The Tragedy Of Princess Beatrice Is Just Sad
Death, drama, and a romantic snub fit for a king: Royal life ain't all palaces and parties — and nobody knows this better than Princess Beatrice.
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00:00Death, drama, and a romantic snub fit for a king. Royal life ain't all palaces and parties,
00:06and nobody knows this better than Princess Beatrice.
00:10As a child, Princess Beatrice struggled to keep up in school. On an episode of the
00:14Lessons in Dyslexic Thinking podcast, she reflected on one particular moment
00:19where things just weren't clicking. Speaking about one of her teachers, Beatrice recalled,
00:24She was like, why are you looking at me? The words are not on my face. I said,
00:28well, they're not on the page either."
00:29At seven years old, the young royal was diagnosed with dyslexia,
00:33and it seems that her diagnosis changed her school experience for the better.
00:37In an interview with Hello! Magazine, she said,
00:39"'I think it was quite an empowering thing, actually, between the age of 7 and 11,
00:45really figuring out what you could and couldn't do.'"
00:47She also noted that her teachers were supportive and made helpful accommodations, adding,
00:52"'I'm very lucky that I had some fantastic teachers.'"
00:55As an adult, Beatrice continues to use her platform to spread awareness about dyslexia
01:00and talk about common misconceptions about the condition. During a speech for the Helen Arkell
01:05Dyslexia Charity, she once said,
01:07"'Dyslexia is not a pigeonhole to say you can't do anything. It is an opportunity and a possibility
01:13to learn differently. Dyslexics have magical brains, they just process differently.'"
01:19Princess Beatrice was only 8 years old when her parents divorced in 1996.
01:23Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York,
01:27first went their separate ways in 1992. In an interview with Harper's Bazaar,
01:31Sarah suggested that their marital troubles began when Beatrice was born,
01:35and Andrew was away on military duty. She recalled,
01:39"'I spent my entire first pregnancy alone. When Beatrice was born, Andrew got 10 days of shore
01:44leave.'"
01:45In the wake of the divorce, Beatrice found herself towing the line between being a regular person
01:50and a member of the royal family. When she was with her mother, Beatrice could let her inner
01:55wild child run free, but once she was back at the palace, she had to remember to behave like
02:01a princess. Royal author Tom Quinn once told the Express that Beatrice and her sister had
02:07to navigate a split world. The press attention Beatrice's parents faced didn't make things
02:12any easier. When photos of American financier John Bryan kissing a topless Fergie's feet surfaced,
02:19the drama reached a fever pitch. The pictures sparked a media circus, and there were rumors
02:24about the palace supposedly trying to get full custody of Beatrice and her sister.
02:29Andrew and Sarah eventually agreed to co-parent.
02:32Princess Beatrice knows full well the pain of unrequited love,
02:36and it all comes down to a man called Dave Clark. Beatrice and Clark dated for 10 years,
02:41and Beatrice eventually moved to New York City to be with him after he landed a job there. But
02:46it all turned out to be for nothing. In 2016, the couple found themselves in a bit of a predicament.
02:52They'd been dating for a decade and yet hadn't made any plans to get married. Beatrice was
02:57reportedly eager for Clark to propose, so she gave him an ultimatum. Either he got down on one knee,
03:02or the relationship was over.
03:04"'Takes no time to bend the knee. Pledge your sword to her cause."
03:08In a shocking turn of events, Clark said no. Sources told the Daily Beast that some members
03:13of the royal family didn't get on with Clark, and that this might have been a contributing
03:17factor in the breakup. Things only got worse for Beatrice when the news broke that her
03:21former boyfriend had proposed to someone else, barely a year after they'd called it quits.
03:27Clark got married in 2018, and Beatrice was notably absent from the wedding,
03:32despite initially saying that she was happy for the couple.
