Princess Beatrice reveals she found it ‘scary’ to be ‘left alone’ with her thoughts as Prince Andrew’s public crisis continues

Princess Beatrice has revealed she found lockdown ‘scary’ because it left her alone with her thoughts.

• The royal was chatting to young people who receive help from the Teenage Cancer Trust, when she made the sad confession.
• The revelation comes after a dispute between US authorities and lawyers in the UK over interviewing Prince Andrew due to his connection to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
• This follows royals news (opens in new tab) that Duchess Camilla will be denied this title (opens in new tab).

Princess Eugenie and her sister Princess Beatrice, who are honorary patrons of Teenage Cancer Trust, spoke to six young people about how they're coping with the disease under the difficult lockdown circumstances.

Lakita Neille, one of the people who attended the Zoom video call, explained how lockdown made waiting for news even harder.

"When you have cancer you are constantly waiting, waiting for diagnosis, waiting for treatment, waiting for results, waiting for it all to end so life can get back to normal”, she said.

"Then when it’s all over, to be told you have to shield for an amount of time and can’t see the people you love and want around you again, that’s another chunk of time when you can’t do the things you’ve been waiting to do, it’s really difficult.”

Princess Beatrice agreed with Lakita, and added that she found the moments of reflection during lockdown ‘scary’.

"I feel, you know, that moment of reflection has been eye-opening, but so scary because it leaves you alone with your thoughts and then all manner of things can flood in”, she said.

While lockdown has been tough for most people – if not all – it also coincided with Prince Andrew's continued public crisis.

The royal stepped down from his royal duties (opens in new tab) last November, after a controversial interview with Emily Maitlis on BBC Newsnight.

After publicly declaring that he would be “willing to help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations if required”, Prince Andrew has been involved in controversy again as US authorities claim he refused voluntary cooperation.

Manhattan US attorney Geoffrey Berman said back in March, “Contrary to Prince Andrew’s very public offer to cooperate with our investigation into Epstein’s co-conspirators, an offer that was conveyed via press release, Prince Andrew has now completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation and our office is considering its options.”

Prince Andrew’s lawyers say that he has offered to assist the US authorities three times this year.

More recently, The Guardian reports that the US Department of Justice is seeking help from the UK government to get access to the Queen’s son, who has categorically denied any wrongdoing.