘intelligent, polite women’ – their ‘rarefied’ upbringing taught them to be ‘just as entitled as their parents‘.
‘They were never going to be working royals but have benefitted from their family connection. Andrew introduced them to many of his business contacts and foreign royals. They and Fergie have become friends with some shady people,’ the source claimed.
‘Beatrice and Eugenie grew up in this rarefied world in which there was always someone to do everything for you. That was illustrated when Beatrice had her BMW stolen in 2009 after leaving it unlocked with the car keys in the ignition. I think she was used to her police protection officer looking after such things.
‘Whether you believe it was their decision [to not be working royals] or it was them and their father putting a brave face on things, he and they said they wanted careers instead of a life of ribbon-cutting. Andrew maintained it was their decision.’
