The royal family issued an unusual statement about Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie
The INSIDER Summary:
• Prince Andrew released a statement concerning his daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie.
• Tabloids have been speculating that Andrew doesn't want the princesses to pursue careers.
• His statement says those reports "have no basis in fact."
It's extremely unusual for Britain's royal family to release personal, public statements - but 2016 isn't a usual year.
In the past two months alone, two members of the royal clan have fired off warning statements against invasive and offensive media coverage of their loved ones. It started in November, when Prince Harry condemned racist coverage of his new girlfriend, Meghan Markle.
And on December 9, Prince Andrew, the Queen's second-oldest son, published a statement of his own, criticizing a series of stories that concern his daughters Princess Beatrice, 28, and Princess Eugenie, 26, the BBC reports.
For months now, news outlets have reported an ongoing rift between Andrew and older brother Prince Charles over Beatrice and Eugenie's roles in the royal family. According to these reports, Prince Charles wants to slim down the royal family and keep the girls from carrying out any royal duties. Andrew, the reports say, wants his girls instated as full-time princesses. One story even painted him as a patronizing father, alleging that he didn't want his daughters to pursue careers outside of their royal engagements.
But Andrew insists the allegations are untrue.
"Over the past few weeks a number of stories have been run in various newspapers that have no basis in fact and the most recent, relating to my daughters, requires correction to terminate further speculation and innuendo," he wrote in the statement, released on Twitter. "There is no truth to the story that there could be a split between the Prince of Wales and I over my daughters' participation as Members of the Royal Family."
He also addressed the accusation that he doesn't want his daughters to work, writing, "As a father, my wish for my daughters is for them to be modern working young women, who happen to be Members of the Royal Family, and I am delighted to see them building their careers."
Currently, Princess Eugenie works as an associate director at an art gallery, Harper's Bazaar reports. Princess Beatrice's official royal profile says that she "works full time in the business world." (Reports say that she recently left her job at a New York investment firm to become a business consultant.)
Andrew ended the missive on a forceful note: "Whilst I appreciate [...] there is considerable interest in my daughters, I cannot continue to standby and have the media speculate on their futures," he wrote.
The girls' mother Sarah Ferguson, is no longer married to Andrew, but she did speak out publicly in support of her daughters, urging the media to "stop bullying the York family" while she gave a speech last Friday.
Read Andrew's statement in full right here.