Royal expert says Eugenie and Beatrice's relationship with mum Sarah Ferguson has 'collapsed'
The once tight-knit mother and daughters has been put under strain amongst recent revelations
Sarah Ferguson has always been close to her two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. But a royal expert has described how their relationship has now reportedly 'collapsed'.
The three of them were referred to by the nickname 'tripod', underlining just how tight-knit the trio were. But that bond has been fractured by Sarah and her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
While Sarah had managed to stay out of the controversy surrounding Andrew and the late paedophile, correspondence between her and Epstein from 2011 have shown she referred to him as a 'supreme friend'.
The email appeared to contradict her public denunciation of Epstein in an interview from a few weeks earlier, in which she had said her involvement with him, including borrowing money, had been a "gigantic error of judgement" and that: "What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed."
She has said she wrote the email as she feared potential threats against her family, reports The Express.
The Daily Mail's Royal Editor, Rebecca English, writes that a friend of the family revealed: "I would actually go so far as to say that they are even more disappointed in their mother than their father now."
The source added: "They also love their mother dearly, of course they do. She's a wonderful grandmother, too, and they are deeply concerned about how this is all affecting her mentally as much as their father. But I think it's fair to say the scales have also somewhat fallen from their eyes."
Princess Eugenie once said in an interview in 2008: "Mummy, Bea and I call ourselves 'the tripod'. They are my best friends in the world."
With Andrew officially losing his Prince and HRH titles, and the removal of Sarah's Duchess of York title, questions had arisen as to whether the same will apply to his two daughters.
However, the pair will retain their Princess titles because they are the children of the son of a sovereign, in line with King George V's Letters Patent of 1917. They will also retain their places in the line of succession, being ninth and twelfth in line to the throne.
Andrew shares his adult daughters, who now have their own families, with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, with whom he divorced in 1996 but remains friendly with.
On October 30, Buckingham Palace released a statement about Andrew. It explained that he will now be called Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and has been ordered to surrender his lease at Royal Lodge, his longtime home.
"His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of Prince Andrew," the statement said.
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"Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease, and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.
"Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse."
The updates come after Andrew released a shocking statement a week earlier that he was relinquishing use of his royal titles and honours amid scrutiny of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
He made the statement before the publication of a posthumous memoir by the late Virginia Giuffre. Andrew continues to deny all allegations made against him.
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