Anyone with a passing interest in the House of York saga will know that Princess Beatrice’s dashing husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi is in the property game.
They might also be aware that Edo, as he is known, has sure-footed good taste, evident from his interior design projects, and that everything about them – and him –speaks of high-end refinement and a rare attention to detail.
Were Edo himself a property, one might be tempted to call it meticulously maintained.
And yet when he first appeared at Beatrice’s side, some who follow the royals couldn’t help feeling a sneaky bit suspicious. Was this debonair Latin charmer – he is the scion of an aristocratic Italian family – too good to be true?
Some found it strange that he left his glamorous architect fiancée, Dara Huang, with whom he has a son, then aged just two, for Beatrice. Ms Huang’s mother, Lily, certainly thought so. She said she was ‘shocked’ and believed it stunned her daughter as well, so sudden was the split.
Then there was Edo’s extravagantly overblown engagement-day declaration on Instagram in 2019. ‘You will never be alone my love, my heart is your home,’ he gushed to Beatrice, along with the wider world. ‘Hand in hand, today, tomorrow and forever.’
More than six years on and there are fears the couple, who, to be fair, have always seemed happy despite the naysayers, have hit a rocky patch, something they deny.
There are fears that Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi have hit a rocky patch; pictured in 2023
Beatrice and Edo attend the Christmas Morning Service with his son from a previous relationship with architect Dara Huang
Some found it strange that Edo left glamorous architect fiancée Ms Huang, whose own mother described her as being shocked by the split
Shadowed by the Epstein scandal that led to her parents’ dizzying fall from grace, Beatrice, 37, is understandably at a low ebb. Along with her sister Eugenie, she is under pressure to speak up about her links to the late financier following the arrest of her father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
It is against this background that 42-year-old Edo came under fire for gallivanting around Florida in her hour of need earlier last month, though he says he was simply trying to ‘build my business’.
More than 4,000 miles from home and looking for all the world like a Miami Vice extra in a pastel pink suit and light blue shirt, with loafers, he promoted his design company, Banda, spoke at a conference, and, judging by the copious snaps he posted on social media, had a jolly time in the sunshine. Photos show him reclining outside the Art Deco Colony Hotel in Palm Beach and holding a glass of rosé on the rooftop of the Mr C Miami hotel.
Sources close to the couple have since reported there has been notable ‘distance’ between them of late and that while Beatrice is ‘desperate to hold things together’, her husband’s primary concern seems to be his business.
Today, some in their social circle point out that he would do well to remember that his marriage to Andrew’s eldest daughter gave Edo’s career a once-in-a-lifetime boost. When he walked back up the aisle of Windsor’s Royal Chapel of All Saints in July 2020, he had one of the most eligible women in Europe by his side.
‘When they first got together, Edo wasn’t nearly so successful,’ said a former associate. ‘Being adjacent to royalty was transformative.’
To be fair, their union came against a backdrop of Covid, which hit most property businesses. Yet the Daily Mail has discovered that Banda faced difficulties even before that. In 2018 its two main subsidiaries – Banda Design and Banda Property – were both reporting losses.
Prior to that, the company Edo started aged 23 had enjoyed moderate success, with annual profits in the tens of thousands. Yet his new life as a member of the Royal Family coincided with a period of spectacular growth.
In 2020, Banda was a niche concern specialising in locating and developing upmarket homes for the rich, mainly in and around London.
Today, it grandiosely calls itself a ‘multi-disciplinary property practice, covering property search and acquisition, development, project management, architecture and interior design all over the world’ and employs some 60 members of staff, more than three times the figure six years ago.
Indeed, the latest records from Companies House show that Banda Design Ltd, its interior design arm, reported a turnover of £2.2million in 2024, and retained profits of £774,353. Yet the year before Edo and Beatrice wed, it was £244,000 in the red.
Friends say that Edo is singularly driven and has made a success of his business through dedication and talent. Yet it is also true that his name, or rather his royal connections, afforded him access to new platforms to promote his work.
Latest records from Companies House show that Banda Design Ltd, its interior design arm, reported a turnover of £2.2million in 2024, and retained profits of £774,353
But the year before Edo and Beatrice wed, Banda was £244,000 in the red
When Beatrice fell for him, Edo and his business activities were largely unknown, save for the time when, discussing how he turned a handsome profit by converting a disused nightclub into flats, he boasted to a newspaper that the £200,000 he stumped up for the project was ‘peanuts’. Friends said this was typical of his ‘cocky’ side.
Post-wedding, it seemed his every project was given acres of space in newspapers and magazines. And suddenly, he was given free rein to rhapsodise about his commercial efforts using what at times appeared to be jargon-heavy, Harry and Meghan-style verbiage.
