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As Hollywood once again uses her family’s most shameful scandal for entertainment purposes, an emotional Princess Beatrice is saying ‘enough’.
While the royal loves her father, the Duke of York, dearly, sources say Bea has made the decision to distance herself from him – both publicly and privately.
“Beatrice has gone to hell and back over her dad’s situation,” an insider tells New Idea. “This latest TV show is just beyond awful, and Beatrice needs to take some time away from the ongoing circus.
Our source says that now she is a mother, and now another baby on the way she is desperate to move on from this nightmare.
In early September, Prime Video released A Very Royal Scandal, a three-part drama series depicting Prince Andrew’s 2019 BBC interview with Newsnight journalist Emily Maitlis. Andrew’s catastrophic discussion about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein resulted in him being stood down from all royal duties.
Andrew’s catastrophic discussion about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein resulted in him being stood down from all royal duties.
The show paints Beatrice, 36, to be the driving force behind her dad’s decision to do the interview. There is also a brutal scene in which Bea (as played by Honor Swinton Byrne) asks Andrew (played by Michael Sheen) to not appear in photos at her wedding to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.
Our source explains that Beatrice is currently avoiding Royal Lodge, where Andrew, 64, continues to reside “for many reasons”.
“It’s a stress-hole there and for some reason, Beatrice always gets stuck in the middle of things, playing peacemaker on behalf of her dad,” adds the source. “She doesn’t want to be doing that anymore and she recognises it’s been a pattern all her life.
“No-one wants to be around him when he’s dealing with so much right now. Beatrice is broken- hearted, of course. She’s a daddy’s girl, which is why this has been so difficult for her. She had Andrew on this pedestal, even with all the evidence staring her in the face, but she’s sick of being humiliated. She hopes desperately for this TV series nightmare to blow over.
Of course, this isn’t even the first Hollywood retelling of the scandal. In April, Netflix released their own movie about the interview, Scoop, which thrust the Yorks back into the headlines. Due to her involvement behind-the-scenes of the interview, the constant reminders have hit Beatrice harder than her sister, Princess Eugenie, 34, and mum Sarah Ferguson, 64.
“Beatrice is devastated,” a source says. “She truly does blame herself for encouraging Andrew to do that BBC interview. If she’d kept out of it, like she usually does, he might have been talked about of it. It’s been a nightmare ever since. Right now, Beatrice’s focus is on the future, not the past,” the insider says. “Her priorities are on the next generation, not the mistakes of the previous one.”
