Princess Beatrice

Beatrice with her grandmother Queen Elizabeth II and great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, 1988

Princess Beatrice was born at 8:18 pm on 8 August 1988 at the Portland Hospital in London,[2] the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, and fifth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.[3] She was baptised in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace on 20 December 1988, her godparents being Viscount Linley (her father's cousin, now the 2nd Earl of Snowdon); the Duchess of Roxburghe (now Lady Jane Dawnay); Peter Palumbo; Gabrielle Greenall; and Carolyn Cotterell.[4] Her name, an unexpected choice, was not announced until almost two weeks after her birth.[5] Her younger sister, Princess Eugenie, was born in 1990.[6]

Beatrice's parents divorced amicably when she was seven years old[7] and agreed to joint custody of their two children.[8] After the divorce, the Queen provided her parents with £1.4 million to set up a trust fund for her and Eugenie.[9] Beatrice and her sister frequently travelled abroad with one or both of their parents.[10]

Beatrice began her early education at the independent Upton House School in Windsor, in 1991.[11][12] From there, she and her sister both attended the independent Coworth Park School (now Coworth Flexlands School) from 1995.[13] Beatrice continued her education at the independent St George's School in Ascot, where she was a pupil from 2000 to 2007.[14] She was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of seven and went public with the diagnosis in 2005.[15] She delayed sitting her GCSE exams for one year. She remained at St George's to take her A-Levels, earning an 'A' in drama, a 'B' in history, and a 'B' in film studies.[16] She was elected Head Girl in her final year,[13][17] and was a member of the school choir.[18] Beatrice celebrated her 18th birthday with a masked ball at Windsor Castle in July 2006.[19] Nikolai von Bismarck took her official birthday portrait.[20]

In September 2008, Beatrice started a three-year course studying for a BA in history and history of ideas at Goldsmiths, University of London. She graduated in 2011 with a 2:1 degree.[13][21]

During the summer of 2008, Beatrice obtained work experience as a sales assistant at Selfridges.[22] She also worked at the Foreign Office's press office for a period of time without receiving a salary.[23] It was also reported in 2008 that Beatrice was interested in pursuing a career at the Financial Times website.[24][25] Beatrice was the first member of the family to appear in a non-documentary film when she had a small, non-speaking role as an extra in The Young Victoria (2009), based on the accession and early reign of her ancestor Queen Victoria.[26] For a while, she was a paid intern at Sony Pictures, but she resigned after the hacking incident that affected the company in late 2014.[27]

In April 2015, it was reported that Beatrice had decided to move to New York City.[28] As of April 2017, Beatrice had a full-time job and split her time between London and New York City. She is known as Beatrice York in her professional life and is Vice President of Partnerships and Strategy at Afiniti.[29] She is also in charge of an Afiniti programme to engage senior business chiefs around the world to support women in leadership.[30] She works with the programme through charity endeavours and speaking engagements.[31]

In January 2022, it was reported that Beatrice had lost her taxpayer-funded police security in 2011, supposedly after her uncle Charles III (then Prince of Wales) intervened.[32]

Beatrice and the Duke of Edinburgh accompanied the Queen to the traditional Royal Maundy services on 5 April 2012 in York. There, Beatrice interacted with parishioners, received flowers from the public, and assisted the Queen as she passed out the Maundy money to the pensioners.[33] In the lead up to the 2012 Summer Olympics, Beatrice welcomed the Olympic flame on the steps of Harewood House near Leeds.[34] In 2013, Beatrice and her sister promoted Britain overseas in Germany.[35] She visited the Isle of Wight in 2014, whose governor had been Beatrice's namesake Princess Beatrice, daughter of Queen Victoria.[36][37] She accompanied her father during an official engagement in the United Arab Emirates on 24 November 2014.[38]

On 17 September 2022, during the period of official mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, Beatrice joined her sister and six cousins to mount a 15-minute vigil around the coffin of the late Queen, as it lay in state at Westminster Hall.[39][40] On 19 September, she joined other family members at the state funeral.[41][42]

Upon the accession of Charles III, her position in the line of succession made Beatrice eligible to be appointed a Counsellor of State. In this role she can potentially carry out official duties while the monarch is abroad or unwell.[43]

