Zara Tindall, often seen as the key to maintaining unity within the Royal Family, now faces potential challenges due to new information emerging from the Epstein files.

The daughter of Princess Anne and her husband, former rugby star Mike Tindall, enjoy strong relationships with the Prince and Princess of Wales, along with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

However, a recent batch of documents has cast doubt on what the York sisters might have known about their parents’ involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This revelation could impact their standing within the Royal Family, as Prince William is reportedly ready to take decisive action if needed.

Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams suggests that if a decision had to be made, Zara and Mike Tindall would likely side with the Prince and Princess of Wales, not solely because of their future roles as King and Queen.

Without royal titles to constrain them, Zara and Mike’s popularity has flourished, allowing them to forge successful careers with endorsements from high-profile brands like Rolex and Land Rover.

The couple will be anxious to protect their livelihoods and will naturally not want any associations to the Epstein scandal to impinge on their brand – even if that means distancing themselves from their cousins.

From L to R: Princess Eugenie, Peter Philips, Princess Beatrice, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince Harry, and Zara and Mike Tindall at a service marking the 60th anniversary of the Coronation Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in June 2013

One email sent by Epstein in 2015 – after he was convicted for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14 – boasted to a friend that Beatrice ‘liked’ him.

It also emerged that Beatrice helped advise her mother, Sarah Ferguson, on how to placate Epstein after she called him a paedophile while apologising for accepting a £15,000 bailout from the convicted sex offender in a 2011 interview.

She also played a key role in facilitating her father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s 2019 Newsnight interview, and so the York sisters face the very real possibility that the drip-feed of Epstein revelations could see them ousted from royal life as well.

The Tindalls, therefore, will likely face pressure to reevaluate their relationships with Beatrice and Eugenie, not only to protect their income sources but also to show loyalty to the monarchy, should the titles be retracted.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said: ‘It is well known that Zara and Mike Tindall have particularly close relations with their cousins Beatrice and Eugenie.’

Fitzwilliams said: ‘Zara relies on several top sponsorships. She is a highly popular equestrian and she and Mike have a special niche in the nation’s hearts as he has a laconic, likeable style as well as being a former rugby captain.’

‘The Epstein Files have placed the royal family on the defensive, as it cannot anticipate what is to come.

‘Beatrice and Eugenie are now drawn into the line of fire, especially for having visited Epstein a few days after his release from imprisonment for child sex trafficking with their mother. Both were adults at the time. Epstein was under house arrest.

Beatrice’s husband, Edo Mapelli Mozzi, is seen playing with Zara’s daughter, Lena, outside Sandringham Church at Christmas last year

William is known for his close bond with Zara and her former rugby union player husband, Mike Tindall (seen together at Royal Ascot in 2019)

‘The sisters are clearly in an impossible position, each holding several charitable posts, with Eugenie co-founding the Anti-Slavery Collective. 

‘There is sympathy for them; the King is currently supportive, but their parents are in total disgrace.

‘Zara and Mike have cultivated a casual, low-key image, and one can imagine them doing what they want and befriending whom they feel like. However, they are both heavily reliant on the potency of their brands.

‘Therefore, their public appearances with the sisters may, depending on what is released, alter or even cease if it is discovered they were unwise or even culpable.

‘If it came to choosing, Zara and Mike would naturally support William and Catherine if William should feel the need to oust Beatrice and Eugenie.

‘They are independent enough to do as they wish, but nobody should doubt that their loyalty, like that of Zara’s indomitable mother, Princess Anne, is first and foremost to the monarchy at all times.’

Her current situation is worlds away from the relationship she once shared with her cousins.

‘Their closeness was illustrated by the holding of a charming joint christening at Royal Lodge in Windsor as Zara’s son Lucas and Eugenie’s son August were born only weeks apart,’ Fitzwilliams said.

The Princess of Wales is seen chatting closely with Zara at the first day of Royal Ascot back in June 2019

Beatrice, Edo and Zara put on a close display on day three of Cheltenham Festival in March, 2024

The Queen’s granddaughters, who all share a common ground of being non-working royals and not receiving taxpayer funding, have continued to put on close displays at events since, from intimate chats at Ascot to co-ordinating their outfits at a Buckingham Palace garden party.

