How Did Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie React After Andrew's Historic Arrest?

Neither Princess Beatrice nor Princess Eugenie has said a word publicly since police arrived at their father's door on Thursday morning and placed him under arrest.

Sources close to the family say both women are 'in a state' after Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor became the first senior British royal in modern history to be arrested. The 66-year-old spent roughly 11 hours in custody on suspicion of misconduct in public office before being released under investigation, according to GB News.

It happened on his birthday. Thames Valley Police arrived at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate at around 8 a.m. with six unmarked vehicles. By 10.03 a.m., a spokesman confirmed the arrest.

King Charles responded within hours in a statement released by Buckingham Palace. 'The law must take its course,' he said, pledging the family's 'full and wholehearted support and co-operation' with the investigation.

'Broken' And On Different Paths

The two sisters have responded in strikingly different ways. Not to the arrest itself, which caught everyone off guard, but to their father's slow-motion disgrace over the past several months.

Eugenie, 35, had already cut off contact with Andrew before Thursday. Insiders told the Daily Mail in January that there was 'no contact at all, nothing' between them. She did not visit him at Christmas. As co-founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective, a charity combating sex trafficking, Andrew's refusal to apologise to Epstein's victims reportedly left her deeply frustrated. She now lives in Portugal with her husband, Jack Brooksbank.

Beatrice, 37, has taken a softer approach. She was photographed horse riding with Andrew just last month and recently invited him to the christening of her younger daughter Athena. He turned up but skipped the pub celebration afterwards.

Royal biographer Robert Jobson told People that both daughters 'feel pretty duped' because Andrew had always insisted he did nothing wrong.

A family friend offered a different picture. 'The sisters are not abandoning their father,' the source told Hello! magazine. 'But everything is obviously very strained and hard.'

A Family Left Reeling After Andrew's Arrest

The arrest is only part of it. What has reportedly shaken Beatrice and Eugenie just as badly is what surfaced about their mother.

Emily Andrews, royal editor at Woman magazine, said both sisters are 'aghast' at Sarah Ferguson's emails to Epstein, which appeared in the US Department of Justice files released on 30 January. The exchanges showed Ferguson making plans involving Epstein and her daughters after his release from prison in 2009. Photographs of their father with an unidentified woman also left the sisters 'appalled,' The Mirror reported. Andrews believes they will now try to 'rebuild their brand' by distancing themselves from both parents.

Others are less optimistic. Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The Telegraph that 'the York unit is toxic.' Royal writer Andrew Lownie told Woman magazine the only realistic path is to 'never be photographed with their parents,' per The Mirror. Both sisters had been building professional lives abroad. That is now expected to go on hold.

Their mother remains out of sight. Ferguson has not been seen publicly since September 2025. She has made no comment on the arrest or the Epstein files.

Andrew was seen slouched in the back seat of a vehicle leaving Aylsham Police Station on Thursday evening. Police confirmed their Norfolk searches had concluded, but said searches at Royal Lodge in Berkshire were still underway. He has denied all wrongdoing. The investigation centres on claims he shared confidential government documents with Epstein while serving as UK trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.

Russell Myers, royal editor at The Mirror, told CNN that the sisters' relationships with both parents have been 'severely strained.' They retain 'a degree of loyalty,' he said. But the questions about how close their parents brought them into Epstein's world are not going away.