Princess Beatrice surprised the world, and probably a handful of tabloids, early this morning with an unannounced wedding. Princess Beatrice, oldest daughter of Prince Andrew, finally got the chance to wed her fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. Despite all the naysaying from the tabloids since she announced her engagement, Princess Beatrice became a royal bride after all.
The secret wedding between Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi went off without a hitch early this morning at All Saints Chapel in Windsor Great Park. Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, and Prince Andrew were present to witness the nuptials, among about 20 total guests. The wedding complied with social distancing guidelines to counteract the current coronavirus pandemic.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that the wedding took place, writing in a statement, “The private wedding ceremony of Princess Beatrice and Mr Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi took place at 11am on Friday 17th July at The Royal Chapel of All Saints at Royal Lodge, Windsor.”
The surprise wedding comes after the postponement of her original wedding. The delay came shortly after Princess Beatrice announced that her wedding would be taking place on May 29, 2020. Those plans were dashed due to the ongoing pandemic. One tabloid said the delay actually came about because of the scandal her father, Prince Andrew, was embroiled in due to his connection to Jeffrey Epstein — he did not appear at her engagement party for that reason specifically.
The postponement served as fuel for sometimes hurtful, and oftentimes untrue, tabloid rumors about Princess Beatrice. In December 2019, OK! reported that the princess was cancelling her wedding outright in the face of her father’s scandal. The outlet’s source claimed that Princess Beatrice couldn’t even think about celebrating “with such darkness in her life.” Melodramatics aside, Gossip Cop looked into the story and determined it was false. Just a few months after the tabloid’s prediction, Princess Beatrice announced her May 29 wedding. Though the ceremony didn’t end up taking place that day, Princess Beatrice obviously still went through with her plans to marry, despite Prince Andrew’s troubles.
Much more recently, Heat tried to claim that Princess Beatrice was planning to get married in the United States this summer. A source for the tabloid insisted that since a big wedding in England “is out of the question at the moment,” and because of the love Princess Beatrice and her fiancé shared for America, they’d marry in an outdoor ceremony in New York. Gossip Cop deemed this story false, and the events of today prove we were right to doubt the story.