Sarah Ferguson finally got to say something about Princess Beatrices wedding

The movement to praise Princess Beatrice for her small, somewhat socially distanced wedding is over-the-top and full of racist dog whistles. It has been obvious for nearly a full year that Princess Beatrice wanted a big, splashy wedding and that Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi was down with all of it because he wanted those royal connections. Prince Andrew’s BBC interview last year was the first signal that Beatrice would not get her dream wedding, but the Queen was still going to organize something special for her favorite son’s oldest daughter. This is why the plan was for Beatrice to marry in London (the first royal to do so since the Cambridge wedding) and have a Buckingham Palace reception. That got cancelled because of the pandemic. Then Beatrice’s people floated the idea of having a huge wedding next year, only to have that idea widely mocked.

My point is that I have sympathy for all of the drama around Beatrice’s wedding, but I find the narratives exhausting. Especially since it’s clear that the Queen and Prince Andrew were working together to stage-manage every little detail of the small wedding. The trade-off for Beatrice getting a Queen-approved wedding was A) she had to cosplay the Petty Betty and B) Beatrice’s parents were not allowed to be seen in any photos. I would imagine that Sarah Ferguson was actually embargoed specifically from saying anything. And it worked… for a few days. Last night, the Duchess of York posted this on IG:

Curious, right? She just had to say *something* but Buckingham Palace must have explicitly prohibited her from posting any photos from the wedding or reception. Andrew wouldn’t need to be told to not post photos. This was clearly the plan he hatched with the Queen, to behave as if Beatrice was basically an orphan, not to provide any quotes and not be included in any photos. Weird how this isn’t breaking the holy royal protocol, huh?

Princess Eugenie was also embargoed from posting anything on her Instagram for several days, but at least she eventually got to use the palace-approved portraits.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Buckingham Palace, Fergie’s social media, Eugenie’s IG and WENN.

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