My Dad shamed my family – I understand how Beatrice and Eugenie must be feeling | UK | News
With scrutiny of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, much attention has been paid to his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. One writer said he understood their position better than most. In an article published in TelegramThe anonymous source revealed that his own father was convicted of possessing and producing child abuse images. He wrote that this discovery shattered his childhood memories and caused him to carry a burden of shame that he could not bear.
He begins his text by telling how much he admired his father in his childhood. “He was a gentle but nervous man, endlessly patient and never too busy to play castle with me or read me a bedtime story.” For years, he said, he pushed aside slight feelings that something was wrong. One Christmas during her final year at university, her “nastiest suspicions” began to ring true when the man locked her out of the house and smashed her computer.
When he was 25, he received a call from his father. “Now look, I’m calling to tell you that the police arrested me,” he told her in a matter-of-fact tone that sounded rehearsed. “They cut a hole in the roof and took my computer and some hard drives.” He said he didn’t need to ask because he already knew.
He was convicted two years later and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence, as well as being required to attend group therapy for offenders. Details were reported in the local press. By that time, rumors had been circulating in society for years.
In her youth, when she went out at night, she was greeted with this ridicule: “This is the paedo’s daughter!” He didn’t understand it at the time. Then “it all made sense”.
He said he was aware of the silent cost borne by the children of disgraced men, given the news about Epstein and the scrutiny Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie faced.
He explained how, despite Andrew having never been convicted of a crime and denying all allegations against him, he noticed parallels between his own experiences and those of the princesses.
“As the media was awash with the details of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes against women and girls, my thoughts turned to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and the shame they felt, even though their families denied the allegations against them,” she wrote.
His message, he concluded, was that shame belonged to the offender, not the child. But he acknowledged that separating the two took years of therapy, resilience and painful self-examination.
In another high-profile case, Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter spoke of the emotional distress her family suffered after the crimes of her father, who drugged and raped his wife Gisèle dozens of times with other men, were revealed.