In 2002, Beatrice visited children living with HIV in Russia. In Britain, she supported Springboard for Children (a literacy project for primary-school children with learning difficulties)[66] and the Teenage Cancer Trust.[67] In an interview to mark her 18th birthday, Beatrice said she wanted to use her position to assist others through charity work;[68] she had already undertaken charitable duties alongside her mother through the various organisations the Duchess supported.[13]

An illustration of Princess Beatrice's fascinator at the 2011 Royal Wedding

In April 2010, running to raise money for Children in Crisis, she became the first member of the royal family to complete the London Marathon.[69] Beatrice is the patron of Forget Me Not Children's Hospice, which supports children with life-shortening conditions in West Yorkshire and North Manchester.[70] At the April 2011 wedding of her cousin Prince William, Beatrice's unusual fascinator, designed by Philip Treacy, received much attention and derision from the public and the media. The following month, the headpiece was auctioned for £81,000 on eBay, with the proceeds going to two charities:[71] UNICEF and Children in Crisis.[72]

Beatrice (right) with her sister Eugenie at Trooping the Colour, June 2013

In November 2012, Beatrice became a patron of the York Musical Society.[73] In April 2013, she became royal patron of the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre, a charity that she credits with helping her overcome her own academic challenges resulting from dyslexia.[21]

In 2016, Beatrice, her mother, and her sister Eugenie collaborated with British contemporary artist Teddy McDonald to create the first royal contemporary art painting. Titled Royal Love, it was painted at Royal Lodge and exhibited at Masterpiece London before being sold with all proceeds from the sale donated by McDonald to Children in Crisis.[74] In 2018, Children in Crisis merged with Street Child, a children's charity active in multiple countries, with Beatrice serving as its ambassador.[75] She is also a supporter of the Pitch@Palace initiative, a charity her father founded to amplify and accelerate entrepreneurs' business ideas.[76]

Beatrice took part in a South Asia Tour 2016 that lasted nine days. She visited Nepal, India, and Bhutan on behalf of the Franks Family Foundation (FFF), and Jamgon Kongtrul Eyes Centres, a free micro-surgical cataract programme in technical collaboration with Nepal's Tilganga Eye Centre under Nepali eye surgeon Sanduk Ruit's direction.[77] A few weeks later, she attended the 2016 Asia Game Changer Awards Dinner at the United Nations in New York City, which honoured Ruit and others. Beatrice and Charles Rockefeller presented Ruit with his Asia Society Asia Game Changer award.[78]

Houlin Zhao, Princess Beatrice and Tedros Adhanom at a UN Broadband Commission Dinner, September 2017

Beatrice is the founder of Big Change, a charity she established with six of her friends to encourage young people to develop skills "outside a traditional academic curriculum".[13][79] In 2012, she climbed Mont Blanc in aid of the charity.[13] In 2016, with Richard Branson and his children, she participated in the fundraising challenge Virgin Strive Challenge, which involved climbing Mount Etna.[80][81]

In 2017, Beatrice helped promote the anti-bullying book Be Cool Be Nice and gave an interview to Vogue at a House of Lords event, speaking about her own experiences with being bullied for her fashion choices in her early adulthood.[82][83] Hello! magazine later named her one of the best-dressed royals.[84] In May 2018, she attended the Met Gala in New York City.[85] In October 2018, she undertook an extended tour of Laos to "raise the profile of the UK" there, and also participated in the Luang Prabang Half Marathon for Children.[86]

In March 2019, Beatrice was elected to the board of the UK charity the Outward Bound Trust as a trustee, after her father took over the patronage from his father, the Duke of Edinburgh.[87] In May 2019, she was honoured at a gala in New York City for her work with Friends Without a Border.[88] She has supported the Kairos Society, a non-profit organisation of entrepreneurs at universities in China, Europe, India and the US.[76]

In April 2022 and in her capacity as an ambassador for the charity Made By Dyslexia, Beatrice and her husband took part in the first World Dyslexia Assembly, which was hosted by Prince Carl Philip in Sweden.[89]

In February 2023, Beatrice was named patron of the British Skin Foundation.[90]

• HRH Princess Beatrice (4 March 2021). "Getting into stories has been a gift I'm happy to have shared with lockdown life". Evening Standard.

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