Thoughts on Beatrice & Eugenie re the Epstein scandal?

[TheRealGossipGirl]

For a long time, I felt sorry for Beatrice and Eugenie. I thought they were just caught up in their parents’ mess, paying the price for Andrew and Sarah’s awful judgement. Poor girls, wrong family, wrong parents, etc.

But new reports have really shifted that for me. Leaked emails suggest Sarah Ferguson was “the first to celebrate” Jeffrey Epstein’s release from prison, and apparently did so with both daughters in tow. At the time, Beatrice was around 20 and Eugenie 19 - not children. Fully grown young adults.

And this wasn’t before everything came out. Epstein had already been to prison by then. They would have known who he was, why he was jailed, and what sort of man he was. He wasn’t some vague family friend with rumours - he was a convicted sex offender. Many of his victims were the same age as them.

I’m finding it hard to buy the idea that they were completely clueless or had no understanding of what was going on. Yes, parental pressure is real, and Fergie’s judgement is notoriously dreadful - but at 19 and 20, you’re old enough to know that celebrating a paedophile’s release is deeply wrong.

So are they really as innocent as they’re often portrayed?

He’d been in prison for procuring a child for prostitution. You don’t need to be much of a critical thinker to know that is wrong and refuse to be around that person, never mind going to celebrate his release. Their own continued dodgy dealings and sticking by their father (apparently one of theme has only very recently cut him off) throughout shows that they like the money, lifestyle and really don’t care about others.

I do have some sympathy for them having awful parents, but adults have to take responsibility.

Maybe SF just told ‘the girls’ they were going to New York for a few days? Maybe she didn’t even mention the loathsome JE?

I don’t think it’s fair to assume they knew what the trip entailed.

I agree. When I was 19, if my parents told me I had to go to an event that I didn't want to go to, I'd have still gone. Just because they're officially adults, it doesn't mean that they behave like them in all areas of their life.

If they'd arranged individual meetings with that crowd, absolutely right to vilify them, but going along to something with their parents without probably knowing what was going on? That's definitely harsh.

The comments on one of them coming home from a "shagging weekend" is awful... imagine your parents saying something like that about you?? I feel sorry for both of them. There were rumours that Eugenie was more or less estranged from Andrew, but I'd be keeping away from both of them if I was them.

William must be fuming...!

I agree with this.

You believe it because you have to believe it. Because the alternative is awful.

Plus they’ve probably been told all their life not to pay attention to the media because they tell lies. They’ll have probably read lies about themselves. Heard jokes and conspiracies about how grandad murdered Aunt Diana etc. It probably wouldn’t be that hard to persuade them that Epstein is terribly hard done by, and aren’t the tabloids awful for spreading these lies.

I’m not a monarchist, I think it should be abolished. But I don’t think the daughters of all the men in the Epstein files are automatically the villains here, just because they went with their parent somewhere that we can see was a bad idea.

That is separate to any behaviour of theirs now.

William must be fuming...!

Yes, fuming that the whole unedifying shit show that is the RF is finally being dragged into public scrutiny.

Looks like Epstein paid for their airline tickets too.

Good god. So between 2 threads I’m reading I’m supposed to believe that 20 year olds don’t ask what they’re going to New York for, who they’re seeing, wouldn’t realise that JE was bad even though he’d been to prison for procuring a child for prostitution etc and also that William as a 40 year old man can’t say no to his father when told to drive Andrew somewhere in public view. Lol.

The minimisers really are getting desperate. it’s all falling apart.

I am so glad this board seems to be changing is now talking about the important issues in the RF and attention is being drawn to all of this.

But JE had been to prison. There was no denying what he did because he was found guilty and served time. Beatrice and Eugenie, as adults, still went knowing that.

