In the year of the definitive defenestration of those who until October were Dukes of York, what happened this Thursday, December 25 during the traditional Christmas celebration of the British royal family in Sandringham – more precisely, in the procession in which they are immortalized each year while attending mass – was significant. After months of withdrawals from both titles and public support due to his controversial and unjustifiable relationship with the late American pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the absence of Andrés Mountbatten-Windsor – formerly Prince Andrew of England – and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson at Sandringham was more than expected. The only doubt appeared with the daughters from the ex-marriage – they divorced in 1996 -, Beatriz (London, 37 years old) and Eugenia (London, 35 years old) from York, the only survivors, for the moment, of the disgrace of their parents. Finally, the princesses, who retain their title by decision of their uncle, King Charles III of England, paraded this Thursday with the rest of the family, in a sunny walk to the chapel of Santa María Magdalena acclaimed by the dozens of curious people who always come to greet the kings and the rest of the family.
According to British media, Princess Beatrice was accompanied by her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, while Princess Eugenie was accompanied by her husband, Jack Brooksbank. The delegation, as usual, was led by the monarchs and also consisted of Princess Anne and the Princes of Wales and their three children, among other regular members. Among the many presences of ocher tones, those who stood out the most in the parade with their outfits were Queen Camilla and Princess Anne, who coincided in the (very Christmas) red of their coats. Together they reached the entrance of the temple, where the priest received them under the constant gaze and photos of curious onlookers and photographers.
The delicate posture that the two sisters have maintained in recent months, moderately distanced from their parents’ controversies, has made us think about how what they did on Christmas Day would define their relationship with them: on the one hand, their presence at Sandringham, alongside the rest of a royal family that no longer has parents, could be interpreted as distancing themselves from them; On the other hand, his absence on a day like this could have evoked Beatriz and Eugenia’s support for a new life away from the monarchy.
The picture of the Windsors at Sandringham is as volatile as one might expect. Since the accession of Charles III to the British throne, replacing his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022, the procession which brings together members of the royal family every December 25 en route to the religious service in Norfolk has evolved. In the year 2023, the year of the coronation of the new king, Fergieas the British call Sarah Ferguson, joined the short walk (a few meters) to the chapel after 30 years of ban, which have passed since her separation from Andrés in 1992. During this first Christmas led by kings Charles III and Camilla, the ex-wife of the prince then still, with whom she maintains good relations – they even share a mansion in Windsor, which they will have to abandon by decision of the king – she paraded alongside the father of her daughters after senior members of the royal family. The last time he did so, he walked and shared laughs with Diana from Wales, in 1991.
According to chroniclers of British royalty, the reason for Ferguson’s momentary redemption was the monarch’s gratitude for her former sister-in-law’s efforts to dissuade her already uncomfortable brother from participating in official family events. Previously, in 2022, during her first Christmas as king since her mother’s death, he had already invited her to spend the holiday at Sandringham, although on that occasion she had not joined them at the church service.
This year 2023 was also the second year that Andrés visited the Sandringham estate, owned by British monarchs for four generations, after years of absence. While some British media interpret it as a sign of gradual rehabilitation within the family – the British newspaper The times came to assure: “The king favored the thaw of family conflicts” – the shadow of the publication of the documents which would link the parents of Princesses Eugénie and Betriz of York to Epstein was, however, increasingly dark. Concretely, the files which would implicate the former duke were awaited with concern in the civil trial of Virginia Giuffre, the woman who accused him of abuse three times when she was a minor – after Epstein put them in contact – and who ended up committing suicide last April, at the age of 41. His accusations and this demonstrated relationship with the deceased sexual predator were precisely the reasons why, before dying, in January 2022, Queen Elizabeth ended up withdrawing the military titles and royal patronages from who was, as was always said, her favorite son. In fact, a prologue to what was to come.
In 2024, a particularly delicate year for the British royal family, during which the cancer diagnoses of King Charles III and Princess Kate Middleton were announced, neither Andrés nor his ex-wife, apparently redeemed for several years, were present at the Sandringham Christmas procession. On the other hand, during the parade preceding the king’s Christmas speech, one of his daughters could be seen: Princess Beatrice, after announcing a sudden change of plans due to her high-risk pregnancy and the imminent birth of the new member of the Windsors, put aside her Christmas in Italy with her husband and remained in the United Kingdom to travel to Norfolk.
In 2025, the royal family’s relations over their delicate position in the Epstein chapter have just become strained after the publication of the devastating book Title: The Rise and Fall of the House of York (William Collins,2025) (Privileged: Rise and Fall of the House of York, in Spanish). This biography by historian Andrew Lownie, in addition to presenting the former Duke as a cruel and spoiled despot, delves into his relationship with the American pedophile, that elephant in the room that the Windsors try to ignore, but which continues to explode in their hands.
Even in the face of this devastating portrait, his brother the king agreed this summer to let Andrew spend a few days with the rest of the family at the Scottish Balmoral Castle, where he went with Ferguson, Beatrice and Eugenia. Virginie Guiffre’s posthumous memoirs, published last October by Knopf, also do not seem to have shaken the future of the princesses this Christmas. Let’s see what 2026 has in store for them.
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