Britain's Prince Andrew's daughter Princess Beatrice gives birth to baby girl

London (AFP) – Prince Andrew has become a grandfather for the second time after his eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, gave birth to a baby girl, Buckingham Palace said on Monday.

The as-yet-unnamed girl, 11th in line to the throne and Queen Elizabeth II’s 12th great-grandchild, was born at 11:42 pm (2242 GMT) on Saturday at a London hospital.

The palace said the princess, 33, and her Italian businessman husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, 37, were “delighted to announce the safe arrival of their daughter.”

“The new baby’s grandparents and great-grandparents have all been informed and are delighted with the news,” Buckingham Palace said, adding that both Princess Beatrice and her daughter were in good health.

Beatrice’s younger sister, Eugenie, 31, gave birth to a boy, August Brooksbank, in February last year. Their cousin, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan welcomed their second child, Lilibet in June.

Andrew, 60, was reported to be at his mother’s remote Balmoral estate in northeast Scotland but preparing to visit Beatrice in hospital, according to British media.

He is currently being sued for damages in a US court for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman when she was 17 more than two decades ago. His accuser, Virginia Guiffre, claims she was lent out for sex by the disgraced financer Jeffrey Epstein, who was an associate of the royal.

Lawyers for the prince, who was forced to quit the royal frontline in 2019 over his association with Epstein, are currently wrangling over the delivery of legal papers formally notifying him of the US legal action against him.