Why ‘Being Role Models Has Always Been a Hard One’ for Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice
Princess Beatrice, 30, and Princess Eugenie, 29, sometimes have a difficult time being role models.
They’re ninth and tenth in line to the British throne and as such are afforded a little more privacy than their cousins Prince William and Prince Harry but they’re still very much living in the public eye.
Why ‘being role models has always been a hard one’ for Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie
Nearly their every move has been scrutinized from what they do for a living — Princess Eugenie is an art gallery director and Princess Beatrice is vice president of a New York City-based data and software company — to the foods they eat.
“Being role models has always been a hard one for them to deal with, and being criticized for their weight, fashion, and work lives has always been hard for them to swallow,” a source told People.
Most notably, the princesses were criticized for the outfits they wore to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in 2011.
In British tradition, they wore fascinators, but due to their style and color, Beatrice and Eugenie were compared to the evil stepsisters in Disney’s Cinderella, who wore similar outfits in the animated film.
Recently, it was revealed Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, put her daughter Beatrice on a diet at the age of eight when she began overeating.
Ferguson who had at one time been called the “Duchess of Pork” by the press called those days “soul-destroying” and likely didn’t want the same thing to happen to her daughter.
When asked about why she put Beatrice on a diet, the Duchess of York said, “I think overeating sort of runs in the family.”
As an adult, Beatrice revealed she struggles with her weight and body image as a teen but today the princess employs the services of a personal trainer to stay in shape. She also became the first member of the royal family to run the London Marathon in 2010.
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have learned ‘they can do a lot of good with their status’
Although the scrutiny has been tough of Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice, they’ve learned that they have a lot of power in their positions to make positive changes.
“But in the last couple of years both girls have come around to the fact they’re women now, and they can do a lot of good with their status,” the source added.
Both women have really come into their own in their late twenties and now early thirties.
Princess Eugenie established an organization to abolish modern slavery called The Anti-Slavery Collective.
She also brought awareness to scoliosis — the princess was diagnosed at the age of 12 and underwent surgery to correct her curved spine — by choosing to highlight her scar when she married Jack Brooksbank in October 2018.
Eugenie shared never-before-seen pictures of her X-rays with her Instagram followers.
Side note: Because Eugenie is further down the line of succession, she’s allowed to have a personal Instagram account.
And Princess Beatrice champions children’s education, a cause close to her heart because of her own experience with dyslexia.
Even though Eugenie and Beatrice are royals, they have the same desires as everyone else.
“Yes, their grandmother is Queen, and they ride in carriages and live in this bubble,” a friend told People. “But they’re human beings who want to fall in love, have a good time, make a difference and just live.”
“They are independent, working women but are also aware of their position and where they can help,” they added.
It seems that Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice have managed to strike a balance between being high-ranking members of the British royal family and having lives of their own.
