‘Things haven’t been great for a while. He needs attention… He’s one of those men’: Friends fear Princess Beatrice’s marriage to Edo Mapelli ‘is in trouble’ in wake of parents’ Epstein scandal. And the messages from his VERY glamorous ex won’t help…

Filled with glorious photographs of sun-kissed Florida boardwalks, private yachts and exquisitely appointed properties, it is precisely the Instagram feed you would expect from a scion of Italian aristocracy who runs a high-end international interior design consultancy.

Yet the carefully curated galleries posted by Edo Mapelli Mozzi have raised eyebrows, given the image of untroubled luxury they project are so at odds with the troubles engulfing his wife, Princess Beatrice.

The 37-year-old royal has gone to ground since ever-more troubling details of her parents’ dealings with Jeffrey Epstein have come to light – dragging her and her younger sister Eugenie into the unwelcome spotlight.

But rather than remain by her side, Edo jetted 4,500 miles to the glorious elegance of Palm Beach. Yes, he was there to promote his design business, Banda, and speak at a conference, but the optics of not being there for his wife of nearly six years are not good.

While he supped wine in some of Palm Beach’s most luxurious locations, Beatrice was coming to terms with the fact her name appeared hundreds of times in the Epstein files release by the US Department of Justice. 

Details contained in those documents would lead to the arrest of her father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, on charges of misconduct in public office, although he has previously denied any wrongdoing.

Sources close to Beatrice and Edo, who married in an intimate ceremony in Royal Lodge in 2020, have told The Mail on Sunday that there has, in fact, been notable ‘distance’ between the pair in recent months.

They claim that Edo, 42, is understandably keen to avoid his business being tainted by the scandal enveloping the House of York, which may be at odds with Beatrice’s apparent determination to offer support to her beleaguered father.

The timing of Edo’s Florida trip, and the flurry of posts on social media – which is, some point out, rather unlike him – has led to whispers that all might not be well with the couple.

As one source told the MoS: ‘Things haven’t been great for a while between them, but Beatrice has been determined to soldier on and forge a path through.

‘Beatrice is quite different from her sister. She really wants to almost naively see the good in people and will turn a blind eye to uncomfortable truths – that is why she was blind to her father’s behaviour, and the same is true of her belief in Edo.

‘She wants to stay together, but he seems more and more distracted by work and travel. Just when she needs him most, he’s been pulling away.’

Another source said: ‘He’s really worried his in-laws will affect his business. Banda has been taking off lately and he’s found some great investors among the wealthy Cotswolds set, but it’s taking up a lot of his time and energy. He’s all about himself at the moment. You have to feel for Beatrice.’

Someone else who knows the couple acknowledged: ‘There’s been distance between them with his much-increased work travel lately, which he has been posting out [on social media] heavily in a way he didn’t before.’

This weekend, Beatrice appeared keen to project a united front by attending a large birthday party at the trendy Eel Sushi restaurant in Notting Hill on Friday with Edo and other guests.

Yet some observers believe that Edo’s decision not to cancel the long-planned business trip in light of the revelations contained in the Epstein files was ill-judged at best.

Posted on Edo’s Instagram account amongst other holiday pictures, he is seen relaxing at the Colony Hotel Palm Beach in Florida

In another snap, the property developer is pictured strolling along a tree-lined street

The couple last year with Beatrice’s cousin Zara Tindall, and Zara’s daughter Lena

The photographs in question, posted after the trip in early February, reveal a casual, seemingly untroubled Edo at a series of luxury spots in Palm Beach – which, ironically, was once a base for the elite circles Epstein moved in.

Snaps show him reclining outside the pink art deco Colony Hotel in Palm Beach and holding a glass of rose at the Bellini restaurant on the rooftop of the Mr C Miami hotel.

He attended a talk at stylish interiors store Hive Home, popular with super-wealthy locals, and was spotted at an evening event at The Carriage House, an exclusive members’ club. 

At one point, he visited the ultra-private Fisher Club, a gated island enclave with just 800 residents favoured by billionaires and A-listers such as Oprah Winfrey and Julia Roberts. One post – a video taken from behind – featured Edo sashaying theatrically along a Florida pavement.

They stand in stark contrast to recent pictures of Beatrice.

Just days before Andrew’s dramatic arrest, she was seen by her disgraced father’s side in the grounds of the Windsor Estate, demonstrating her continued loyalty even as scrutiny of his conduct intensified.

Walking alongside her four-year-old daughter, Sienna, on a white pony, a casually-dressed Beatrice looked understandably stony-faced as Andrew rode ahead.

While Eugenie has reportedly cut off ties with their father, Beatrice has been attempting to tread a finer line – offering her support to Andrew and her mother, Sarah Ferguson, while maintaining her links to the wider Royal Family.

Both daughters have been dragged into the scandal through their mentions in the millions of documents relating to Epstein, such as suggestions that they were introduced to the paedophile socially after his 2009 conviction, including at a lunch reportedly arranged by her mother.

While there is no evidence Beatrice was involved in any wrongdoing, there have been questions over the source of her finances, while Prince William is said to have been frustrated that both sisters have so far refused his suggestion to subject their personal investments to an ‘ethics check’.

