Does Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie’s Surprise Appearance at Yesterday’s Buckingham Palace Garden Party Mean They’re Becoming Working Royals?

As the Princess of Wales continues to receive cancer treatment following her announcement about her diagnosis on March 22, she remains absent from public duty—so, when Prince William hosted a garden party at Buckingham Palace yesterday, four of his six royal cousins stepped up to support him in a show of solidarity. 

Princess Anne’s two children Peter Philipps and Zara Tindall and the York sisters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie—the daughters of the Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson—braved the rain alongside William to greet 8,000 guests on the lawn of the Palace, umbrellas in hand. Zara’s husband, Mike Tindall, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were also present.

The monarchy has never felt more slimmed down—after all, a slimmed down monarchy has apparently always been King Charles’ wish, but one could have never anticipated all that has happened in the past five years to make it even slimmer, not the least of which is 2024’s health scares, which have sidelined Kate and, for a time, the King himself. As such, many are speculating that Beatrice and Eugenie in particular might take on roles as working royals, which they heretofore haven’t done. Does the cousins’ surprise garden party appearance yesterday signal or hint that the possibility is becoming a reality? Well, maybe not so fast on that one.

According to Hello, William’s cousins have no plans to take on royal duties, even after their garden party outing yesterday, with the outlet reporting that “this is not the current plan for now.”

According to the publication’s royal editor, Emily Nash, “Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and their cousins were at the garden party to support the Prince of Wales because the princess is continuing her recovery, but they are not taking on official roles,” she said. “They’ve attended royal engagements in the past, sometimes ‘in attendance’ with the late Queen, for example, so they might appear at other events over the summer as members of the King’s family.”

Both Beatrice and Eugenie have carved out careers of their own; both are college-educated, and Beatrice is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the U.S. tech company Afiniti, while Eugenie is a director at an art gallery, Hauser & Wirth, in London.

The Tindalls both have successful careers in sport—Mike is a former rugby star, and Zara followed in her mother the Princess Royal’s footsteps and was an Olympian, competing in the 2012 Olympics in London in equestrian eventing. Zara’s older brother, Peter Phillips, is head of partner acquisition for the sports and entertainment rights agency CSM Sport & Entertainment, and before that was a managing director at sports and entertainment agency SEL U.K. Zara has spoken before about the benefits of her and Peter not being given royal titles from birth, a decision made by their mother, Anne: “From my point of view, I was obviously very lucky that my mother didn’t give us any titles, so I really commend her on that,” she said on Rob Burrow’s “Seven” podcast this past December. “We were very lucky that we got to do it a bit our own way.”

Zara and Mike “are understood to be a vital cog in the royal family machine, bringing qualities of good humor, enthusiasm, and positivity,” Tatler writes. “The Tindalls are very much the glue of their generation of royals and bring the fun to a family gathering, no matter how serious the occasion,” a source speaking to The Times said. “They can help take the family’s mind off the gravity of what is going on.” They added “While some family members can be very ‘royal,’ Mike is just himself and is relaxed and playful with George, Charlotte, and Louis. It helps that they all have children around the same age that they can fool around together privately and bring a sense of normality to what is a stressful situation for everyone involved.” 

For his part, Peter—who is the eldest of the late Queen Elizabeth’s eight grandchildren—is said to have been “like an older brother” to William, according to The Telegraph.

William’s two remaining cousins, Lady Louise Windsor and James, Earl of Wessex—the children of Prince Edward and Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh—weren’t at the garden party yesterday, but they’re likely still a bit too young to participate in hosting duties like that. Louise is a student at the University of St. Andrews (where William and Kate met in 2001 and later graduated from in 2005), where she is studying English, and James is just 16 years old.

Though the mood was high at the garden party yesterday, the weather was downright awful, “leaving some guests drenched and others sheltering in the tea tents,” The Daily Mail reports. As the torrential downpours raged, the future King chatted to senior executives from Swim England—an organization he supports as a patron—and joked that it was “good weather for swimming.”