Beatrice’s Wedding will NOT be broadcast on BBC after Andrew scandal

The BBC will not be showing full live coverage of Princess Beatrice’s royal wedding, it was revealed today. 

ITV also refused to say whether it will televise the marriage – with royal experts suggesting that after the Prince Andrew controversy it could even be held privately.

The BBC said it will not offer extended live footage and will instead offer ‘news coverage of the wedding across our services’, rather than a live link replacing normal programming. Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank was broadcast by ITV in 2018 and pulled in three million viewers. 

Princess Beatrice will marry Italian property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi later this year.

St George’s Chapel in Windsor has been tipped for the ceremony. Under normal circumstances, the national broadcaster is offered the rights to a royal occasion for free.

However, the BBC’s controversial News night interview with Prince Andrew over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal may have affected its decision.

Buckingham Palace is yet to announce a date or venue for Beatrice’s wedding ceremony, but it is expected to be in late May or early June so it does not clash with Royal Ascot. A spokesperson for the palace said details will be released ‘in due course’. The Duke of York has denied allegations from Virginia Giuffre that she was forced into sex with him in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein. An interview between the royal and the BBC’s Emily Maitlis in November was described as a ‘nuclear explosion level bad’.