Princess Eugenie 'was not present' for key meeting during trying time for 'close-knit family'

In 2019, Eugenie's older sister Princess Beatrice accompanied the Duke of York for an important meeting with the Newsnight team from the BBC.

This meeting resulted in a high-profile interview between Emily Maitlis and Prince Andrew, and a few days later the duke stepped down from royal duties after discussing his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

However, Princess Eugenie was not present at this meeting which her older sister attended.

Gareth Russell, a royal author, spoke exclusively to GB News to explain the likely reason why Eugenie was not present.

He said: "I would be very surprised if there was any deep reason for Princess Eugenie not being present at the meeting.

"It may have been that she wasn't in the country. She may have been away.

"I would say it's probably a fairly mundane reason why Eugenie wasn't included in the meeting."

Russell also suggested the possibility that Eugenie could have been very supportive behind the scenes.

He continued: "Presumably also they discussed it away from the Newsnight team.

"We do know that the York family including the Duchess of York are a close unit."

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Princess Eugenie splits her time between the UK and Portugal, where her husband Jack works in marketing, sales and promotion for property developer Michael Meldman's Discovery Land Company.

The couple share two sons, August, three, and Ernest who will turn one on May 30.

Meanwhile, her older sister Beatrice married property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in 2020.

The royal couple have one daughter named Sienna, aged two, while Edoardo has an eight-year-old son from a previous relationship named Wolfie.