Where Do Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Stand with the Royal Family?

For years, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie remained totally unscathed by their father’s long-running scandal. When a photograph of the former Prince Andrew with Virginia Giuffre was first published in 2011, they were not even out of university. When Andrew stepped back following his disastrous interview in 2019, Beatrice by all accounts helped facilitate it but largely escaped condemnation in the fallout. And when Andrew was served the ultimate humiliation of being stripped of all his titles last year, it was made explicitly clear that Beatrice and Eugenie remained “wholly unaffected” by the move.

The King even promoted Eugenie in a prominent role within his charity just days later. And as recently as last year, stories continued to pop up suggesting they could take on more prominent public roles.

Yet here we are in 2026 and something has shifted for the Princesses. The release of the Epstein Files in January was disastrous for Andrew, but it also divided opinion on his daughters. For the first time, prominent and lasting questions were raised about whether they were not just pawns in their parents’ network but displayed their own poor judgement. And as 2026 has progressed, they have been notably absent from a number of royal gatherings.

Beatrice and Eugenie did not attend the royal family’s Easter Service in April, a decision that was said to have been theirs and had no bearing on future royal events. Eugenie’s public role as a mentor with the King’s charity was said to have quietly come to an end this year. Neither attended any royal garden parties in 2026, an occasion they have been present for in the past and that non-working royal Zara Tindall attended this year. And it was the Princesses who dominated the headlines in June when a National Audit Office report made public the fact the King was personally paying for their Palace rent.

Significantly, they did not attend Royal Ascot this year. In previous years, including in the reign of King Charles, they have been seen in the royal box and appeared in the carriage procession.

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Princess Eugenie arrives by royal carriage to Royal Ascot in 2025.

But the royals have far from cast out Beatrice and Eugenie completely. Buckingham Palace announced in May that Princess Eugenie is expecting her third child, saying the King was “delighted.” Both sisters were photographed arriving at Peter Phillip’s wedding, where Beatrice was embraced by Prince William in full view of the cameras. And the fact the King, now almost four years into his reign, has continued to pay their rent for Kensington Palace and St James’s Palace, despite the fact that they both have other homes, suggests that he is in no rush to treat them differently to how Queen Elizabeth did.

“I think the royal family make a distinction between the way they treat Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice as family members and how they are perceived by the general public due to the potential PR contamination from their parents,” said royal journalist Emily Andrews. “At Peter Phillips’s wedding. It was clear that Eugenie and Beatrice were there as members of the family, Prince William greeted both women and their husbands warmly, they were very much welcome and part of the family. However, there has been some suggestion from William’s camp at Kensington palace that he wants to draw more of a clear distinction between the York family and working royals.”

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Princess Beatrice and Eugenie arrive at Peter Phillips’s wedding alongside their husbands, Jack Brooksbank and Edoardo Mapelli Mazzi.

Indeed, this division has already been in play more clearly in recent years. The main example is the Buckingham Palace balcony for Trooping the Colour, which throughout most of Queen Elizabeth’s reign was packed with 40 plus extended family members. From 2022, however, as questions swirled about whether Andrew or Harry and Meghan would appear, Queen Elizabeth began a new precedent that it would just be working royals.

The Palace’s financial arrangements are kept under regular review, but there has been no word on whether the Princesses will have their Palace rent arrangements changed in King Charles’s reign. “I suspect that they will continue to live rent-free while King Charles is on the throne,” said Emily Andrews. “He likes his nieces. He wants to placate to a certain extent his brother Andrew who has lost everything and is now in internal exile in Norfolk. Charles is not a confrontational man. He wants to keep the peace.”

Royal expert Richard Palmer offered a different view. “In an increasingly slimmed-down monarchy I think it will be hard for King Charles to justify continuing to give subsidized accommodation to relatives who do nothing to support his official work,” he said, referring to the fact that Beatrice and Eugenie’s rent is paid for by the King’s personal money at 68% and 64% of the market rate respectively. The lower rate is agreed because the properties can only be tenanted by people who have received security clearance or vetting.

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While the princesses have previously stood on the balcony during Trooping the Colour, now, only working royals and their immediate families make an appearance during the annual parade.

What both are in agreement on, however, is that the Princesses are more likely to be kept at arms-length from the official face of the monarchy when William becomes King. “William is much more ruthless and he has already said he wants to shake things up,” said Emily Andrews.

“I think the Princesses will potentially become collateral damage in how William wants to reshape the monarchy to make it very, very clear who are the working royals, funded by the British taxpayer, and who are not and have to pay their own way.”

“Sources close to William have already made it clear that when he becomes King he will want to review their homes,” said Richard Palmer about the Princesses. “I think the writing is on the wall for them.”

Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy has reported on the British Royal Family since 2010. She has interviewed Prince Harry and has travelled the world covering several royal tours. She is a frequent contributor to Good Morning America. Victoria authored Town & Country book The Queen: A Life in Pictures, released in 2021.