Royal biographer Andrew Lownie says the York sisters are being sent ‘mixed signals’ as they are excluded from Easter service at Windsor but invited to other royal events
King Charles’s decision to exclude Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie from this weekend’s Easter service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor suggests that “the Royal Family seem to be repeating their mistakes with Andrew when it comes to Beatrice and Eugenie,” according to royal biographer Andrew Lownie. Over recent weeks, Lownie claims, King Charles appears to have been sending “mixed signals” regarding the York sisters.
While Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie’s names feature hundreds of times in the latest batch of documents released by the US Department of Justice, there has never been any suggestion that they were involved in wrongdoing.
However, Lownie highlights on his Lownie Report Substack that the sisters are being excluded from certain royal engagements, but not others: “They’re banned from Royal Ascot, they’re banned from Easter, then suddenly they are now coming to Ascot.”
He further suggests that the contradictory signals emerging from the palace could be the consequence of a behind-the-scenes power struggle. He explains: “Tom Sykes has pointed out that the Easter ban shows the waning power of the King in the face of an increasingly dominant William. This may well be the case, but if it is, then isn’t he repeating the mistakes of his father and grandmother?”
In stark contrast to Beatrice and Eugenie’s “half in, half out” status, their father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor remains entirely ostracised. He is anticipated to spend a solitary Easter Sunday in his modest new quarters on the Sandringham estate. Last year, Andrew and his former wife Sarah Ferguson accompanied King Charles and Queen Camilla to St George’s Chapel for the Easter Sunday service.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were absent from last year’s event, opting to spend the weekend with their children in Norfolk. They also missed the Easter celebrations in 2024, which took place just over a week after Kate shared an emotional video message disclosing that she had begun a course of preventative chemotherapy.
There is no chance of Andrew making a public appearance at today’s traditional service at the 15th-century chapel. It also appears improbable that he will ever again participate in a Windsor walkabout alongside the King, Queen, and Prince and Princess of Wales.
Beatrice and Eugenie’s mother, Sarah Ferguson, also finds herself firmly sidelined. She has virtually vanished from public view in recent weeks, reportedly “sofa surfing” at the homes of famous and wealthy friends across the globe.
While Sarah has been rumoured to be staying with various celebrities, including her former boyfriend Paddy McNally and long-standing friend Priscilla Presley, her precise location over recent months remains unknown. She was last spotted in public on 12 December 2025, arriving at St James’s Palace for the christening of her granddaughter Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi.
“She went to Northern Ireland. She went to a spa there. She went to Verbier. She stayed in a chalet lent to her by Paddy McNally, who’s an old friend,” royal expert Matt Wilkinson said on HELLO!’s A Right Royal podcast.
Meanwhile, Vogue writer Plum Sykes reportedly spotted Beatrice and Eugenie at a Cotswolds gathering last month, describing them as appearing in good spirits and “doing fine.” However, their mother is said to be looking increasingly unkempt and weighed down by her recent troubles.
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