King Charles III could "downgrade" the titles of Prince Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, royal expert Hilary Fordwich.
The British monarch may seek to remove any vestiges of affiliation with the royal fold after the Duke of York "embarrassed" Buckingham Palace with his actions.
"Unfortunately for Princesses Eugene and Beatrice, their father’s conduct has had rather an adverse and actually disastrous impact on their royal future," Fordwich was cited by Fox News Digital as saying.
“The Princesses are most likely to become Lady Beatrice and Lady Eugenie since their father, Prince Andrew's, sexual assault scandal has purportedly reduced to ruins their chances of becoming working royals."
The granddaughters of the late Queen, Beatrice, 34, and Eugenie, 32, are the daughters of Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah. The couple split in 1992 after six years together. The two daughters are styled HRH but they also perform official duties as working members of the Royal Family.
Princess Beatrice of York attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala
© AP Photo / Charles Sykes
It is "highly dubious" that Prince Andrew's daughters will retain their titles, the expert believes, as the decision is to be made by their uncle, King Charles III, who is expected to make the use of titles more "restrictive".
Princess Eugenie of York and Jack Brooksbank after their wedding ceremony at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, near London, England, Friday Oct. 12, 2018.
© AP Photo / Andrew Matthews
“It wasn’t just their father’s conduct, but he knowingly and willingly embarrassed the entire Royal Family not only with his friendships, but by also agreeing to his diabolical 'Newsnight' interview. His refusal to help the FBI with their investigation into the aforementioned served to compound all his other errors of judgment," added the expert.
The Duke of York stepped down from royal duties in November 2019 in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking scandal. In January, the son of the late Queen Elizabeth II was stripped of his patronages and HRH title amid sex abuse allegations levelled against him by Victoria Roberts Giuffre. The disgraced royal, who struck a multimillion-pound out-of-court financial settlement with his accuser in February, has always maintained his innocence. He since doggedly tried to return to his Mother’s good graces.
However, earlier in summer, the Duke of York was banned from the Order of the Garter ceremony on 13 June after his brother, then the Prince of Wales, and Prince William allegedly lobbied the Queen.
If Prince Andrew's daughters are to lose their HRH styles, King Charles III will have to overturn the 1917 Letters Patent applied by his great-grandfather George V when he was king and trying to slim down the size of the Royal Family or, as he called it, the Firm. In the Letters Patent, George V decreed "that the children of any Sovereign of the United Kingdom and the children of the sons of any such Sovereign and the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales shall have and at all times hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of Royal Highness with their titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their respective Christian names."