At the same time, Zara has also showcased her strong connection to William and Kate.

For instance, in an episode of Mike’s podcast, The Good, The Bad and The Rugby, William admitted: ‘The only time I’ve ever cried when watching sport was when Zara won, I think it was the European championship.

Zara, born just 13 months apart from William, was also reportedly a great comfort to the future king after his mother Diana’s death in 1997.

In a Channel 5 documentary, ‘Zara & Anne: Like Mother Like Daughter’, Victoria Arbiter said: ‘For William in particular, trust is everything, so when you’ve got a cousin that understands what it is to be a member of the Royal Family, but they don’t have the same pressures associated with it, they can be a tower of strength and support.

‘It’s Zara’s loyalty and total dedication to her family that has made her such an asset to the cousins who have had to endure the negative side of royal life.’

Their bond is no doubt strengthened by Kate’s closeness to Anne’s daughter, and the pair have been captured at various events over the years, giggling or sharing a deep conversation.

Any concerns that Zara has about the York sisters will only be aggravated by their parents’ continued association with Epstein after he was jailed in 2008 for soliciting underage sex from girls as young as 14. 

It has emerged that Beatrice helped advise her mother on how to placate Epstein after Fergie called him a paedophile while apologising for accepting a £15,000 bailout from the convicted sex offender in a 2011 interview

William pointedly avoided talking to his disgraced uncle when they came face-to-face at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral on September 4

The recent release of files connected to Epstein – who died by suicide while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges in 2019 – contains further damning evidence yet of their friendship with the billionaire sex offender.

Astonishing emails unearthed by The Mail on Sunday revealed Fergie was so desperate to cosy up to the convicted paedophile that ‘she was the first to celebrate’ his release from jail ‘with her two daughters in tow’.

Emails reportedly show the group met at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, where the paedophile served vegetable lasagne prepared by a Parisian chef.

The Daily Mail has also found an email from Epstein in 2015 where he told a friend not to worry about meeting Beatrice at an event in Mexico because she ‘liked’ him. The paedophile famously attended her lavish Victorian-themed 18th birthday masked ball at Royal Lodge with Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein in 2006.

Princess Beatrice also supported her father’s car-crash Newsnight interview about Epstein and Virginia Giuffre which is ‘absolutely cataclysmic’ for any hopes she has of having official royal duties when William becomes King, another expert said.

A BBC producer revealed that Princess Beatrice had attended a negotiation meeting with her father ahead of the interview in November 2019.

As well as attending a pre-production meeting with producer Sam McAlister, with a notebook and pen, Beatrice famously became Andrew’s ‘alibi’ during the interview when he claimed he was collecting her from a party at Pizza Express on the night he supposedly had sex with Ms Giuffre.

In an email leaked to The Mail on Sunday, Fergie ‘humbly apologised’ and told the sex trafficker she knew he was feeling ‘hellaciously let down by me’ after the interview.

She also discussed how to restore his reputation with Beatrice, two years after they travelled to Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion with Eugenie.

While they previously seemed to be bystanders caught up in their parents’ relationship with Epstein, it now seems that Beatrice – according to Fergie – at least took a more active role.

Earlier this month, sources close to the sisters said they were ‘appalled’ and ’embarrassed’ by a photo of Andrew crouching over an unidentified woman lying on the floor in the newly released files.

They are believed to be ‘aghast’ at their mother’s sycophantic emails, calling Epstein a ‘legend’ and proposing marriage to him, and Eugenie must surely have been left mortified after her mother told the sex offender she was off on a ‘s***ging weekend’.

A source close to Eugenie and Beatrice told the Daily Mail: ‘They are aghast at what they have read. They are mortified by the emails their mother has sent to Epstein. It is so embarrassing for them.’

They added: ‘We don’t believe the girls [Beatrice and Eugenie] were told much about what has just emerged [in the latest Epstein files release], and they will simply be aghast at just how close their parents were to this appalling man.’