Prince Andrew's Daughters Beatrice & Eugenie Go Skiing & Shopping While Duke Awaits Decision On Virginia Roberts Giuffre Case
Jan. 4 2022, Published 3:59 p.m. ET
While Prince Andrew's life hangs by a thread, his family is living it up at an exclusive ski resort in Switzerland.
The 61-year-old embattled Duke of York's daughters – Princess Beatrice, 33, and Princess Eugenie, 31 – are currently posted up at Verbier, where they are skiing and shopping with their spouses while their father is hundreds of miles away, awaiting a United States judge's decision about whether to toss his sexual assault accuser's lawsuit or let her pursue her claims in court.
On Tuesday, a seemingly unbothered Eugenie was seen carrying her skis through the luxury resort, walking alongside her husband, Jack Brooksbank. Beatrice's husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, was also seen making his way across Verbier, carrying ski boots.
Beatrice, instead, opted for a little shopping. The princess was spotted smiling while taking a leisurely stroll through the town, where Andrew owns a traditional-style multimillion-dollar chalet.
And it's at said chalet – which boasts views of the Bagnes Valley – that Andrew's ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, is currently lodging.
Across the English Channel, Queen Elizabeth II's second son is holed up at his home in Windsor, facing a nail-biting moment in his defense of allegations made by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims the Duke raped her on three different occasions in 2001, starting when she was 17 years old.
According to Giuffre, now 38, she was groomed by recently convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and loaned to Andrew for the purpose of sex by late accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Following Tuesday's hearing in New York, which lasted only an hour, Judge Lewis Kaplan said he would make a decision "pretty soon" but did not specify whether that meant hours or days.
Prior to the judge's announcement, the Duke's attorney, Andrew Brettler, tried to argue that the case should "absolutely be dismissed," pointing specifically to newly unsealed court documents that reveal Giuffre entered into a settlement agreement with Epstein back in 2009.
The contract states that Virginia promised not to sue anyone connected to Jeffrey who could be described as a "potential defendant" in exchange for $500,000.
Andrew was not named in the legal papers, which Brettler feels further proves his client's innocence against Giuffre's accusations.
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He told Kaplan, "'Potential defendant' is someone who could have been named a defendant in that lawsuit but was not. I think it's unquestionable that Prince Andrew could have been sued in the 2009 Florida action."
"She could have sued [him] and she did not, and therefore she waived her rights to sue [him] when she entered into the 2009 release agreement and accepted the money from Mr. Epstein," argued Brettler, adding, "She did not return that money when she decided to file this lawsuit."
