Prince Andrew’s former wife has publicly hit out at the downright cruel commentary which was directed
at Princess Beatrice following photographs of the bikini-clad young royal enjoying a private Caribbean holiday with her boyfriend.
Speaking as somebody who has suffered almost two decades of frequently nasty media
commentary about her battle with her weight, Sarah said today: "Touch me, fine, but don't touch
my children."
"Beatrice
is a healthy size 10. She's a fabulous girl. She's suffered with special needs
at school, dyslexia from the age of seven. She combatted it to get a grade A* in
history to go and read history at Goldsmiths University. Can we not focus on
that?"
The Duchess is understandably upset by a recent commentary piece by the Daily
Mail columnist Allison Pearson in which she wrote on April 30th of the 19-year-old princess’s
appearance on the beach: "Pictured in a tiny bikini frolicking in the Caribbean with her hapless American boyfriend, Princess Beatrice may have
looked blissfully in love. But can't someone buy the poor girl a sarong? For her sake, as well as ours."
The commentary piece continued: "And what a hard life this Gap Year has turned out to be for the Princess."
"It might make a slightly better impression if the fifth-in-line to the
throne was in the deep end at St Bart's the hospital,
rather than in the shallows at St Barth's, the exclusive holiday
island."
Concluded Pearson: "I fear that Bea is in danger of combining her mother's toe-curling excesses with her dad's physique.
Can someone please have a kindly word with her before it all goes pear-shaped?"
