‘Collateral damage’: Vile trolls attack Princess Beatrice’s 7-day-old royal baby

Something truly gross happened just minutes after Buckingham Palace announced the birth of Princess Beatrice’s new daughter.

Michelle Obama implored, “When they go low, we go high”.

Sometimes, I think in the royal world it’s more like, “when they go very, very, very moderate, the internet just goes low, lower, lowerrrrrr…..”

Welcome to the day that the limbo bar of lowliness just plummeted further into earth’s mantle like depths with the arrival of Princess Beatrice’s new daughter, Athena Elizabeth Rose, on January 22.

On Wednesday, a week after Athena’s premature arrival, Buckingham Palace announced the news – news you would think no sane human could have any conceivable issue with.

Here in the world was a lovely, squishy, tiny bundle of wonder!

How, you might wonder, could the photo shared by the Palace of her (taken by her doting, clearly besotted father, Anglo-Italian developer and man who loves him some Carrara marble Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi) not make you feel all the warm and fuzzies?

Wonder no more and put on your mental waders as we plunge into the ever-muckier waters of social media; ready yourself for something of an indictment of our life and times and the prevailing dross-like level of discourse.

I nearly wonder where to start here, so how about with the person who used the birth news to push for the military to topple the monarchy, posting “God willing, they follow in her ancestor’s footsteps and have to smuggle her out of the country in an orange basket,” a reference to the late Prince Philip and his family being forced to flee his homeland?

Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi was born on January 22. Picture: Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi/Buckingham Palace via Getty Images

Mum Princess Beatrice is doing well. Picture: Instagram

Or how about the person who decided to use this ostensibly joyous occasion to knock Crown Inc with “Love that she is already paparazzi trained”, or the various grubby references to Athena’s disgraced grandfather Prince Andrew, which I won’t repeat here?

However, the most obvious thing at play here is that somehow, would you believe, a newborn baby has already been co-opted by the duelling pro and anti Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex factions to make their cases.

The photo of Athena that obscured her face? The Palace is supposedly “playing into [the Sussexes’] games of Hide & Seek”.

Pretty surprised @RoyalFamily released this photo.
Why the games⁉️

If they don´t want 2 show their child, why do it!?

A simple msg announcing the birth would hv bn enough instead of playing into Harkles games of
Hide & Seek!

Nobody wld care not getting a photo. pic.twitter.com/f1LUWwvndD

— Uhuru Mzalendo (@uhurumzalendo1) January 29, 2025

And what of the fact that the Palace waited nearly a week before announcing Athena’s birth? Proof of the double standard that Meghan faced after the delayed announcement of Prince Archie’s birth, some users argued.

“So for a white princess we are supposed to make up possible explanations instead of categorically accusing her of a cover up?” one person wrote.

Proud parents Beatrice and Edo. Picture: Instagram

“Congratulations to Beatrice & her hubby. Isn’t it funny how nobody is calling for her to be hung, drawn & quartered for naming her baby Elizabeth?” another posted, a reference to the backlash the Sussexes faced after naming their daughter Lilibet, the late Queen’s nickname, while another claimed they were “Teaching her white privilege early”.

Meanwhile, like a sort of internet ink blot test, there were those who saw the exact same innocuous, sweet photo of Athena and grabbed it with two hands to lash out at the Sussexes.

“Look at this!! A real photo!!” one wrote, with another adding “Look!! A REAL BABY” – seemingly referencing a bizarro conspiracy theory about the Sussexes’ children.

So, let’s regroup here.

On one hand, of course the internet can be a sludge bucket of nastiness, a veritable nuclear waste dump of venom and bile. Slosh about too long in the squalid waters of royal X and you automatically qualify for a cheering up chocolate biscuit or a Xanax or both to maintain your sanity.

Archie and Lilibet have been attacked since they were in utero.

But on the other, just consider the fact that a seven-day-old bébé has been dragged into the partisan drama that now surrounds the royal family, with Athena already being used to score points in the never-ending ruck and maul of it all.

The children of not only the Sussexes but those of Prince William and Kate, The Prince and Princess of Wales too, are increasingly collateral damage. In the murky bilge of the horrible fights that go on online, the kids are no longer viewed as off limits or non-combatants.

What has become increasingly evident as the Wales children are seen more in public is that the malice and vileness are no longer reserved for the adult HRHs.

Take a video of Prince Louis, aged six, accepting gifts from the public on Christmas Day.

“They are raising tax avoiding *****. Full stop,” one commented.

“Hereditary Grifters on show,” another said,

“He thinks he deserves them? If they’d brought him up properly he’d realise they should be gifted on to kids who have nothing,” yet another chimed in, with another posting: “Have you noticed the #slumlordChildren always come empty-handed ready to collect from the Peasants. Never do they show up with something to give back, but rather always taking from peasants, NHS, army charities and anywhere there is money.”

The Wales kids aren’t immune to online nastiness. Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage

Not even six-year-old Prince Louis. Picture: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images

However, no two tots have it worse than Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, who faced extreme ugliness since they were in utero. Specifically, the sheer, unfathomable madness of the crackpot theory that the little prince and princess were secretly born via surrogate.

With the Sussex and Wales children, where things go from the cuckoo for cocoa puffs to scary is when you consider, if this is what things are like now, when they are all still at preschool and primary school, what happens when they become increasingly more visible as teenagers and young adults? What happens when they will inevitably themselves join social media, even privately and secretly?

The only good news I have here is that I’d assume that one of the few things that still unites the Waleses and the Sussexes is a titanium-strength commitment to protecting their little ones from the rancidity of much of social media. (Harry and Meghan have made protecting all children from online harms one of their key areas of charity work).

If ever there were five people who really, really should get dumb phones it’s Prince Archie, Princess Lilibet, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Grandpa Charles, if he really wanted to play his part, should just buy a job lot.

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 ‘Collateral damage’: Vile trolls attack Princess Beatrice’s 7-day-old royal baby