Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie face brutal demotion

This is a rude lesson that Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie could find out in the future, with clear signs they could be in for a series of brutal demotions.

At the moment though, aside from their parents – father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor who will go down in history as a pedophile’s apologist and the first royal arrested since 1647 and mother Sarah Ferguson, a Sancerre-soaked, blabby freeloader who has never met a microphone or Alpine spa she isn’t pitching towards – Beatrice and Eugenie appear to have it all.

Titles. Money. Husbands. Kids. Multiple houses and enough Manolos between them to make Carrie Bradshaw green-eyed.

For the last couple of decades, the Yorks have looked like they had won the royal lottery, nabbing all the shiny good parts, like the permanent invitations to Royal Ascot, but never being expected to do the drudging deeply dull parts of being an HRH like having to spend a wet Wednesday making small talk with the Winchley Women’s Institute.

But now? Beatrice and Eugenie could be about to face a true reckoning that could see them being dumped from princess-dom, turfed out of their royal palace homes and left to, god forbid, find their own tickets to Glyndebourne.

The man who could be behind this hurtling-down-to-Earth – their cousin Prince William who despite being photographed warmly greeting Beatrice at their cousin Peter Phillips’ recent wedding, looks like he’s getting set to stage a Palace putsch.

Only hours after the shot of the Prince of Wales allowing himself to be seen with the highly controversial princesses came out, Kensington Palace appeared to be briefing that once he becomes King, they face being losing their current lofty positions.

On the chopping block, when the new reign starts, will be Bea and Euge’s royal homes, the grand real estate they have been allowed to occupy for decades despite never having been working members of the royal family.

Last week the UK’s National Audit Office (NAO) released a long-awaited report into the 255 Crown Estate properties controlled by King Charles, which revealed that Beatrice has lived in a four bedroom apartment in St James’s Palace for two decades – for which she has personally never paid one red cent. The same goes for Ivy Cottage, the home at Kensington Palace where Eugenie and her husband and sons have lived since 2018.

This news has seemingly gone down in the UK about as well as a vegan scotch egg and William has proved he knows never to let a PR crisis go to waste. When he becomes King, his Kensington Palace team told The Times, he will consider stopping letting non-working royals live in Crown Estate properties.

You hardly need to be a royal Kremlinologist to read the writing on the wall.

The same goes for Beatrice and Eugenie’s titles. Despite their father being downgraded to nothing but a plebby ‘Mister’ last year, a deeply – deeply satisfying taking-down-a-peg for the ages – the girls have held onto theirs.

Tom Sykes, of The Royalist, has reported that the Prince of Wales is planning to strip the HRHs and titles of all the non-working members of the royal family, an iron ruling that could see a couple of Californian rate payers bumped to humble normie status. No more crested lunchboxes in the Montecito playground.

Likewise, you have to wonder about the Yorks’ place in the line of succession. They are currently 9th (Beatrice) and 12th (Eugenie), and their children 10th, 11th, 13th and 14th – all sitting ahead of Princess Anne (18th) and Prince Edward (15th), who undertook, along with Edward’s wife Sophie, The Duchess of Edinburgh, 1,026 engagements in 2025. (Numbers based on the incomparable Patricia Treble of Write Royalty.)

And Beatrice and Eugenie? Officially, zero. A big fat zero.

There are ongoing reports that Buckingham Palace and Downing Street are working on plans to officially remove Andrew from the line of succession. Should this come to pass, and once King William’s face is on the stamps, just what might happen to the Yorks?

Unfortunately for Beatrice and Eugenie, the Prince of Wales has discovered a new favourite word and one he cannot stop using – “change”. The Times has reported that “William is planning changes in how the monarchy operates that will be swiftly implemented under his reign” and during his appearance on Eugene Levy’s The Reluctant Traveller he used the ‘C’ word six times, his enthusiasm for shaking things up verging on the Cromwellian.

This is because he wants to make sure that Crown Inc is “fit for purpose in the modern era” and will “look under the hood” of the monarchy. (Well his grandmother Queen Elizabeth spent the war learning how to fix trucks …)

That’s why, in the scenario, Beatrice and Eugenie’s lives could look very different.

Take Christmas. They and their families have by and large, been part, every year, of the Windsor throng that spends the holidays at Sandringham, taking part in the biggest royal photo op of the year, the walk to church. Will King William want or allow them to continue to occupy such a highly visible place in the royal tableau?

Into the same basket we can put Royal Ascot, invitations to spend long breaks at Balmoral and Kate’s annual bring-and-buy morning tea to offload lesser-used jewels.

There’s probably a lesson in this for all of us about the impermanence of anything in life. So, should we see Beatrice and Eugenie make the cut for Ascot this year, as is reportedly King Charles’ wont, then let us all remember to live in the moment and wear all of our hats, while we can. Metaphorically speaking, entree to the Royal Enclosure is not forever.

Daniela Elser is an editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with Australia’s leading media titles.