Princess Beatrice instigated a closeness to her stepson, rather than Dara Huang

Posted by Florance Siggers on Friday, April 26, 2024

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As we mentioned in the coverage of Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi’s secret, quiet wedding, Edo’s son Wolfie was apparently Edo’s best man and a page boy. This was always going to happen – soon after Bea and Edo got engaged, we heard about Edo’s plan to make his son the best man. Curious then that no one included Wolfie in any of the portraits. And don’t say it was a privacy thing – royal weddings are the one time that royals are more than happy to have the kids photographed. Perhaps it was something that Wolfie’s mother, Dara Huang, did not want though. I will be very curious to see how the “royal stepmother” thing plays out long-term, and whether there will be an issue with Edo’s coparenting relationship with Dara. Especially since – despite the Yorks’ best efforts – it really feels like there’s some drama with the timeline of the two relationships (Edo moving on from Dara to Beatrice) and some drama between Beatrice and Dara in general. So it was super-curious that we got another “Beatrice will be a great stepmother” piece, and note some of the sentiments:

Princess Beatrice will be a ‘doting stepmother’, friends said last night. Her husband Edo already has a four-year-old son, Christopher Woolf Mapelli Mozzi – known as Wolfie – who was both best man and page boy at Friday’s Royal Wedding. Wolfie’s mother is architect Dara Huang, 38, who was previously engaged to Edo.

Beatrice becomes the first ‘blood princess’ – as her father Andrew calls his two daughters – to become a stepmother. A friend said: ‘Bea is totally into the stepmum role. She’s very concerned about getting it right and making every effort to be a second mother to Wolfie. She’s totally devoted to him and talks about him all the time. She’s ensured there are loads of pictures of him up in their house, so he feels like he has two families, and they do get on well.

‘She has instigated a lot of that, rather than Dara. Bea has always been really close to Edo’s family, so it’s natural that Wolfie should become part of hers. He’s a super little boy and extremely cute. It will be interesting to see what happens when they start their own family – but Bea is so caring, his happiness will always be her number one priority.’

Wolfie was named after Edo’s beloved stepfather Christopher Shale, who died suddenly, aged 56, of a heart attack at the Glastonbury festival in 2011. He and Edo’s mother Nikki were great friends of the Duke and Duchess of York and Sarah is godmother to their son Alby, 29.

Beatrice and Edo are expected to set up home in her apartment in St James’s Palace. But property developer Edo specialises in creating lavish, no-expenses spared homes for the super-rich, so the couple may decide to move somewhere bigger. Dara and Edo both share custody of Wolfie, so for Princess Beatrice, it is a thoroughly modern marriage.

[From The Daily Mail]

“She has instigated a lot of that, rather than Dara.” Cough. Yeah. I still believe that there’s drama around all of this, the timeline of the two relationships, the swiftness with which Edo dumped Dara, and the coparenting relationship too. And I think Beatrice is coming close to pulling a LeAnn Rimes – she’s going to start pretending Wolfie is “hers.” And I guess Dara is putting up a fight about that behind-the-scenes, as any mother would when the ex’s new lady comes around.

Speaking of, apparently Dara didn’t go to her ex’s wedding. She spent Friday in Belgravia, boozing it up with friends and doing some shopping.

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Photos courtesy of the Royal Family’s social media and Edo’s social media.

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