The Gist
Sisters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie are typically in attendance at Royal Ascot, a highlight of the British summer social calendar.
This year, though—following their father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest in February—the sisters were absent.
Eugenie is expecting her third child this summer, and on June 25, Beatrice made her first public appearance post-Ascot amid a U.K. heat wave.
As Princess Beatrice navigates life in the public eye after her father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s shocking arrest in February, she made her first appearance publicly since she and sister Princess Eugenie skipped Royal Ascot earlier this month.
Royal Ascot—the highlight of the British summer social calendar and an event both sisters attended last year and are regulars at—ran from June 16 to June 20, and Beatrice and Eugenie didn’t participate in the carriage procession nor were they on hand to watch the horse races in the Royal Box.
Princess Beatrice at Royal Ascot on June 17, 2025.
Credit: Getty
On June 25—the week after Royal Ascot—Beatrice was seen walking around the Mayfair neighborhood in London amid a historic heat wave across England and other parts of Europe.
The mother of two wore a green and white striped Cefinn Studio belted mididress and pointed Mary Jane flats from Rothy’s for her day out.
After attending Christmas with the royal family at Sandringham alongside their husbands Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank, Beatrice and Eugenie have been absent from most royal events throughout 2026. In April, the sisters skipped the traditional royal Easter church service at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, with The Telegraph reporting that the decision was made with the “agreement and understanding” of King Charles, their uncle.
“However, the sisters have not been ostracized and are expected to attend future family events,” the outlet reported.
Princess Beatrice at Royal Ascot on June 19, 2025.
Credit: Getty
As such, Beatrice and Eugenie were on hand at the royal wedding of their cousin Peter Phillips to Harriet Sperling on June 6, where Beatrice was greeted warmly by Prince William. They skipped Trooping the Colour the next weekend on June 13, but it was later revealed that both sisters and their husbands were in Austria at a wedding.
Reports emerged earlier this year that Beatrice and Eugenie were not invited to Royal Ascot, only to be refuted by subsequent reports claiming that they were invited, after all. Hello! reported that the sisters were not only invited to Ascot, but that senior members of the royal family continue to check on them.
“The question is, would they want to go to a public event of that nature?” a friend of the sisters told Hello!. “They will get criticism whether they go or not—and not just that event. They just can’t win.”
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie on April 23, 2025.
Credit: Getty
“Bea has found the scrutiny very hard, especially the strain of the past few weeks,” the friend added. “It has felt as though things have been in freefall, and she’s being hammered and bullied by commentators.”
A report from The Sun added that Beatrice and Eugenie would be allowed to attend future family events, and that “All the signs are they’re not being judged on the sins of the parents.”
The sisters “are tarnished by this,” royal biographer Ingrid Seward told People. “It has affected their lives a great deal.”
“They’re like a locked ship right now,” a friend added.
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie in 2018.
Credit: Getty Images
Fellow royal biographer Andrew Lownie agreed, adding that Beatrice and Eugenie are “caught between a rock and a hard place over loyalty to their parents and their future.”
In a previous interview before their father’s arrest, the sisters spoke about being royals yet having careers outside of the Firm. “It’s hard to navigate situations like this because there is no precedent,” Beatrice said (per The Times). “There is no protocol. We are the first—we are young women trying to build careers and have personal lives and we’re also princesses.”
“We’re each other’s rocks,” Eugenie added. “We’re the only other person in each other’s lives who can know exactly what the other one is going through.”
Read the original article on InStyle