Expert Regrets Acting as a 'Media Cheerleader' for Beatrice & Eugenie: 'I Feel Guilty'
After the release of three million Epstein files, looks like Beatrice and Eugenie’s staunch defender is having a drastic change of heart.
Despite Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s contentious ties, experts have extended their support for Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, suggesting they remain blameless in their father's alleged sins. The most prominent in this list was Richard Eden, who on several occasions was quite ‘sympathetic’ with the princesses being dragged into something they weren’t even a part of. But after the US Department of Justice released a tranche of three million Epstein files, it looks like Beatrice and Eugenie’s staunch defender is having a drastic change of heart.
Writing for the Daily Mail, Eden suggested that he wholeheartedly supported the York sisters because they seemed quite ‘sensible’ and ‘level-headed.’ “It struck me as unfair for them to be tainted by the failings of their parents, the former Duke and Duchess of York,” he explained. However, following the latest revelations, his stance has seismically changed. He noted, “Having defended Beatrice and Eugenie for so many years, I feel guilty for having acted as one of their media cheerleaders.” At the core of Eden’s brutal assessment lies correspondence that suggests Beatrice and Eugenie’s proximity to Jeffrey Epstein.
In his write-up, the expert highlights a 2009 trip to Florida, taken just a couple of days after the disgraced financier’s prison release for soliciting a minor, as a turning point in his perception. He remarked that the sisters were fully aware of the former Prince’s controversial associations but didn’t do anything about them. Talking about Mountbatten-Windsor’s train wreck Newsnight interview—allegedly organized by Beatrice—where he claimed to have cut all ties with the late financier, Eden asserts, “I persuaded myself that she must have done so out of a touching belief in the innocence of her father.” Now, however, he suggests that the princess was not just a bystander but also an active participant in managing the optics of her family’s relationship with Epstein.
Then, Eden also cited emails suggesting that Beatrice helped her mother, Sarah Ferguson, craft a narrative to rehabilitate the disgraced financier’s image after she publicly called him a ‘paedophile.’ He wrote, “Fergie said in an email that her elder daughter, then 22, agreed with her that it was ‘important’ to brief the press that Epstein had ‘done his penance’ in prison” and that “it was ‘wrong’ to call Epstein a sex offender because he was now ‘moving on with his life.”
The royal expert’s sudden change in tone reflects a wider sense of disillusionment with the ‘sensible’ image the York sisters have maintained. He now believes they have not only ‘betrayed’ his trust but also the country at large by allowing their father to lie to the nation. Concluding his write-up, he requested the princesses to come clean “about what they know and order their father to start telling the truth to the police and to the authorities in the USA.” Furthermore, he requested King Charles to stop all funding of Mountbatten-Windsor until he agrees to be honest about his closeness with Epstein.