03:35When you're living your life in the public eye, it's inevitable that someone will say
03:39something nasty about your looks, and Princess Beatrice is no exception. It might be safe to
03:44say that Beatrice has been self-conscious about her looks from a young age. According to some
03:49reports, her mother put Beatrice on a diet when she was only 8 years old. During this time,
03:54Sarah told journalists that,
03:56"...runs in the family."
03:57Sarah, whom the press at one time dubbed the Duchess of Pork, famously partnered with
04:02Weight Watchers after her divorce from Prince Andrew. Princess Beatrice is no stranger to
04:06having her looks and fashion choices critiqued, either, and she was really put through the ringer
04:11after Prince William's wedding. The elaborate fascinator Beatrice wore to the event was
04:16quickly torn apart by the press and pundits alike. The headpiece, which was dubbed the
04:20Pretzel Hat by the media, generated plenty of cruel headlines and criticism. Understandably,
04:26this affected Beatrice. In a 2018 interview with Vogue UK, Princess Eugenie shared that her sister
04:32has been through a tough time with the negative attention she received over the years. Remembering
04:37one particularly bad occasion, Eugenie said,
04:41"...there was a horrible article that had been written about Beatrice and she got really upset.
04:45We were just about to step out and she had a bit of a wobble and cried."
04:50Princess Beatrice and Prince Philip were understandably quite close. And so,
04:54when the Duke of Edinburgh died in 2021, Beatrice was heartbroken. During Philip's
04:59service of Thanksgiving, Beatrice was left in tears when her father, Prince Andrew,
05:04walked Queen Elizabeth II to her seat. Beatrice was seen trying to hide her face from cameras
05:10with her order of service sheet as she rummaged for a tissue in her bag. In the 2016 ITV documentary,
05:16Our Queen at 90, Beatrice spoke fondly of Philip. She said,
05:20"...I'm very lucky that there are lots of moments where I've been able to share some quite magical
05:27times with my grandfather." Beatrice's love for Philip was evident when she married
05:32Edoardo Mapelli-Mozzi in a secret ceremony right in the middle of lockdown. Philip was one of the
05:38few people who made the small guest list. The event took place a mere nine months before his death.
05:45Prince Harry's royal rift has had quite the impact on Princess Beatrice.
05:49Beatrice and her sister, Princess Eugenie, have remained close with the estranged prince,
05:54and apparently the rest of the royal family isn't too pleased with the cousins' dynamic.
05:58Royal experts have questioned whether Beatrice can be trusted not to spill royal secrets to Harry,
06:04who in turn might put it in his next book or Netflix docuseries.
06:08Royal expert Angela Levin tells GB News,
06:11"...Beatrice is very stable, but I think they wonder what they will pass on to Harry.
06:16They don't want to give them information to potentially pass on."
06:20There have been reports that Prince William is keeping his distance from Beatrice and Eugenie
06:24because he doesn't know whether he can trust them when it comes to Harry.
06:28In an interview with The Mirror, royal expert Tom Quinn said,
06:32"...for William, it's a question of loyalty. As Beatrice and Eugenie have got closer to Harry,
06:37William has decided to keep them very much at arm's length. Beatrice and Eugenie are moving
06:42across to what one Kensington Palace official described as the dark side."
06:47According to insiders, the scandal surrounding Prince Andrew's sexual assault allegations and
06:52friendship with Jeffrey Epstein put Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie through a
06:57special kind of hell. Evidently, the sisters were shocked and angry over the allegations.
07:02More than anything, though, they were apparently unhappy with how the media
07:05circus affected their dad's reputation, and as a result, their own.
07:09One source told Us Weekly,
07:11"...Eugenie and Beatrice are really upset. They believe their dad made a huge mistake
07:16in judgment ever being associated with Jeffrey Epstein."
07:19"...my judgment was probably colored by my tendency to be too honorable."
07:28Despite being upset with their father for his poor choice in friends,
07:32the source claimed that Beatrice and Eugenie have still made an effort to support Andrew.
