Is Princess Eugenie Estranged From Her Father, Prince Andrew?

He is off to a temporary gaff on the Sandringham Estate, while work is carried out on his new home, Marsh Farm, also at Sandringham. His famously extensive teddy bear collection has been packed up. (There were 72 in all, which, according to Charlotte Briggs, a former staff member, had to be carefully arranged in size order on his bed every day: “I even had a day’s training … it was so odd.”) Mountbatten- Windsor is said to have retained but one cuddly monkey. • I’ve thought of one good thing Andrew has done And isn’t there a touch of pathos, in seeing him finally brought so terribly low, just weeks before his 66th birthday? The gun licence (surrendered last November, after an “awkward conversation” with a Metropolitan firearms officer), the Sky TV van spotted outside Marsh Farm on installation duties (how embarrassingly prosaic), and now? An estranged daughter? Isn’t it a bit like the twinge of regret you feel, when a Traitor is uncloaked or a villain in a Bond film definitively undone? Couldn’t you almost feel sorry for him? Princess Anne and Prince Edward are said to believe King Charles has been harsh in his treatment of his younger brother; there’s some feeling that Charles might be regretting stripping Andrew of his title. (Although Prince William and Queen Camilla are apparently having none of it and think he deserves everything he’s got.) But to lose a relationship with a daughter — and presumably by extension with her children, his grandchildren, not to mention her booze-manufacturer husband, Jack Brooksbank — on top of that? Andrew is not technically guilty of anything, after all; he has never been tried in a court of law and the whole situation turned on one terrible interview with the BBC, allegations, rumours and (very very) poor optics. Could it be that Eugenie hasn’t opted, as her older sister Princess Beatrice reportedly has, for a lighter touch, a more delicate approach in managing her father, one designed to maintain a connection with him but also her standing within the royal family? Can we feel sorry for Mountbatten-Windsor in his darkest hour? Should we? Oh, absolutely not. If I were Eugenie, I would have done the same thing. She is supposed to be terribly nice — both sisters are, according to anyone who knows. (I once asked an insider how they thought that was even possible, if it perhaps quietly whispered of the mitigating quality of Andrew and Fergie’s superior parenting skills? “Christ, no! Good nannies,” they replied.) • The royals are ‘concerned’ Fergie might tell all on US TV? I bet they are Imagine hearing the stories of Epstein’s victims as Beatrice or Eugenie? Imagine hearing the news that Virginia Guiffre had taken her own life; imagine seeing the publicity around her posthumous memoir, reading the extracts? Seeing that picture of her, aged 17, with their 41-year-old father’s arm around her waist? Hearing him claim it’s a fake? Eugenie’s alleged estrangement from her father is not one of those made irritatingly fashionable by millennial culture and social media-enabled narcissism. It’s not born of the complex pettiness, the score-keeping and misunderstandings and Instagram posturing and public swipes of … oh, you know, other famous family fall-outs. This is rooted in something awful and desperate and dark. If Mountbatten-Windsor is innocent until proven guilty, that’s because he has gone to some lengths to avoid facing criminal charges. On top of which is the faintly unavoidable fact of his personality. Mountbatten-Windsor is, apparently, appalled that his new forever home, the “poky” Marsh Farm, has just the five bedrooms. “He really didn’t want Marsh Farm,” someone told the Mail. “He won’t have lived anywhere that small since he left his apartment at Buckingham Palace.” He has had to take advice from an expert in the art of decluttering, so that he might find a way to accommodate at least some of his Royal Lodge possessions (no definitive word re the bears as yet). It doesn’t look like he’s got a garage and he won’t have the space — or presumably, means — for staff. The King has apparently offered him a Sandringham cleaner, groundsman and cook on an ad hoc basis which “hasn’t gone down well”. All that misplaced ire and self-pity — yet still not a word of compassion for Epstein’s victims? What would you do, if he were your dad?