RICHARD EDEN: Dark suspicions about Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie

Outward Bound is one of the charities most closely associated with the Royal Family.

Prince Philip was its figurehead for 65 years until his second son, Prince Andrew, took over as patron of the group – which uses ‘wild adventure to help young people realise their potential through learning, challenge and discovery in the outdoors’.

So, there was considerable surprise last month when I revealed in my social diary, Eden Confidential, that Andrew’s elder daughter, Princess Beatrice, has stepped down as an Outward Bound trustee after six years.

The timing was particularly unfortunate as her mother, Sarah Ferguson, had just been ditched by eight charities. That followed The Mail on Sunday’s disclosure of a fawning and obsequious email that Fergie sent to the late Jeffrey Epstein in 2011, just two years after his release from prison for sex offences.

A spokesman for Outward Bound insisted last month that ‘a new role’ would be announced for Beatrice ‘in due course’.

Four weeks later, no such position has been announced and it is hard to avoid the suspicion that Outward Bound might no longer want to be linked to a family so closely associated with a sex offender.

It certainly doesn’t help that, according to Epstein himself, in emails revealed by The Mail on Sunday, Beatrice and her sister Princess Eugenie, now 37 and 35, had been taken to visit him in New York when he left jail.

Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim who tragically took her own life earlier this year, says in her new posthumous memoir that Prince Andrew said to her: ‘My daughters are just a little younger than you.’

The comment allegedly prompted Epstein’s sometime girlfriend and close associate, Ghislaine Maxwell – who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking and other offences in a US prison – to joke about Virginia: ‘I guess we will have to trade her in soon.’

Andrew strenuously denies having had sexual relations with Ms Giuffre. But we have established that he is a liar so I, for one, do not believe him.

In his notorious BBC Newsnight interview, the prince said he had cut off contact with Epstein in December 2010 after staying at his New York home.

Thanks to The Mail on Sunday’s tireless investigations, however, we now know that 12 weeks after that visit to Manhattan, Andrew was still in touch.

In an email dated February 28, 2011, Andrew told Epstein that ‘we’re in this together’ and ‘we’ll play some more soon!’

The evidence against Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson seems damning.

Yet the sins of the father should not be visited upon the children. Beatrice and Eugenie cannot be blamed for the actions of their parents.

Naturally, there is increased scrutiny of the princess’s relationships and business activities.

Earlier this month, for example, a ‘royal insider’ claimed the princesses were ‘just as entitled as their parents’ and had ‘shady friends’ of their own.

The source told senior Daily Mail reporter Martin Robinson that Andrew has ensured his daughters maintain impeccable contacts in the Gulf states, especially among the super-rich of Saudi Arabia, where both Beatrice and Eugenie have visited in recent years.

‘They were never going to be working royals but have benefitted from their family connection,’ claimed the source.

‘Andrew introduced them to many of his business contacts and foreign royals. They and Fergie have become friends with some shady people.

‘Beatrice and Eugenie grew up in this rarefied world in which there was always someone to do everything for you. That was illustrated when Beatrice had her BMW stolen in 2009 after leaving it unlocked with the car keys in the ignition.

‘I think she was used to a police protection officer looking after such things.’

My royal sources insist that this characterisation of the princesses is ‘grossly unfair’.

‘Bea and Eugenie should be treated in a completely different way from their parents,’ said one. ‘They are lovely women who want to make a useful contribution to society.’

Their friends say that, far from being ditched by good causes, charities are very keen to work with them. As evidence, they point to the fact that Eugenie was announced as patron of the Artswork charity earlier this month.

And, say my sources, Beatrice will soon be given a new role by Outward Bound.

It may be the end for the Duke and Duchess of York, as they were once known. But their daughters are preparing to play a bigger part in public life.