The Truth About Princess Beatrice's Fiance

It's official! Princess Beatrice's fiancé popped the question! Another royal wedding is set to take place in 2020, as on Sept. 26, 2019, Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson, announced the engagement of their daughter Princess Beatrice to Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. "We are thrilled that Beatrice and Edoardo have got engaged, having watched their relationship develop with pride," the Duke and Duchess of York revealed in the official statement. "We are the lucky parents of a wonderful daughter who has found her love and companion in a completely devoted friend and loyal young man."

The royal announcement also included words from the princess herself. "We are extremely happy to be able to share the news of our recent engagement," she gushed. "We are both so excited to be embarking on this life adventure together and can't wait to be married." If you're as obsessed with the royals as we are, then you probably can't wait for their wedding day either. Though, you may be scratching your head wondering just who in the world her fiancé is. We've got you covered. Here is everything you need to know about Princess Beatrice's future husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

Although Princess Beatrice's fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi — or "Edo" as he is also known — may not be all that familiar to you, he and his parents have long been acquainted with Beatrice and the royal family. "Our family has known Beatrice for most of her life," the future groom's parents, Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi and Nikki Williams-Ellis, revealed in the couple's official engagement announcement. According to several reports, Beatrice's mom, Fergie, is actually the godmother to Mapelli Mozzi's half-brother, Alby Shale. The royal world is a small world. 

Both Mapelli Mozzi's mother and father appear to be thrilled with the couple's decision to get married. "Edo and Beatrice are made for each other, and their happiness and love for each other is there for all to see," the ex-spouses continued in their statement. "They share an incredibly strong and united bond, their marriage will only strengthen what is already a wonderful relationship." No, we're not crying — you're crying.

While it's true that Princess Beatrice's fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, has traveled in or around the same small circles as his lady love since they were children, the couple hasn't, in the grand scheme of things, been dating all that long. Jonny Dymond, a royal correspondent for BBC, told BBC News that the couple has kept their public appearances to a relative minimum, but he believes they've been dating for around two years. Their relationship "moved pretty quickly," he added.

Before Mapelli Mozzi and Beatrice started dating, the princess was in a decade-long relationship with businessman Dave Clark. The couple "broke up amicably in August 2016," according to Metro. After their breakup, it seems she and Mapelli Mozzi became reacquainted. Mapelli Mozzi had been in a serious relationship once before as well. He was formerly engaged to esteemed architect and designer Dara Huang. They, too, are amicable, according to the Daily Mail.

Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi's parents divorced when he was young, which led to moving back and forth between England and France. "We lived in old mill houses, that kind of thing...," he explained in an interview with The Telegraph in 2019. When asked where he was currently residing, the publication described him as looking "rather sheepish" before responding. "I'm in St James' at the moment," he replied. Hmm. Although he didn't exactly spell out that he lives with Beatrice, the princess is known to reside at St James's Palace in an apartment — the same apartment she previously shared with her sister Princess Eugenie.

After graduating from college, but prior to moving to St James's, Princess Beatrice's fiancé called several other London, England properties home, including a townhouse in the Fulham area, a studio in Notting Hill, and an Earl's Court nightclub that he converted into a house.

Princess Beatrice's fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, may be marrying a member of the British royal family, but he's not a royal himself. Well, not exactly. According to a profile of Mapelli Mozzi for The Telegraph, he has "Italian blue blood." That is, his father, Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi, is a count. Essentially, he's akin to a British earl, but in Italy.  

In addition to being a noble, Mapelli Mozzi's father was an Olympic alpine skier for Britain. According to the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Mapelli Mozzi's mother, Nikki Williams-Ellis, is a trustee of the foundation and has "over 30 years of expertise in the commercial and residential property sectors." Through her charity work, she has also cared for "children and young adults with learning disabilities." After Mapelli Mozzi's parents divorced, his mother went on to marry Christopher Shale, a philanthropist, chairman of the West Oxfordshire Conservative Association, and a "close and valued friend" of Britain's former prime minister David Cameron, according to The Independent.

Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi is of Italian heritage and spent time in France as a child, but most of his schooling was completed in England and Scotland. Princess Beatrice's fiancé attended Radley College, a prestigious boys boarding school in Oxfordshire. As of this writing, just one term at the esteemed and affluent boys school costs over £13,000 (over $16,000).

