Toward the end of her pregnancy, Princess Beatrice and her husband learned that they needed to “prepare for a premature birth.” What followed were “months of pure worry” about their baby, as Beatrice now reveals in a personal essay.
Princess Beatrice, 36, and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 41, went through “months of pure worry” for baby Athena. When their second daughter was born on January 22, 2025, at 12:57 PM, she weighed just under two kilograms. What few knew at the time of the joyful announcement: their child was born prematurely. The daughter of Prince Andrew, 65, and Sarah Ferguson, 65, is now opening up about this in a deeply personal and emotional essay in British Vogue.
In it, she not only shares her fears and provides an update on Athena’s health but also aims to support other affected parents and advocate for research into the causes of miscarriage and improved healthcare for women.
Princess Beatrice Was Tormented by Anxiety During Pregnancy
“Nothing really prepares you for the moment you realize your baby will be born too early. You have so little control. Will they be born healthy? Will there be complications? How will you balance the rest of family life while trying to keep a tiny human safe and well?” the princess wonders.
These powerful words illustrate the agonizing thoughts she had to grapple with toward the end of her pregnancy. This feeling of uncertainty triggered “an overwhelming fear” in Beatrice.
A Routine Ultrasound Revealed the Risk of Premature Birth
During a routine ultrasound in the final stage of her pregnancy, Princess Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, learned that they needed to “prepare for a premature birth.”
From that moment on, their unborn baby had to be “closely monitored.” The expectant parents were fortunate: they received excellent care from the team at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, led by Professor Mark Johnson, a specialist in premature birth research.
“Tears of Relief”: How Baby Athena Is Doing Today
In the end, everything fortunately turned out well. “Athena was born healthy, a few weeks before her due date,” Beatrice shares. She then gives another deeply personal glimpse into her emotions as a worried mother: “She was so tiny that it took more than a few weeks for the tears of relief to dry and for life with our healthy baby to feel real. Her feet were so small—almost the size of the paws of a plush rabbit belonging to my older daughter,” Sienna, 3.
Now, two months after the birth, the cousin of Prince William, 43, is all the more pleased to share: “Athena is doing really well. I have a few more answers about what happened, but still no definitive explanation.”
Beatrice’s New Patronage
What Princess Beatrice has learned from this experience has been “humbling.” She explains: “I have learned so much more about our remarkable human body, but above all, about what we still do not know.” Beatrice criticizes the fact that “in many ways, women’s health has not been on the agenda for a long time.”
The princess is “determined that more can be done to help others find answers to the complications that can lead to premature birth.” She wants to support other affected parents. For this reason, the mother of two has now become a patron of Borne, an organization founded with the goal of “ending premature births.” Additionally, Beatrice has teamed up with one of her oldest friends, Alice Naylor-Leyland, 38, “to design a new baby shower collection for her brand Mrs. Alice, with proceeds going to Borne.”
She Hopes Her Daughters Won’t Have to Experience Premature Birth
In conclusion, Princess Beatrice expresses a heartfelt wish to the universe in her essay: “I hope that when my two daughters grow up, they will not have to face these challenges, thanks to greater investment in medical research.”
