William Allegedly Freezes Out Beatrice and Eugenie — While Harry and Meghan Make Quiet Moves
Sources say the Sussexes offered support after the York sisters were sidelined from the royal carriage procession.
Prince William is set to redraw the map of the monarchy—and not everyone is making the cut. The Prince of Wales is subtly tightening his grip on who belongs and who doesn't, and two princesses have just discovered which side of the line they're on. The monarchy has always been about inclusion, but right now, the York sisters feel anything but included.
According to Rob Shuter's Substack, just as William snubbed Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie by barring them from Royal Ascot's coveted carriage procession, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quietly reached out to the pair. The timing, as Shuter notes, was "impeccable." Sources close to the situation tell Shuter that the Sussexes made contact in recent days, extending what one insider describes as "support and understanding during a difficult moment." And the subtext here is that, when Buckingham Palace put the sisters to the margins, it appears Montecito answered the call.
For Harry and Markle, who know better than most what it feels like to be ceremonially frozen out, this gesture is all the more significant. On the other hand, it is safe to assume that Ascot exclusion is not a logical oversight, especially after what the former Duke of York was responsible for. Royal Ascot's carriage procession is one of the most visible and glamorous set pieces in the monarchy's annual calendar, a parade of belonging as much as pageantry. To be left out is to be made invisible in the most public of ways.
And according to a royal source cited by Shuter, the decision bears a very specific fingerprint. "This was William asserting control. You're either in the inner circle—or you're not." It is worth noting, too, that this is William's harder line at work—not the comparatively softer approach of King Charles III. Increasingly, it is the Prince of Wales who is setting the terms of inclusion within the modern monarchy.
And on the other hand, the relationship between the York sisters and the Sussexes, however, is not one of mere sympathy between outsiders. There is genuine and documented closeness here. Eugenie once called Frogmore Cottage home and has been spotted in California with Harry.
And then, with William lobbying to further diminish Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's already-reduced standing, the House of York finds itself navigating an increasingly unwelcoming landscape. And for Beatrice and Eugenie, the question of where their loyalties are best placed—and who in the family actually has their back—is becoming less abstract by the day. "Exclusion has a way of reshuffling alliances," another insider tells Shuter. "Harry and Meghan know exactly how that feels." Shuter, sarcastically commenting on the same, wrote, "In royal wars, exile makes strange bedfellows."
