Who is Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi under the radar? Princess Beatrice’s husband is becoming increasingly important in the current royal family

There was a time when Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi was clearly under the radar, drawing attention to his partner, now wife, Princess Beatrice.

But today the Anglo-Italian aristocrat Edo, who which celebrates its 40th birthday today, has become a fixture at royal events.

It is believed the pair first met in September 2018, shortly before Beatrice’s sister Eugenie got married.

However, it is said that he had been close to the York family for some time and they knew each other as children before Edo and the royal family started seeing each other romantically.

He is the son of Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi, a British Olympian and member of a former Italian noble family, and Nikki Shale.

Edo, as he is known to friends, was educated at the prestigious Dragon School in Oxford and then at the Radley School in Oxfordshire before studying for a masters in politics in Edinburgh.

His parents divorced when he and his younger sister Natalia Yeomans were children, and his mother remarried the late businessman and Conservative activist Christopher Shale, a close friend of former Prime Minister – now Foreign Secretary – David Cameron.

He was so devoted to his stepfather that he named his son Christopher (nicknamed ‘Wolfie’) after him.

Edoardo shares Wolfie with ex-fiancé Dara Huang. Edo got engaged to the American architect in 2017 after the couple met in 2015.

However, their relationship was short-lived and they split in 2018, just weeks before rumors broke that Edo and Beatrice were dating.

It was said that Edoardo, a property developer, helped mend Beatrice’s broken heart following her divorce from Dave Clark in 2016 after a decade together.

Edo made his first public appearance alongside Beatrice at the 2019 National Portrait Gallery Gala. Not long after, he accompanied Beatrice on a family trip with Sarah Ferguson at the Bahrain Grand Prix in March of the same year.

Beatrice, now 35, announced her engagement to Edo in September 2019, just 11 months after the couple first started dating after he proposed to the princess in Italy.

In a statement, they said: “We are thrilled to share the news of our recent engagement.

“We are both so excited to start this life adventure together and can’t wait to actually get married.”

Afterwards, Edo began joining Beatrice at royal events, such as the Windsors’ annual Christmas Day services at Sandringham Estate.

The couple had planned to marry at the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace in May 2020, but were forced to postpone the ceremony in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, Beatrice and Edo opted for an intimate wedding at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park on July 17, 2020.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Princess Beatrice’s grandparents, attended along with ‘immediate family’ – including Princess Eugenie and Prince Andrew.

They welcomed their first child, Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi, in September 2021, who is currently 10th in line to the British throne.

Although she has no royal titles, she will receive a title through her father’s family, as Sienna has other nobility in her blood.

Her father, Edo, is descended from the Italian aristocracy and will inherit the family seat, the 18th-century Villa Mapelli Mozzi palace in northern Italy.

This makes Beatrice and Sienna Italian ‘Contessas’ and ‘Nobile Donna’. Such titles are no longer officially recognized in Italy. However, they can still be used as a sign of respect.

When the couple announced Sienna’s name in October 2021, Edoardo shared a print of their daughter’s feet and wrote: ‘Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi. Our life together is just beginning and I can’t wait to see all the wonderful things that await us.

‘I feel so much love and gratitude for my amazing wife, baby Sienna and [her half-brother] Wolfie. These are the days I never want to forget. This week a friend said the sweetest saying to me…. that with every child you get a whole new heart.’

Later, the royal family’s official social media page posted the same image, with the caption: “The couple said: ‘We are all doing well and Wolfie is the best big brother to Sienna.’

Wolfie made his debut with the royal family in 2022, joining his father and stepmother at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant, and later spent time with the royals at Christmas.

At the age of 23, with the support of his family, Edo founded real estate company Banda in 2007 and remains CEO to this day. The company specializes in finding and developing homes for wealthy clients – he is reportedly a multi-millionaire.

He is also behind Cricket Builds Hope (CBH), an organization founded in memory of his stepfather and which teaches Rwandans to play cricket.

The charity has its roots in the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation, which was founded by Christopher Shale to build the country’s first grass cricket ground.