DEEP DIVE

Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi Just Made Their First Appearance as a Couple

Her new relationship with Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi has been confirmed.

March 13, 2019

The Duchess Of Cambridge Attends The Portrait Gala 2019

Karwai Tang

While all eyes were on Kate Middleton (and her repurposed Alexander McQueen gown) at London’s National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday night, many almost missed a milestone moment at the event: Princess Beatrice of York and her new boyfriend, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, made their first joint public appearance at the 2019 Portrait Gala to support the gallery’s Inspiring People project with a silent auction.

After her younger sister, Princess Eugenie of York, married the Casamigos ambassador Jack Brooksbank, at the second biggest royal wedding of 2018, Princess Beatrice began dating Mozzi. Earlier this year, paparazzi snapped photos of the two on vacation in Kenya (which the Daily Mail pointed out was where Mozzi proposed to his former partner Dara Huang, an architect with whom he shares a toddler son named Wolfie), but the pair had yet to confirm their relationship—until now, when Princess Beatrice brought him along as her date to the Portrait Gala.

Mozzi, who is independently wealthy and already royal adjacent (he is the son of Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi), works in the realm of real estate, where he is the founder and CEO of Banda, a firm that develops already exorbitant properties and tailors them to the requirements of new, even wealthier owners. His idea of a flex on social media is just a smattering of his ideas for real estate projects and interior design.

The occasional art fair selfie makes an appearance on his Instagram grid as well, like this one shot from Frieze London last October.

While it was initially speculated that the two began dating in November 2018, the pair have actually been acquaintances for much longer. Mozzi’s stepfather was the late British politician Christopher Shale, whose funeral was attended by Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in 2011. Princess Beatrice was in attendance as well. A few years later, in 2014, both Princess Beatrice and Mozzi attended the wedding of Charlie Gilkes (a friend of Prince Harry’s), in Puglia, Italy, according to the Daily Mail. Mozzi and Princess Beatrice have run in similar circles for years, but it was not until two years after Princess Beatrice broke up with Dave Clark, her beau of a decade, that the two began officially dating.