After graduating from Radley College, Mapelli Mozzi attended the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland. There, he earned a Master's in politics. Once he was out of college, he took a job as a researcher for former Prime Minister David Cameron. It wasn't long before he decided to switch gears and get into the property business, which he finds to be a more creative career, as he told The Telegraph.  "Some finance jobs are like moving chips around...," Mapelli Mozzi explained to the publication. "I love seeing a vision through and I've always liked the thought of creating homes."

In 2007, Princess Beatrice's fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, launched his own property business: Banda Property. "The word Banda means house in Swahili," Mapelli Mozzi revealed to The Telegraph. "My father has a small place in Lamu in Kenya and I drew up the business plan while I was staying there." 

According to Mapelli Mozzi's LinkedIn page, he remains the CEO of the "multi-faceted property company." His business encompasses "portfolio strategy, planning and development, asset management, private client home search, interior design and architecture." By the time Mapelli Mozzi was just 30 years old, he had already "developed over 400,000 [square feet] of property in London with a combined [Gross Development Value] of nearly £700 million" — which is the equivalent of about $862 million.

Yes, he is something of property tycoon and, reportedly, a multi-millionaire. But he's not done yet. In April 2019, Mapelli Mozzi revealed to The Telegraph that he'd recently gotten started on creating his own line of custom furniture.

Official statements are one thing, but how does the royal family really feel about Princess Beatrice's fiancé? Well, pretty damn proud, it seems. "I know what a mother feels so I have tears of joy," the princess' mother, Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson, tweeted. "I am so proud of this sensational news. Andrew and I are just the luckiest people ever to have two great sons in law." 

Beatrice's sister, Princess Eugenie, is equally excited. "Beabea — wow! I'm so happy for you my dearest big sissy and dear Edo," she captioned a picture of the couple on Instagram. "It's been a long time coming and you two are meant to be." Eugenie revealed that she even took the couple's beyond adorable engagement photos — aww.  In June 2019, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi was also photographed holding hands with both his girlfriend and his future sister-in-law, so it's safe to say Eugenie is a fan of Beatrice's beau. 

Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi has put his wealth to good use. In 2011, Princess Beatrice's fiancé and his half-brother Alby Shale founded the Rwandan Cricket Stadium Foundation (RCSF), which is now known as Cricket Builds Hope. His goal for the charity "was to create an outstanding piece of architecture using only local materials and local labour," Mapelli Mozzi's LinkedIn page explains. "The development was conceived as an opportunity to empower and engage local people in need of work, skills and income [through] the use of local materials and labour intensive construction techniques." That involved rainwater harvesting and other sustainable practices.

Mapelli Mozzi remained the chairman of the board until 2015 and, in 2017, witnessed the grand opening of the Gahanga Cricket Stadium in Kigali, Rwanda. "I saw how sport had the power to bring people together and help share important messages," Mapelli Mozzi recalled in an interview with The Telegraph. "It was an emotional day." Mapelli Mozzi continues to fundraise for the non-profit and revealed further plans to build educational facilities across Rwanda.

According to BBC News, it was actually Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi's stepfather, Christopher Shale, who had the idea to start the cricket-based charity, Rwandan Cricket Stadium Foundation. Sadly, Shale would never get to see his dream become a reality. The stepfather of Princess Beatrice's fiancé was found dead at the 2011 Glastonbury festival held in Somerset, England. According to The Guardian, he died mere "hours after being told that critical remarks he had made about the Conservative party had been leaked." 

A spokesman for business Rupert Soames, a friend to Shale, revealed to the publication that medics believed his friend had suffered a massive heart attack the day before he was found. However, there was some confusion as to whether or not that was the case. The festival organizer, Michael Eavis, said he'd been told it was "a suicide situation." Police did their best to clear up the rumors, and, in September 2011, the coroner revealed (via The Guardian) that Shale's cause of death was heart disease.

Before Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Dara Huang called off their engagement, the couple welcomed a son, Christopher — reportedly named after Mapelli Mozzi's late stepfather. Today, he goes by the nickname Woolfy. After Huang and Mapelli Mozzi went their separate ways, the tycoon remained a fixture in his son's life. "I take him to school a couple of mornings a week and finish [work] in time to put him in bed three or four evenings," Princess Beatrice's fiancé revealed in an interview with The Telegraph.

