Princess Beatrice is currently keeping a low profile amid the fallout surrounding her father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest on his 66th birthday, 19 February, on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The princess is able to lie low at her rural Cotswolds home away from public view, but had her choices gone in a different direction, the princess previously had the option to share a home with her sister in Surrey.
In 1997, Beatrice, 37, who is married to property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and her sister, Princess Eugenie, 35, were gifted a property by their grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. The £1.5 million Birch Hall in Surrey was offered to the daughters of Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, with the Grade II-listed seven-bedroom property having been purchased by trustees acting on behalf of the Queen, but the princesses never actually moved in.
© Getty ImagesPrincess Beatrice's gifted home she declined
Reports at the time documented that their mother worried she would not be able to afford the upkeep and running costs. Instead, despite Andrew and Sarah's separation in 1992 and subsequent divorce in 1996, the family continued to live at the former couple's marital home, Sunninghill Park.
© Getty ImagesLater, Andrew moved out of Sunninghill Park in 2004 (and into Royal Lodge in Windsor), and Sarah and her daughters left in 2006.
With Beatrice and Eugenie having politely declined their grandmother's gift, the house was sold in 1999 and later underwent renovations. When it was listed on the market in 2016 for £4.2 million, it became clear that Birch Hall, which sits over five acres of land, had undergone a renovation.
What happened to Birch Hall?
Though the Georgian mansion already featured a tennis court and a heated al-fresco swimming pool, the new owners had added a media and games room, an orangery and a home gym.
At the time, Andrew Russell from estate agency Strutt and Parker told the Daily Mail: "It's probably one of the very best of north Surrey's village houses, there aren't that many that come on the market. It's a proper country house with five acres of grounds. The house itself is a very attractive and imposing-looking property."
© Tim Graham Photo Library via GetHe added: "Some of the rooms are really quite dramatic, with high ceilings and full floor-to-ceiling sash windows. It's got a swimming pool, tennis court and beautiful specimen trees dating from Victorian times in the garden.
"They reconfigured the staircase and updated the house throughout, moving the kitchen so it overlooks the garden and swimming pool."
Where does Princess Beatrice live now?
Though Beatrice's first adult home wasn't the gifted Surrey pad, she did eventually share an apartment with Princess Eugenie at St. James's Palace in London.
© Getty ImagesThe princess maintains the London bolthole but primarily lives with Edoardo and their daughters, Sienna, four, and one-year-old Athena, in the Cotswolds. Joining her cousin Zara Tindall in Gloucestershire, Beatrice resides at a six-bedroom farmhouse with a six-foot fence surrounding it for extra privacy.