In an interview last year, he described an apartment block he worked on in Dubai as ‘sculptured, serene and fluid’ and said his goal had been to create an ‘emotionally resonant… sanctuary in the sky’ inspired by the ‘softness of the desert landscape and the movement of air and light across it’.
Never in any interview does Edo mention his wife or the royals, much less answer questions about them. But he was surely aware the blanks would be filled in for him, thus ensuring that he wouldn’t appear to be the one leveraging his status.
‘It was the kind of publicity money can’t buy,’ says a source. ‘There were references in the likes of Vogue and Hello! to him joining the Royal Family. It didn’t exactly do his business any harm, did it? Would he have got it if he wasn’t her [Beatrice’s] husband? Of course not.’
Just three months after his wedding, the Financial Times, no less, calling him the ‘property developer and newlywed husband of Princess Beatrice’, wanted to know, among other things, his favourite scent (£184-a-bottle Santal 33 by Le Labo, as it happened) and what he always keeps in his fridge (£68 London-smoked salmon and a bottle of tequila).
Looking for all the world like a Miami Vice extra in a pastel pink suit and light blue shirt, Edo promoted his design company, spoke at a conference, and, judging by the copious snaps he posted on social media, had a jolly time in the sunshine
In an interview last year, he described an apartment block he worked on in Dubai as ‘sculptured, serene and fluid’ and said his goal had been to create an ‘emotionally resonant… sanctuary in the sky’
Soon, he was invited by Tatler to share ‘the design secrets behind his latest property in Chelsea’. The society magazine called it ‘one of the most important achievements of his design career, an incomparably luxurious and sensitively drawn together family home’.
Edo responded in the same vein: ‘It has such a wonderful energy and buzz – one can only imagine the ultimate playdate for children in the swimming pool followed by everyone piling onto the oversized, bespoke linen sofa in the cinema room to watch a film.’
Another project, this time on Australia’s Gold Coast, was promoted in 2023 as a £130 million ‘uber-luxe ocean club development – which has a royal connection’.
The boss of a PR company handling the venture called it a collaboration ‘between world-leading interior design studio Banda – founded by Edo Mapelli Mozzi, husband of Princess Beatrice – and highly credentialed Australian businessman Rory O’Brien’.
A property magazine noted Edo would ‘bring a touch of royalty’ to the scheme, Masthead, comprising 28 luxury apartments.
And a TV report on 9News Gold Coast was littered with royalty references, including his marriage to Beatrice. It claimed that Edo, as well as designing the interiors, was also a ‘potential buyer’.
Edo himself was filmed saying: ‘I truly believe the team has put together the best residential scheme in all of Australia. This is going to be beachside living at its best.’
To his mother-in-law, Sarah Ferguson, whose name has been used to boost any number of commercial ventures over the years, all this would no doubt seem rather tame. Certainly par for the course.
It was late 2018 that Princess Beatrice first unveiled her new boyfriend to her parents, though in truth the two families had known each other for years.
His father is former Olympic Alpine skier Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi, who represented Great Britain at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Japan.
But the count and Edo’s mother divorced when Edo and his sister, Natalia, were very young, and his father later moved to France.
Edo’s mother, Nikki, remarried and he was brought up to become very close to his businessman stepfather, Christopher Shale, former prime minister David Cameron’s constituency chairman and close personal friend in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Shale died aged just 56 in 2011, and Andrew and Fergie, together with their daughters, were among the congregation at his memorial service.
The link between Shale’s family and Fergie’s goes back many years. Before she became Duchess of York, he employed her as a secretary in a public relations company.
With the two families so entwined, Beatrice and Edo kept their relationship quiet until both were confident enough to ‘come out’ as a couple.
Every year, Edo posts effusive social media tributes to his wife on her birthday and their wedding anniversary. Now an insider claims: ‘Things haven’t been great for a while between them, but Beatrice has been determined to soldier on and forge a path through.
‘She really wants to almost naively see the good in people and will turn a blind eye to uncomfortable truths – that is why she was blind to her father’s behaviour, and the same is true of her belief in Edo. She wants to stay together, but he seems more and more distracted by work and travel. Just when she needs him most, he’s been pulling away.’
Even so, she was all smiles as she was seen leaving a swanky sushi bar with Edo in Notting Hill, West London, after a friend’s birthday lunch last week.
The next day, the Daily Mail can reveal that they were spotted a mile away – exiting a taxi and heading for Kensington Palace, presumably to see Princess Eugenie at Ivy Cottage, her London residence.
‘The sisters have had much to discuss in recent months and have been holding crisis talks,’ said a source. ‘And that looks likely to be the case for quite a while yet.’
Just the kind of thing, some might think, that would present a troubling image if you are in the business of creating ‘serene’ perfection for the super rich.
