Last month, before the United Kingdom went into lockdown, Princess Beatrice and her fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, announced that their May wedding would be majorly scaled back. It would no longer include a Buckingham Palace reception, and attendees would be limited to a small group of family and friends. Now, People has reported that the couple is canceling the May 29 ceremony altogether.
According to a spokesperson for the couple, they haven’t figured out how or when they will reschedule. “There are no plans to switch venues or hold a bigger wedding. They aren’t even thinking about their wedding at this time. There will come a time to rearrange, but that’s not yet,” the spokesperson said. Another source told the magazine that the couple had not sent out invitations for their original date, partially due to concerns about coronavirus.
Even before coronavirus changed Beatrice and Edoardo’s plans, their ceremony was on track to be the smallest royal wedding in years. In February, months after their September engagement, the couple announced that the ceremony would occur at the 150-seat Chapel Royal, where her ancestors Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were married in 1840. A reception would take place in the gardens around Buckingham Palace, at the invitation of the queen.
Beatrice is the oldest daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson. Though her younger sister Princess Eugenie had a large wedding in October 2018, her father’s reputation suffered when charges were brought against the late financier Jeffrey Epstein in July 2019; within months, Andrew stepped down from his role as a public royal due to allegations from one of Epstein’s victims and a disastrous BBC interview. In February, People reported that the scandal has caused Beatrice and Edoardo to change their wedding plans twice. Despite that, Andrew still reportedly planned to play a major role in the ceremony.
In December, Prince Charles warned Andrew that he likely wouldn’t be able to return to public life. Andrew was spotted last week volunteering with Sarah at an NHS hospice. This week, Sarah launched a YouTube channel, and her first videos were filmed inside the house they share.
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