Splitting Heirs The Royal Relations Beyond Repair

Feuds Are Reigning Inside the Palace Walls

- Judy Kean

When the royal family gets together in a couple of weeks for the wedding of Princess Eugenie, they will, of course, put on their usual united front. But the smiles will hide tensions that have been simmering under the surface for some time now.

Several members of the family have been at loggerheads for years, but matters have been threatening to boil over since Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, married in May this year. Their marriage and huge popularity with the public, even in the face of the ongoing Markle Debacle, has only served to highlight the ever-widening divide between Prince Charles’ side of the family and Prince Andrew’s.

Andrew and his daughters Princess Beatrice and Eugenie are seen as irrelevant to the royal family, and that rankles.

Charles (69) and Andrew (58) have never been close, but their relationship has deteriorated thanks to the fact that as heir to the throne, Charles and his boys get greater prominence.

Being left in the shadows of their cousins, Prince William and Harry, has also caused some bad blood between the next generation. Eugenie’s jealousy of Meghan’s nuptials to Harry has driven the bride-to-be to do her utmost, with the help of her doting dad, to one-up the new duchess in the wedding stakes, in everything from the dress to the number of guests and celebrations, which will feature three separate parties over two days (for more, see page 10). Meanwhile, the hostilities between Beatrice and William’s wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge are well known and still haven’t abated.

When Kate started dating William in 2003, she was welcomed with open arms by most members of the royal family, except for Beatrice.

“When Kate arrived on the scene there was a lot of attention on her, which took the spotlight away from other members of the family, including Andrew’s daughters,” says a source.