But both of them have “grace and favour” apartments in London. One of them lives in Harry & Meghans old house at Kensington Palace and the other lives at St James’s Palace ( I think). So whilst this comes from the King, rather than direct from tax payers, I don’t think we should pretend that they are ordinary women just working quietly to support their families. Of course they are not responsible for their parents’ behaviour but they have an extremely privileged lifestyle purely because of their parents

Ultimately I agree with this. They aren’t your average young people either, they were very much raised to keep in line, not rock the boat and do as they were told. I don’t believe for a moment that they were raised in a way that encouraged acting on critical thinking or striking out against the family on your own. This situation is, at the moment anyway, indicative of that, to my mind.
That’s before you get into the way they may have been raised with the parents they have, in terms of what may have been normalised.

Even if I brought into the thinking that they were poor innocent 19 and 20 year olds back then entangled in their parents immoral web (which I don't) that doesn't change the fact that they are now grown women in their thirties.

Where's the public distancing from all this? If I were them I'd be screaming "not in my name" from the rooftops, particularly if I were involved with a anti slavery charity. Not pitching up to ma and pa's house in front of a gaggle of assembled press, as Beatrice did when the previous lot of files were released.

Whichever way you look at it, the "leave them alone, they're just poor young girls" argument isn't going to hold much water now.

Loads of people have an extremely privileged lifestyle because of their parents. Beckhams anyone?

The royals think they’re above normal folk

the daughters have never faced a day of danger in their lives. They were safe with Epstein and his gang

it wouldn’t have crossed Fergies mind it would be inappropriate to take them. They’re not the same species as the poor victims. The poor vulnerable girls he plucked off the streets and groomed

I wonder what narrative their parents spun them about Epstein?

I think they've been dragged into this due to their mummy simpering up to rich people. The money more important than morals to SF.

I feel some sympathy for the 2 daughters. Their father has (and evidence still mounting) been exposed as a sexual predator committing god knows what sexual criminality. And their mother is now being exposed as culpable in it all.

I once heard it said that Sarah Ferguson would have been taken to court by Social Services when they were children had they not been who they were. They were exposed to all kinds. There’s hints of it in the Andrew Lownie book. I personally remember photographs in one newspaper of Fergie slapping the shit out of Beatrice in her school uniform. I don’t think they had the kind of stable childhood that say Prince Edward’s children enjoyed.

Am so sorry @GreenGodiva That you endured such pain and abuse is horrifying. My thoughts with both GreenGodiva as she was and who you are now. 💐💐

I don’t understand why you cannot accept that perhaps SF told her daughters that they were going to have a few days of shopping/theatre/sightseeing in New York.
Please stop blaming B and E for a situation that they may not have known about. It’s unfair and unnecessary.

I would attach no blame to them as young women. Not one scintilla of what their parents did then is any of their fault.

Is it likely they were allowed to travel in economy

Well, quite. Beatrice touts herself out to very wealthy foreigners, using her title and styles at will, including in the Middle East, as a ‘private equity analyst’.

Eugenie’s charity accounts are a thing of mystery, in terms of the sources and recipients of various monies.

They are middle aged women with husbands, children and business interests.

Both attended university after school, so at 19 and 20 were intelligent enough to attend Goldsmiths and Newcastle University, and independent enough to live in their own flats.

Those apples haven’t fallen far from the tree. And think there’s a lot more going to emerge, simply because people will now start to look.

Agree 100%. Spot on. And you are soooo right saying people will not stand for more generations of this.
They won't. Because it's beyond a joke now.

Times have changed and William better wheel out the Crisis Manager he has just employed, bring everyone round the table and they need to talk about the future. Because it's not looking good for them.

Agreed. At 19/20 they will still be close to their parents.

‘apparently did so with both daughters in tow’. And who knows the motives of these two, maybe it was to try & stop their mother from digging herself into a bigger hole. Their desire to try and work indicates they are aware of her failings & avoidance of the same pitfalls.

Andrew just deserves everything he gets.

I think at 19 & 20 B&E were not adults at all. They had lived in a bubble their entire lives and at that point in their uni years were probably still in that bubble.
They clearly had very piss poor parents all their lives who they have not been protected from.

Just heard in the media that Edward is in Dubai. They're all still touting their Royal titles

Agreed.