Prince Charles, 71, is second in line to the throne and longest royal in waiting to reign. The Duke of Cornwall has big plans when he assumed the crown from mother, Queen Elizabeth II which include slimming down the monarchy. Speaking on Channel 5’s documentary ‘Beatrice and Eugenie: Pampered Princesses?’ royal expert Katie Nicholl revealed how Prince Andrew furiously reacted to his daughters not becoming working royals.
Narrator Glynis Barber said: “As titled princesses, it was expected that Beatrice and Eugenie would become full-time working royals.”
Ms Nicholl said: “When Charles made his vision for a streamlined monarchy really very clear around the time of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and that was a big issue for Andrew.
“His view was that they had the HRH titles therefore they are blood princesses therefore they should be full-time working member of the Royal Family.
“It didn’t pan out that way and that definitely caused tension between the royal brothers, Charles and Andrew.”
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Ms Barber continued: “For Beatrice and Eugenie, the dilemma of being non-working royals who have princess titles lies at the heart of many of the issues they have to grapple with.”
Royal author Tom Quinn added: “For two members of the Royal Family who are as close as Eugenie and Beatrice to being core members it is unusual to working.”
Ms Nicholl noted: “They never wanted to be accused of cashing in on their royal status and being idle.
“They wanted to go out and get jobs but it did take awhile for them to get to that position.
“When they left university, came back their gap year, they were still living very much within the protective bubble of the palace.”
“We are unusual in that sense but we are a much bigger population than other European monarchies.
“We’re 66 million, Sweden has nine million, Norway has five, Poland has about 18 to 19.
“On the other hand, Spain who has a population of 40 million really only has two people.
“What we have done is used the larger Royal Family to maintain the contacts the Royal Family has with a much larger population.
“They will have to work hard or do less.”
