Princess Beatrice accidentally exposes Prince Harry

The increasingly prominent royal has managed to achieve something that the Duke of Sussex still can’t get right.

In the brilliant UK satire The Windsors, ‘Fergie’ is constantly harassing people as she tries to flog her Right Royal Juicer, including hiding herself in a trunk and sneaking into a state banquet to crack the Chinese market.

It would be even funnier if it wasn’t, kinda, true.

The real Duchess of York really did launch a juicer in 2015 and she started popping up to enthusiastically bounce across pastel sofas on midmorning tele to sell the wonder gizmo, including a stint on the US home shopping network.

That blatant selling of oneself has now been knocked on the head, by no less than her own daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

In fact, the princesses are currently leading a younger royal movement away from that sort of crass exploitation and, in doing so, have coincidentally left a certain Californian couple looking even more like outliers.

Our story starts with LinkedIn where one Beatrice York’s page proudly reports she has worked for software giant Afiniti for more than seven years.

There is no clue to be found anywhere that she is ninth in line to the throne and or has ever seen King Charles in his summer shorts (now there’s an image).

Or take Peter Phillips who is an entrepreneur, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He would also happen to be the late Queen’s first grandchild and 18th in line to the throne.

Or if you search online you will come across artist Sarah Armstrong-Jones who has become quite the dab hand in abstract landscapes. She is also the King’s first cousin and Princess Margaret’s daughter.

Or if you should visit a certain Windsor nursery, you might be served by a minimum-wage earner named Louise; who is also the daughter of a prince (Edward, in case you are wondering) and 16th in line to the throne.

Princess Beatrice has left Prince Harry exposed. Picture: Getty, AFP

What is notable is that in none of these instances do royal ties of any stripe appear, with these younger Windsors all seemingly keen to define themselves by their abilities, their experience and their willingness to work for six quid an hour.

Meanwhile, over on gallery Hauser & Wirth’s website you can find a lengthy conversation between a ‘Eugenie York’ and artist Roni Horn about his work.

Though her title gets one mention, as first spotted by the excellent Patricia Treble of the excellent Write Royalty.

My point is, while sharing plenty of DNA with the King would obviously help a brave, young well-educated sort in the job market, they aren’t out there explicitly marketing themselves as such.

Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, launched a juicer in 2015. Picture: Victoria Jones, WPA Pool/Getty Images

Blatant selling of oneself has now been knocked on the head by Sarah Ferguson’s daughters Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice. Picture: Instagram

Anyone else feel a ‘but’ coming on?

The Sussexes’ US operations are another matter entirely.

Here we are, more than four years since they bolted for the Buckingham Palace exits and with them having served up a long-running royal insurgency and yet they are still using their royal titles in a commercial capacity.

When the duchess launched her American Riviera Orchard brand on Instagram in March, it was with the words “by Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex”.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, launched her American Riviera Orchard brand in March. Picture: Emmanuel Osodi/Anadolu via Getty Images

Her jam business now joins a list of companies Meghan is involved with, including speaker firm the Henry Walker Agency, Netflix, Spotify, Wall Street firm Ethic, coaching company BetterUp and Penguin Random House.

One by one, as Harry and/or Meghan have become involved with these businesses, out have come their titles to be slapped all over eager press releases and websites.

On a purely pragmatic level, I get it.

The couple have bought themselves a $20 million house with a reported $14 million mortgage on top of which the UK government’s disinclination to pay for security for two people living in California left them with an estimated $5 million-plus annual security bill.

And what more valuable thing do Harry and Meghan possess than their titles?

What’s interesting though is the much more independent path that is being hewn and carved out by the rest of the duke’s cousins.

In the professional sphere, for Beatrice, Eugnie et al, their careers are not predicated on them having titles and they are not their defining, most saleable characteristic.

Sure, let’s not be naive here – their membership of the royal family would hardly hurt when it came to landing their jobs but they also have the requisite degrees, experience and the CVs.

The same goes for Zara Tindall, Princess Anne’s daughter and recent Buckingham Palace garden party star.

She has commercial deals with 16 brands and companies, according to her website, including Rolex and Land Rover and generally comes to Australia as a guest of the Magic Millions.

Zara has commercial deals with 16 brands and companies. Picture: Luke Marsden

However, her pedigree as an equestrian is impeccable. She won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and was part of the British team that took home silver at the 2014 World Equestrian Games.

Again, her royal links obviously only burnish things but she has proven herself as a sportswoman.

That’s not to say that navigating this line between the crown and cash is always quite so dignified and ethical.

In January 2020 her brother Peter Phillips was on the receiving end of a well-deserved drubbing after he starred in a horrendously gauche Chinese milk ad that referred to him as a “British Royal Family member”.

Peter Phillips poses in a Chinese milk ad. Picture: Supplied

Peter is something of a repeat offender on this front, with he and former wife Autumn reportedly being told off by the late Queen for selling the pictures from their 2008 wedding, unbeknownst to guests, to Hello! magazine for about $950,000.

Still what Beatrice, Eugneie and Zara are busy proving is that they want to have careers founded on their achievements, abilities and accomplishments and not the fact that they have repeatedly watched the King work his way through his boiled egg and soldiers in the Balmoral breakfast room.

Though should he ever want to wash that down with a freshly made juice, I know just who could help him out.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Princess Beatrice accidentally exposes Prince Harry