Princess Beatrice is quietly becoming an ‘unofficial UK ambassador’ abroad (Image: PA)
has a history of balancing charitable work with state duties despite not being a working , including stepping in for events is unable to attend in her position as .
While her father has been increasingly ostracised from the royal fold after his reported friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, his eldest daughter Beatrice has taken on more responsibility in recent years – and looks set to claim a new role as ‘unofficial ambassador for the UK’ in the Middle East.
The princess, who is with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, has been mingling with the region’s power players during trips to Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia in recent months. The trips were linked to her position as vice president of tech firm Afinitii but also gave her a chance to talk up British business with the CEOs of some of the world’s biggest companies.
Rubbing shoulders with foreign officials was a key part of ‘s brief before he was damningly linked to Epstein in the 2010s and it looks like his eldest daughter is poised to take up the mantle – evident as recently as November 4, when she attended the Adipec energy conference in Abu Dhabi and spoke with officials about the rise of artifical intelligence.
Beatrice was also spotted speaking to UAE president and crown prince of Abu Dhabi Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyen at a private meeting hosted the day before, also attended by the CEOs of Shell and EDF, the vice president of Microsoft and Mark Carney, former Bank of England governor and UN special envoy for climate action.
Another trip to the Middle East in October saw the 36-year-old princess “forge relations with some of Saudi Arabia’s biggest companies and its $925 billion sovereign wealth fund” at the Future Investment Initiative and her sister Eugenie has reportedly also visited the region in pursuit of similar goals.
US journalist Hadley Gamble, who spoke to the soon-to-be mother-of-two at the conference in November, told the Daily Mail she was “quite literally in the inner circle at a gathering of global energy CEOs, top finance guys and policy makers” and recalled a “general feeling that Beatrice was an unofficial amassador for the UK”.
Don’t miss…
It comes after news that has managed to hang on to his long-term residence at the Royal Lodge on the estate after King Charles stopped paying a multi-million-pound security bill for the property.
The king also reportedly advised his brother to to live – something Andrew appears to have rejected.
While he may have won the ‘siege of Royal Lodge’, questions linger around how the disgraced prince is managing to cover the withheld security costs, with the Sunday Times reporting that his only source of income is a £20,000 Royal Navy pension.
resigned from royal duties in 2020 and he lost his police protection, honorary military affiliations and royal charitable patronages in 2022.