07:36They also reportedly recognize that the allegations against their father
07:40will have a lasting impact on both his reputation and the monarchy as a whole.
07:44It's worth noting, of course, that neither Beatrice nor Eugenie have spoken publicly
07:49about the scandal or their father's alleged victims, and it's unlikely that they ever will.
07:54In 2023, Princess Beatrice's mother, Sarah Ferguson,
07:58revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. By the time she announced her diagnosis,
08:03she had already undergone surgery and was receiving further treatment. This was no doubt
08:08a trying time for Sarah, as well as her loved ones. In the end, though, she made a full recovery.
08:13Barely a year later, however, Sarah learned she had skin cancer. In January 2024,
08:19she shared that she'd been diagnosed with malignant melanoma. Beatrice and her sister,
08:23Princess Eugenie, did everything they could to support their mother amid her new diagnosis.
08:28A source told People magazine,
08:30They've been terrific. In a subsequent interview with This Morning,
08:33Beatrice said that her mother was doing very well, and that she was by then cancer-free.
08:38She's been through so much, but I think really now she's sort of coming into her own."
08:44Princess Beatrice had a very close relationship with her paternal grandmother, Queen Elizabeth
08:48II. Considering this, it was all the more heartbreaking to see the princess bid her
08:53grandmother goodbye at the funeral in 2022. Time and time again, the princess has made
08:59it known that she and the queen were thick as thieves. Beatrice even had one of the queen's
09:03gowns adjusted so she could wear it as her wedding dress. She once told Hello! magazine,
09:09I have two role models, my mother and my grandmother. I find my grandmother inspiring
09:14every day because her overwhelming sense of duty is linked with an overwhelming curiosity."
09:19As the general public mourned the death of the queen in September 2022, Beatrice mourned the
09:24loss of a beloved family member. She was even spotted crying as she left the funeral proceedings
09:29with her mother and her husband. Amid King Charles III's cancer health crisis,
09:35reports were swirling that Princess Beatrice was eager to take on some royal duties to lighten the
09:39load. However, according to insiders, hell would freeze over before that becomes a reality.
09:45Being a part-time working royal is simply not an option for someone like Beatrice.
09:50A precedent Queen Elizabeth II set when she refused to allow Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
09:55to divide their time between the monarchy and their personal endeavors.
09:58Since Beatrice has never been a working royal and instead built her own career,
10:02she doesn't meet the criteria to become a working member of the royal family,
10:06despite the institution being severely shorthanded. This rejection has been quite
10:11painful, according to a friend of Beatrice's who spoke to the Daily Beast. They said,
10:15It seems mean that the girls aren't being used at all when they have made it clear
10:20they want to be of service. They are very upset to have been ignored by the king as
10:24they feel they have a lot to offer, but ultimately not surprised.
10:28Like many other members of the royal family, Princess Beatrice is a patron of various
10:32charity organizations. One of these organizations was Grace's Place, which provided free care to
10:38terminally sick children. Beatrice helped raise funds for the organization and had the honor of
10:43opening its new building. During her speech on the day, she said,
10:47It is an incredible honor to be here today to see this dream become a reality.
10:51With all of your support, I know this place can really be the pinnacle of child care.
10:55It's a huge honor to be here today."
10:57The center provided care three days a week and every other Saturday. Unfortunately,
11:02despite all the funds that were raised in Beatrice's contribution,
11:05the hospice began to find it difficult to make ends meet. In 2019, the organization announced
11:11its closure in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter. It explained that it had needed 1.2
11:17million pounds annually and simply couldn't find that amount of money. During its short
11:22time in operation, Grace's Place helped over 50 children in West Yorkshire, and media outlets
11:28speculated that Beatrice was likely heartbroken that the center could no longer afford to provide
11:33that care. If you or anyone you know may be the victim of sexual abuse, please contact the Rape,
11:39Abuse & Incest National Network website or RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE, 4673.