What would it take to cut off your mum? Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie's ghastly position

What would it take to cut off your mum? Would it be cruel words? Hatred of your partner? Or how about being effectively loaned out to a convicted paedophile to bring some sort of veneer of respectability?

This is the ghastly position that sisters Beatrice and Eugenie find themselves in, after being left to face the emotional toll of their parents’ mistakes., though they could be receiving support from Kate Middleton during this trying time.

Among the shocking photos and emails between their father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Jeffrey Epstein - for which Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in office on February 19 - are also messages from their mother Sarah Ferguson that suggest she begged Epstein for cash, in return for her daughters being effectively loaned out as tour guides to Buckingham Palace.

Sarah and her daughters visited Epstein in Miami just days after he was released from prison for sex with a child.

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What kind of mother would take her daughters to see this man? Or divulge intimate details about her daughter’s love life?

There’s no suggestion that Beatrice and Eugenie knew about Epstein’s predilections. But the fact that Fergie and Andrew continue to protest their innocence is both beyond outrageous and totally predictable.

Both princesses are walking a fine line between distancing themselves from their parents in public but supporting them in private.

Fergie fled the UK after the latest drop of Epstein files, first to the French Alps and then to Qatar to spend time with Eugenie, who was working at the Doha art fair. So, will they keep standing by their mum?

My opinion is that yes, they will. In private. She might be exiled by the public and indeed by the King after being banished from Royal Lodge, but I don’t think they’ll turn their backs fully.

The York brand is now totally toxic, so the princesses need to keep their distance publicly. Currently homeless, I understand neither daughter wants her to move in with them - Eugenie in her home in Portugal or Beatrice in the Cotswolds - due to the media attention.

Mind you, rather than planning a public mea culpa and an apology to all of Epstein’s victims, Fergie is apparently planning a return to the UK and a new PR push, as she ‘needs to work’.

She’s completely deluded if she thinks she can ever return to paid work or a ‘normal’ public life again. Even for the comeback queen, this is one scandal too far.

This feature first appeared in Woman magazine. Subscribe now and get your first 6 issues for £1.