need to know
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Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have been banned from attending this year’s Royal Ascot, according to a new report from Royal Ascot. daily mail
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Sisters will not attend the annual horse racing event in June with the royal family amid concerns over their parents’ ties to Jeffrey Epstein
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Their father, the former Prince Andrew, was recently arrested and detained by police on suspicion of misconduct in public office, while their mother Sarah Ferguson is reportedly focusing on self-care in the aftermath
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie have been banned from attending this year’s Royal Ascot over concerns about their parents’ ties to Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new report.
Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, will not join the royal family at the annual horse racing event in June. daily mail the report said. The outlet added that the sisters, whose father is the former Prince Andrew and whose mother is Sarah Ferguson, will also not attend the royal procession with other senior royals.
and daily mailA source said: “I spoke to friends who work at Ascot and they said the girls were told they couldn’t take part this year.”
“Beatrice has had it the hardest. It’s all caught her completely off guard,” the insider added.
Eugenie and Beatrice, along with Buckingham Palace and Royal Ascot, did not immediately respond to People’s requests for comment on Sunday, March 1.
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Princess Beatrice (left) and Princess Eugenie in 2023.
Photo credit: David M. Bennett/Dave Bennett/Getty
Andrew, 66, stepped down from public royal duties in 2019 after discussing his relationship with Epstein in a 2019 BBC interview. Epstein committed suicide in the same year at the age of 66. The financier died while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The former Duke of York was linked to outspoken Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17. Giuffre committed suicide in 2025 at the age of 44.
In January 2022, Queen Elizabeth stripped her son of his military titles and patronage after a judge rejected his attempt to dismiss Giuffre’s sexual assault lawsuit against him. He eventually settled out of court with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount.
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After Giuffre’s legacy, The Girl with No Name: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for JusticeScrutiny over Andrew intensified following its release last year, and he gave up using his royal title as well as other titles and honours.
Andrew repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and days later King Charles stripped him of his royal titles.
Ferguson, 66, appears repeatedly in the trove of evidence released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) about Epstein, including one email in which she asked to be Epstein’s household aide because she “desperately” needed the money, and another in which she asked for advice on children’s charities while Epstein was in prison for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Sarah Ferguson (left) and former Prince Andrew (right) in 2019 and Jeffrey Epstein in 2005.
Photo credit: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty; Neil Rasmus/Patrick McMullan via Getty
Last month, Andrew was arrested and detained by the police for 11 hours on suspicion of official misconduct.
The arrests on February 19 marked the first arrests of a member of the royal family since King Charles I was beheaded for treason in 1649.
Meanwhile, Ferguson is reportedly focusing on self-care amid the fallout from his Epstein connections. She has kept a low profile since news of Andrew’s arrest broke, and by late January, People learned that Ferguson planned to spend some time abroad as she considered her next move.
A source recently told People magazine that Beatrice and Eugenie have been trying to “stay away” from the controversy surrounding their parents.
“They have young children and this is their grandfather — their focus is on protecting their children from this,” the source said. (Eugenie has August, 5, and Ernest, 2, with husband Jack Brooksbank, while Beatrice has Sienna, 4, and Athena, 1, with husband Eduardo Mapelli Mozzi. She is also stepmother to Christopher “Wolfee” Woolf, 9.)
Read the original article on People