Princess Beatrice recently found her happily ever after. A dig into Beatrice's past shows that the eldest daughter of the Duke of York hasn't always been lucky in love. One of Beatrice's first forays into love was actually the most controversial of them all.
Beatrice was just 17 years old when she was first bitten by the love bug. The object of her desire was Paolo Liuzzo. Not only was Paolo older than the teenage princess, but he had a dark past. The then 24-year-old had been involved in the death of a teenager and was subsequently on probation.
If you've seen how the royal family reacts to choices of significant others, you might think this would have set off mayhem within the family. That wasn't the case, however. There was another royal relationship occupying headlines back then. It was the year that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles tied the knot.
As a result, Bea's romance flew mostly under the radar. Not only was Beatrice allowed to date Paolo, but Sarah Ferguson even publicly defended her teenage daughter's decision when it came to light.
Princess Beatrice has finally gotten her happily ever after. The 31-year-old is now Mrs. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and she even earned herself a countess title in the process. Despite the rocky road to her wedding, it seems everything worked itself out for Bea.
Many people thought Beatrice marrying a previously engaged father of a 4-year-old might be a scandal for the royals. It seems everyone has accepted Edo and his son, Wolfie, and are happy to see Beatrice flourish as a stepmom. A dig into Beatrice's past reveals that her relationship with Edo is far from her most controversial.
It was Beatrice's first love who truly could have thrown the royal family for a loop. Beatrice was on vacation in Jamaica in 2005 when she met Paolo Liuzzo. The 17-year-old fell quickly for the New York University student who was seven years older than she was.
They quietly began dating that summer. The handsome young man ran in all the same circles as Beatrice, but he had a complicated past. In 2002, Paolo was charged with manslaughter in the death of a fellow student following a drunken fight.
The fight, which also included other students from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, led to the death of 19-year-old Jonathan R. Duchatellier.
Paolo pleaded guilty in October 2004, after the charges were reduced to assault and battery. He was sentenced to three years probation and 100 hours of community service.
"It was a tragic accident that happens when college kids drink," Paolo's lawyer told the Boston Globe. ''It was a totally horrible thing, but it was not murder, not assault. It was a misdemeanor."
They kept the relationship a secret for about a year. Beatrice's parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, were aware of the relationship. When rumors began to spread about the romantic link, Sarah made sure to show her support.
"As any parent will know, the most important element in a relationship with your child is trust. We all have our own journeys and have to learn our way but Beatrice is a sensible girl, soon to be 18, with many friends including Paolo. We must trust her judgment," she told the Sunday Independent.
Andrew and Sarah tried doubling down on their show of support by inviting Paolo on a vacation to Switzerland with them in 2006. What the Yorks didn't realize was that doing so was a violation of Paolo's probation, as a judge had only OKed him to travel for business. As a result, the story went even more public as Paolo's probation was extended due to the violation.
Beatrice and Paolo split shortly thereafter. He wasn't done with the royals just yet, however. In 2007, he gave an interview with the Daily Mail about his relationship with Beatrice. He said that Beatrice was taking him seriously enough to consider introducing him to Queen Elizabeth.
"She said, 'I'd love you to meet Granny,'" he said. "But she said Chelsy wasn't allowed to meet her and usually you don't get introduced to her until you are engaged."
"Bea wanted to fly to New York to visit my mother but, I'll be honest, I've never brought a woman back to my house to meet my family unless it was someone I would be proposing to," Paolo continued.
"We'd started joking about getting married and having kids. I wasn't sure I wanted to get in that deep with Bea. I loved her but I wasn't in love with her."
"Sometimes another lady friend of mine would come over to my place at Eaton Square in London. It was just messing around, never anything more, and I felt so bad afterwards because of Bea," he told the paper.
"I'm not a bad person. But it's like putting heroin in front of Pete Doherty. Women are my weakness."
In the interview, Paolo also said that it wasn't too hard to get Sarah to agree to let Beatrice and a then-15-year-old Eugenie come party with him and his friends. At these parties, "guests smoked cannabis and drank a tea made of magic mushrooms."
Paolo did acknowledge that Prince Andrew may not have been completely filled in on things. "I assumed Fergie told the duke but I was really surprised when I discovered she hadn't."
Paolo would end up in trouble with the law again two years after he and Beatrice split. In 2009, Paolo fled Jupiters Casino in Australia without paying his bill. He then crashed a rented Audi. He was arrested and charged with disqualified driving, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, two counts of fraud, and possessing about 2 grams of cocaine. His mother agreed to pay restitution to the casino and limo company the car was from.
