Frankly, there were no surprises when rumours spread at the weekend that Princess Beatrice’s six-year marriage to the dashing Italian count Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi was in trouble.
The signs have been there from the very beginning, since they married in 2020 following Edo’s swift split from the sexy and glamorous American businesswoman Dara Huang – with whom he has nine-year-old son Christopher, known as Wolfie.
It always seemed that Bea – who inherited her mother’s looks, appalling dress sense and love of the high life – was punching way above her weight in their union. There was something not quite right about it – hot count, not-so-hot Princess – which left us all wondering about how genuine this alleged love match really was.
Our fears were further raised in the weekend’s Mail on Sunday. Far from being at his wife’s side in England with their two daughters as the York family’s reputation implodes following Andrew and Fergie’s bad decisions, Edo was 4,500 miles away in Palm Beach, Florida. He had gone there to promote his ’luxury interior design consultancy’ Banda, even posting pictures of himself quaffing rosé at a luxury hotel, wearing a loud pink suit.
Of course, it was obvious what Bea saw in her handsome husband. But who would underestimate the vast opportunities he gained from their union for his then little-known business, now said to have overseen one development of more than £700million of prime London real estate.
Did Edo have pound signs in his eyes when he said, ‘I do’ to the Princess in a small, private ceremony at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor six years ago?

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It always seemed that Bea was punching way above her weight in their union, writes Amanda Platell

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Bea, seen here with Sarah Ferguson and Princess Eugenie, has inherited her mother’s looks, appalling dress sense and love of the high life, writes Platell

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More to the point, if he is so devoted to his wife, would he, during her darkest hours holed up with their two children – Sienna, four, and one-year-old Athena – have been swanning around Florida and documenting it all on Instagram?
Even their appearance together at the weekend – leaving a Notting Hill sushi restaurant, Bea smiling and Edo with a distant gaze – has done little to dispel the rumours of a rift in their marriage.
Friends of the couple told The Mail on Sunday there has been a ‘noticeable distance’ between the pair since the Epstein scandal devoured the York family. That ‘things haven’t been great for a while between them’, but that ‘Beatrice is determined to soldier on and forge a path through this crisis’.
Bea’s friends say she wants to save their marriage, but her husband ‘seems more and more distracted by work and travel… just when she needs him most, he’s been pulling away’. As they say, actions speak louder than words, and with her husband half a world away, what comfort can Edo be offering to his wife: a video call?
Most tellingly still, one friend says: ‘Edo is a man who needs lots of attention, he’s one of those men’, and that ‘Bea knows what he’s like – he’s Italian’.
Which leads one to wonder whether Edo cares more about protecting his own career than the suffering of his wife, who is having to endure the disgrace of her family while being a mum.

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Even their appearance together at the weekend – leaving a Notting Hill sushi restaurant, Bea smiling and Edo with a distant gaze – has done little to dispel the rumours of a rift in their marriage, writes Amanda Platell

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Edo’s ex, the glamorous American businesswoman Dara Huang, with whom he has a nine-year-old son

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Edo has been away in Palm Beach, promoting his luxury interior design consultancy Banda empire, posting pictures of himself at a luxury hotel, wearing a pink suit

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Edo is reportedly ‘worried his in-laws will affect his business’. His own family ‘do not want to be wrapped up in the wreckage of Andrew’ and ‘want him to create distance between the Yorks and the Mapelli Mozzis’.
Sorry Edo, but it’s too late for that. Bea is named hundreds of times in the Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice, and we are still yet to see the real extent of her association with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and perhaps her willingness to turn a blind eye while the billionaire was allegedly helping to fund her parents’ largesse.
How will any of that wash with Edo’s millionaire clientele or his noble Italian family?
Sorry for stating the obvious, but keen royal watchers like me have always worried that this mismatch would end in tears.
Maybe I’m wrong and it was love that motivated them both. All I’ll say is that Edo seems to have done very well out of marrying Bea.
But should we now feel sorry for the poor Princess, struggling with alleged marriage difficulties and family turmoil? Not a bit. She, like her parents Andrew and Fergie, has drunk deep on her royal status, greedily enjoying every privilege her HRH title endowed upon her.
Now it’s time for a reckoning – and I don’t expect to hear many violins playing softly in the background in sympathy for the Princess.