Beatrice was born at 8:18 pm on 8 August 1988 at the Portland Hospital, the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, and fifth grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. She was baptised in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace on 20 December 1988, her godparents being: Viscount Linley (her father’s cousin, now the 2nd Earl of Snowdon); the Duchess of Roxburghe (now Lady Jane Dawnay); Peter Palumbo; Gabrielle Greenall; and Carolyn Cotterell. Her name, an unexpected choice, was not announced until almost two weeks after her birth.

Beatrice began her early education at the independent Upton House School in Windsor, in 1991. From there, she and her sister both attended the independent Coworth Park School from 1995.

In 2002, Beatrice visited children living with HIV in Russia, and, in Britain, she supported Springboard for Children (a literacy project for primary-school children with learning difficulties) and the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Beatrice continued her education at the independent St George’s School in Ascot, where she was a pupil from 2000 to 2007. She was diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of seven and went public with the diagnosis in 2005. She delayed sitting her GCSE exams for one year. She remained at St George’s to take her A-Levels. She was elected Head Girl in her final year, and was a member of the school choir. After two years’ study she gained a grade A in drama, and B grades in history and film studies.

Beatrice celebrated her 18th birthday with a masked ball at Windsor Castle in July 2006. Nikolai von Bismarck took her official birthday portrait. Beatrice was the first member of the family to appear in a non-documentary film when she had a small, non-speaking role as an extra in The Young Victoria (2009), based on the accession and early reign of her ancestor Queen Victoria. For a while, she was a paid intern at Sony Pictures, but she resigned after the hacking incident that affected the company in late 2014. In April 2015, it was reported that Beatrice had decided to move to New York City. As of April 2017, Beatrice has a full-time job and splits her time between London and New York City. She is known as Beatrice York in her professional life and is Vice President of Partnerships and Strategy at Afiniti. She is also in charge of an Afiniti programme to engage senior business chiefs around the world to support women in leadership. She works with the programme through charity endeavours and speaking engagements. She has supported the Kairos Society, a nonprofit organisation of entrepreneurs at universities in China, Europe, India and the USA.

In 2006, Beatrice was briefly in a relationship with Paolo Liuzzo, an American whose previous charge for assault and battery caused controversy at the time. For ten years, until July 2016, she was in a relationship with Virgin Galactic businessman Dave Clark.

In September 2008, Beatrice started a three-year course studying for a BA in history and history of ideas at Goldsmiths College, London. She graduated in 2011 with a 2:1 degree.

In an interview to mark her 18th birthday, Beatrice said she wanted to use her position to assist others through charity work; she had already undertaken charitable duties alongside her mother through the various organisations the Duchess supported. During the summer of 2008, Beatrice volunteered as a sales assistant at Selfridges. She also worked at the Foreign Office’s press office for a period of time without receiving a salary. It was also reported in 2008 that Beatrice was interested in pursuing a career at the Financial Times website.

In April 2010, running to raise money for Children in Crisis, she became the first member of the royal family to complete the London Marathon. Beatrice is the patron of Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, which supports children with life-shortening conditions in West Yorkshire and North Manchester. At the April 2011 wedding of her cousin Prince William, Beatrice’s unusual fascinator, designed by Philip Treacy, received much attention and derision from the public and the media. The following month, the headpiece was auctioned for £81,000 on eBay, with the proceeds going to two charities: UNICEF and Children in Crisis.

Beatrice and the Duke of Edinburgh accompanied the Queen to the traditional Royal Maundy services on 5 April 2012 in York. There, Beatrice interacted with parishioners, received flowers from the public, and assisted the Queen as she passed out the official Maundy money to the pensioners. In the lead up to the 2012 Summer Olympics Beatrice welcomed the Olympic flame on the steps of Harewood House near Leeds. In 2013, Beatrice and her sister promoted Britain overseas in Germany. She also visited the Isle of Wight in 2014, whose governor was Beatrice’s namesake Princess Beatrice, daughter of Queen Victoria.

In November 2012, Beatrice became a patron of the York Musical Society. In April 2013, she became royal patron of the Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre, a charity that she credits with helping her overcome her own academic challenges resulting from dyslexia. She accompanied her father during an official engagement in the United Arab Emirates on 24 November 2014.

Beatrice is the founder of Big Change, a charity she established with six of her friends to encourage young people to develop skills “outside a traditional academic curriculum”. In 2012, she climbed Mont Blanc in aid of the charity. In 2016, with Richard Branson and his children, she participated in the fundraising challenge Virgin Strive Challenge, which involved climbing Mount Etna.

In 2016, Beatrice, her mother, Sarah, Duchess of York, and her sister, Eugenie, collaborated with British contemporary artist Teddy M to create the first ever royal graffiti. The painting on canvas, Royal Love, was painted at Royal Lodge and exhibited in London before being sold for a five-figure sum. Proceeds from the sale were donated to Children in Crisis. In 2018, Children in Crisis merged with Street Child, a children’s charity active in multiple countries, with Beatrice serving as its ambassador. She is also a supporter of the [email protected] initiative, a charity her father founded to amplify and accelerate entrepreneurs’ business ideas.

In October 2016, rumours of a rift between Prince Andrew and Prince Charles over Beatrice’s and Eugenie’s future roles were widely reported. The Duke of York subsequently issued a statement calling the story a “complete fabrication”.

In 2017, Beatrice helped promote the anti-bullying book Be Cool Be Nice, and gave an interview to Vogue at a House of Lords event, speaking about her own experiences with being bullied for her fashion choices in her early adulthood. Hello! magazine later named her one of the best-dressed royals. In October 2018, she undertook an extended tour of Laos to “raise the profile of the UK” there, and also participated in the Luang Prabang Half Marathon for Children.

In March 2019, Beatrice attended a fundraising event at the National Portrait Gallery, London, accompanied by property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, the son of Alex Mapelli-Mozzi, a former British Olympian and descendant of the Italian nobility; the BBC describes Edoardo as “also a count”, like his father. The couple are believed to have begun dating in 2018. Together, they attended the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor, Beatrice’s second cousin once removed. They became engaged in Italy in September 2019, with their engagement formally announced by the Duke of York’s Office on 26 September.

In March 2019, Beatrice was elected to the board of the UK charity the Outward Bound Trust as a trustee, after her father took over the patronage from her grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh. In May 2019, she was honoured at a gala in New York City for her work with Friends Without a Border.

The wedding was scheduled to take place on 29 May 2020 at the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, followed by a private reception in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, but first the reception and then the wedding itself were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The wedding was eventually held in private on 17 July 2020, at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Royal Lodge, Windsor, and was not publicly announced in advance. Beatrice’s father walked her down the aisle. She wore the Queen Mary Fringe Tiara that was also worn by the Queen at her own wedding, and a remodelled Norman Hartnell dress that was loaned by the Queen.