Princess Beatrice seemingly set to replace Andrew in key role

Princess Beatrice may be set to replace her disgraced father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as the UK’s trade envoy.

Speculation began after Beatrice hosted a high-profile event in Saudi Arabia after her dad gave up his titles. The event was women’s only and billed as an "afternoon tea hosted by Princess Beatrice of York" alongside Canadian wellness entrepreneur Roma Bose, and a US company called The Lioness Collective, at one of Saudi Arabia's most expensive hotels.

The event was planned to share "insights and bold ideas for investing in women, wellness, and the next generation of leaders" handheld on October 27. Three days later, Buckingham Palace announced that Andrew would be stripped of his royal titles, including the title of prince.

One of the guests remarked that hosting such an event "couldn't have been easy" amid the Andrew scandal.

"No-one would have blamed her if she had pulled out of this high-profile event, but she was determined to grit her teeth and carry on with the show, and I think people respected that," they told the Daily Mail.

Beatrice first sparked the speculations when she attended a meeting with Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the CEOs of Shell and EDF, the vice-president of Microsoft, and former Bank of England governor Mark Carney, now the UN special envoy for climate action last November.

At the time, US journalist Hadley Gamble, who interviewed Beatrice at the Adipec conference, noted, "There was a general feeling that Beatrice was an unofficial ambassador for the UK."

"Beatrice was quite literally in the inner circle at a gathering of global energy CEOs, top finance guys and policymakers," she told The Mail.