Although Mapelli Mozzi mostly reserves social media for work, he did share a picture to Instagram of his young son back in 2016 rocking a beach hat and a t-shirt that read, "I get my charm from my daddy." And while Woolfy may still be young, he has his own dedicated Instagram account already. 

If you're wondering if Woolfy will be in Beatrice's wedding, we can only hope. Either way, the day will be historic. When Beatrice and Mapelli Mozzi marry, she'll become a stepmother, making her the first princess in the British royal family to become one.

According to Princess Beatrice's fiancé's interview with The Telegraph, he and Dara Huang broke off their engagement before he began dating Princess Beatrice. However, Huang's father, Po Tien, believes Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi broke up with Huang to be with the princess.

"Dara came back here from London for Thanksgiving with [their baby]. She didn't know anything about [Beatrice seeing Edo] and the next day her friend emailed the newspaper report to her," he told Radar Online in December 2018. "She was very upset." Tien questioned why the royal family would want to break up his daughter's family. "I can't understand it," he opined. "It's not fair but the royal family is so powerful. What can I do? I can't do anything."

The royals have not issued a statement about the matter, but it does at least add up that the royals would've known about Mapelli Mozzi and Huang's relationship. According to reports, Beatrice's mom, Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson, has previously presented Woolfy with a onesie in honor of his baptism. Whether or not there was actually a plan to break up the couple, well, that's impossible to say.

Although Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Princess Beatrice had likely been together for a couple years before their engagement, their relationship didn't become public until March 2019 when they attended the annual National Portrait Gallery Gala. Prior to that, Mapelli Mozzi was in attendance at Beatrice's sister's wedding back in October 2018, although it's unclear if he was Beatrice's plus-one. The following month, rumors began to swirl that they were in a relationship. After giving people months to speculate, the couple became more open about their relationship, beginning with the aforementioned gala. 

Since then, the couple has been photographed holding hands in New York City, attending events with Beatrice's family, such as the Bahrain Grand Prix, and being each other's dates at two different weddings (Ellie Goulding's wedding to Caspar Jopling and Lady Gabriella's wedding to Thomas Kingston). 

While there was no official "dating" announcement, the couple officially confirmed the status of their relationship by, of course, releasing the statement about their engagement. "We share so many similar interests and values and we know this will stand us in great stead for the years ahead, full of love and happiness," the couple revealed.

Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Princess Beatrice have kept some of the details about the proposal a secret, but they did at least tell us when — and where — Mapelli Mozzi got down on one knee. "Her Royal Highness and Mr. Mapelli Mozzi became engaged while away for the weekend in Italy earlier this month," the couple's September 2019 engagement announcement stated. You can bet it was a romantic occasion.

Princess Beatrice's fiancé took to Instagram with pictures taken by Misan Harriman at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park some time after the couple's engagement (via People). "You will never be alone my love, my heart is your home," he captioned the set of four photographs. "Hand in hand, today, tomorrow and forever." Uh, swoon. 

You may be itching for a royal wedding date, but the couple's announcement only revealed that "the wedding will take place in 2020." The couple promised in their announcement, "Further details will be announced in due course."

We may not be privy to all of the proposal details, but we do know that Princess Beatrice's fiancé was planning to pop the question for some time. London jeweler Shaun Leane told Women's Wear Daily that he worked with him for "four to five months" to craft the perfect engagement ring. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi met the jeweler through one of his friends, who happened to be one of Leane's clients. Beatrice's cousins-in-law, Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton, are also familiar with the jeweler's designs.  

Leane revealed that Mapelli Mozzi "wanted the fusion of two elements in one ring, his love of Art Deco and Princess Beatrice's love of Victorian style, so it's a mix of both aesthetics." He continued, saying, "There are also other elements in the ring that reflect the unity of the two of them." The band features a large, round-cut center diamond with two smaller diamonds — all ethically-sourced — on either side.

Mapelli Mozzi was very involved in the ring's creation. "We documented the process every day, starting with the melting of the platinum, and we sent pictures to Edo every other day," Leane said. Spoiler: he's also making their wedding bands.