Just a week after joining the royal family at Peter Phillips' wedding, the sisters skipped a major annual event for the monarchy
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NEED TO KNOW
- Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were not in attendance at Trooping the Colour 2026
- The sisters attended a wedding in Austria, while other royal family members attended the parade in honor of King Charles
- Just a week prior, Breatrice and Eugenie did step out alongside their family members at the wedding of Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling
Just a week after attending the wedding of their cousin, Peter Phillips, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie skipped the annual Trooping the Colour festivities.
The sisters have attended Trooping the Colour in the past, posing alongside their family members on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. The monarch's public birthday celebration has favored a slimmed-down contingent of royals in recent years, with only working members of the family taking part in the procession and balcony appearance.
This year, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie attended a friend's wedding in Austria on the same day as Trooping the Colour.
Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 36, were photographed outside St. Charles's Church in Vienna on Saturday, alongside their husbands and children, per local outlet Kronen Zeitung.
Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, share daughters Sienna, 4, and Athena, 1, and she is also a stepmom to 10-year-old Christopher "Wolfie" Woolf, her husband's son from a previous relationship. Meanwhile, Eugenie shares two sons, August, 5, and Ernest, 2, with her husband, Jack Brooksbank, and the couple recently announced that they are expecting their third child.
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have mostly kept a low profile since their parents, the former Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, were stripped of their royal titles and had to vacate their longtime royal residence last year amid renewed focus on their past relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, with authorities investigating an allegation that he shared confidential information with Epstein while acting as a trade envoy for the U.K. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and Ferguson has never been accused of any crimes.
Credit: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty
At the time of Andrew's arrest, a source told PEOPLE that Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were "trying to stay away from it. They have young children, and this is their grandfather — their focus is on protecting their own children from this."
Last month, The Sun reported that the sisters have yet to even visit their father, 66, at his new home on the Sandringham estate since his arrest in February. Meanwhile, Ferguson, 66, has been staying out of the public eye and was spotted at a mountain hideaway in the Austrian Alps in April.
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Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have maintained more of a connection with their royal family members. When Andrew's royal titles were removed in the fall, PEOPLE understood that the royal status of his daughters remained "wholly unaffected."
As the daughters of a son of the late Queen Elizabeth, Beatrice and Eugenie retain their royal titles in accordance with King George V’s Letters Patent of 1917. They remain princesses and hold the styling of Her Royal Highness.
Beatrice was photographed receiving a warm welcome and a kiss on the cheek from Prince William at their mutual cousin Peter's wedding to Harriet Sperling on June 6. Her husband was similarly embraced by Zara Tindall, the sister of the groom.
Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty
The sisters also notably spent last Christmas with King Charles and the royal family at Sandringham, despite their parents' absence from the holiday gathering.
Royal biographer Robert Jobson told PEOPLE at the time that it was the right move for Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie to honor the King's showing loyalty amid the turmoil.
"They did the right thing – showing loyalty to King Charles and to the crown. It’s easy to say this is a snub, but they would say, 'I’m a royal princess, I’m in line to the throne, I have been invited to attend the King’s Christmas celebrations, and you don’t turn down the King’s invitation,' " he said.
"If you have an invitation, you go. It’s not an invitation – it’s a command, really," he added.
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