After a bruising week, it’s hard to overstate the mess that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson find themselves in.
But increasingly it appears it’s a mess their daughters also can’t escape.
The newly released emails indicate that Jeffrey Epstein had a bigger presence than previously thought in the lives of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
One exchange suggests they had lunch with him in Miami, just days after his release from prison for prostituting minors. Elsewhere, it appears they were called upon by him to entertain his contacts and give tours of Buckingham Palace.
For Beatrice, now 37, and Eugenie, 35, these new revelations could put their future under scrutiny.
“It will raise questions from the public about just what they were doing,” says royal commentator Richard Palmer.
But royal journalist Victoria Murphy says while the emails make for “really, really uncomfortable reading”, there continues to be sympathy towards the princesses.
And there’s no doubt that seeing a picture apparently of your father on all fours, crouching over a young woman, can only be deeply embarrassing.
It should be said Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing, and being named among the Epstein files is not an indication of wrongdoing.
So after the York family brand has been dragged through the mud, where do the princesses now fit within the Royal Family?
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bbc.co.uk ’