The Palace is aware that Andrew and his business friends acted as Beatrice and Eugenie’s financial advisers and a source has said that ‘no one is quite sure what might not be entirely above board’.

Beatrice, always one of the most resilient members of the Royal Family, has been quietly trying to weather this storm.

But while she is said to be ‘desperate to hold things together’ with Edo, sources add that dealing with the fallout from the crisis, not to mention being a mother to two small children, has left her with little headspace to give her husband the attention he ‘needs’. 

‘He needs attention, he’s one of those men,’ a well-placed source told the MoS. ‘Beatrice feels very raw and beside herself on so many levels.’

Emails in the Epstein files indicate Beatrice was helping her mother navigate the mounting press scrutiny of her links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein 

One source added that the rumours about Edo’s distant behaviour had now begun to feel all-too plausible.

‘Sadly, those rumours sound credible,’ they said. ‘It would make sense when you look at how much he’s travelling now. He’s posting about it constantly in a way he never did before.’

But they added: ‘Beatrice knows what he’s like. He’s Italian.’

Last week, Edo shared further social media updates from a football match in London – the Arsenal vs Bayer Leverkusen Champions League clash. While he was happy to pay tribute to the footballers after the game on March 18, he failed to post any nod to his wife on Mother’s Day last Sunday, two days before the match.

Instead, there was an acknowledgement from Edo’s former fiancée, Taiwanese-American architect Dara Huang, who is the mother of Edo’s eldest child, nine-year-old Wolfie. She shared a sweet photograph of Wolfie writing a card for his ‘stepmom’ Beatrice – also known as Bea – and captioned it with a bee emoji.

Edo had only recently separated from Dara when he began dating Beatrice in 2018, and while there has never been any suggestion of an overlap, the speed of the transition raised eyebrows at the time.

Edo and Dara stressed the separation was amicable, and the pair remained closely connected as they navigated early co-parenting arrangements, sometimes taking turns to share a Fulham house with their baby son.

Edo’s decision to swap this domestic life for the trappings of the York family’s royal lifestyle inevitably prompted questions in some quarters.

While it was widely reported at the time that he had inherited family money due to his links with Italian nobility – he is, technically, a ‘count’ – Edo was not independently wealthy at the time, and has had to work hard to get ahead. 

He had encouragement from Beatrice’s father, who allowed him to redesign a wing of Royal Lodge, his home for two decades until he was evicted last month to a property on the Sandringham Estate. Andrew also allowed Beatrice and Edo to use the wing as their own family quarters before they bought a £3.5 million Cotswolds country house in 2021.

Beatrice’s future as a working member of the Royal Family is unclear, writes Charlotte Griffiths

Sienna was born that year, while the couple’s second daughter, Athena, was born prematurely in January 2025.

Beatrice described the experience as ‘humbling’ and said it filled her with a ‘fear of the unknown’. She became a patron of the charity Borne to support research into early birth.

She has also described becoming a stepmother to Wolfie as ‘a great honour’.

Now Edo is making a fortune from Banda, which depends heavily on reputation, discretion and access to elite clients. Yet the scrutiny around his wife’s meetings with Epstein –albeit at her mother’s behest – is said to be a growing concern at the business.

Emails in the Epstein files indicate Beatrice was helping her mother navigate the mounting press scrutiny of her links to the sex offender, and one email suggests she was asked to give an associate of Epstein’s a tour of Buckingham Palace.

It has also long been known that Beatrice was behind her father’s decision to take part in his disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis about his links to Epstein – and one of the voices that told him afterwards that it had been a success. There is a suggestion that all the ongoing has caused ‘huge embarrassment’ to Edo’s well-heeled family.

‘Edo’s family do not want to be wrapped up in the wreckage of Andrew,’ one source claimed. ‘They want him to create distance between the Yorks and the Mapelli Mozzis and that has put enormous pressure on the marriage.’

Yet for all the speculation, Edo denied there were any problems with his marriage when approached by The Mail on Sunday yesterday.

Some friends are gathering around the couple to offer their support. There was the sushi bar gathering on Friday, and last month the pair were photographed on a stroll in London with American curator Carrie Scott and her partner, Nick Lazarus

Prior to that, the couple attended the Royals’ Christmas Day service at Sandringham, while earlier in December they hosted a christening for Athena at the Chapel Royal in St James’s Palace. The event had been delayed for several months to avoid being overshadowed by the Epstein scandal and, at the time, Andrew’s looming eviction from Royal Lodge.

Andrew and Sarah arrived in the back seats of two separate cars, and skipped the lunch afterwards at The Hart pub in Marylebone.

But now Beatrice’s future as a working member of the Royal Family is far from clear. 

Just six years on from her wedding at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in the grounds of Royal Lodge – where the late Queen famously gave her blessing to the marriage by loaning her a Norman Hartnell gown for the occasion, public opinion towards the York daughters has ‘really shifted’.

‘There is talk in the Royal Household of what happens next, even down to titles,’ a source said. ‘Nothing is guaranteed any more.’

But what Beatrice will no doubt be hoping is that whatever happens, the stable, modern life she and Edo have managed to build, away from the controversies surrounding her parents, will endure.