Princess Beatrice may be “forced to intervene” with Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s plans, a royal commentator has claimed.
Beatrice and her younger sister Princess Eugenie are not celebrating Christmas with the Royal Family in Sandringham this year, amid their father’s ongoing “Chinese spy” scandal.
It was originally thought that the sisters would spend Christmas with their respective husbands, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Jack Brooksbank.
Meanwhile, their parents Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson would retreat to their Windsor home, Royal Lodge.
Princess Beatrice set to intervene with Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s plans
Getty
However, a commentator has claimed it is unlikely the Yorks will spend the day alone at their Grade II listed home, Royal Lodge, in Windsor.
Sitting on 98 acres of parkland and with 30 rooms, Royal Lodge was once the cherished home of the Queen Mother.
The Duke of York moved into the property in 2003. Under a deal with the Crown Estate for a 75-year lease on the property, he has the legal right to live at Royal Lodge until 2078.
The Yorks’ daughters are bound to step in to support their parents in some form, a commentator has claimed.
The Duke and Duchess of York have been close friends of Beatrice’s in-laws for decades, as her father-in-law Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi, who skied for Britain at the 1972 Winter Olympics, met Fergie in Verbier when she was dating racing driver Paddy McNally.
Beatrice’s mother-in-law, Nikki, who is divorced from Alessandro, made Fergie godmother to her son, Alby, from her second marriage to the late Conservative politician Christopher Shale.
Nikki now lives with her third husband, sculptor David Williams-Ellis, in The Cotswolds, 70 miles along the M40 from Royal Lodge, and not far from Beatrice and Edoardo.
Meanwhile, Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank, 38, stay in Ivy Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace with their sons August, three, and Ernest, 18 months, when they are not in Portugal, where Jack works for property tycoon Mike Meldman.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson may invite others to Royal Lodge in Windsor for Christmas
PA
It is thought the Brooksbanks are planning to spend Christmas with Jack’s widowed mother Nicola, as she is only 50 miles away down the M3 in Stockbridge, Hampshire.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward believes that the Yorks will spend Christmas with Beatrice, who is expecting her second child in the spring.
She and Edoardo, 41, a property developer, already have a three-year-old daughter Sienna as well as eight-year-old Wolfie, his son with his ex-partner Dara Huang.
She told The Telegraph: “Somehow or other, I think that Fergie and Andrew will be with Beatrice, Edo and the kids, either at Royal Lodge or the in-laws.
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“[Beatrice] is very close to her father and will want to support him and be with him at this time. I cannot possibly see Fergie sitting alone at Royal Lodge.
“She has lots of friends and family and would want to be with them. Andrew possibly wouldn’t mind.
“He would sit there in front of the TV, but Sarah would organise something with Beatrice.”
For a while, the Duchess of York spent Christmas on her own at Wood Farm, a five-bedroom house on the Sandringham Estate.
Beatrice and Eugenie would have lunch with the late Queen Elizabeth II and then walk down to Wood Farm to see their mother before returning to Sandringham House to play charades with the monarch.
