Inside Princess Beatrice's 'Turmoil' After She Marked Her 38th Birthday

Princess Beatrice marked her 38th birthday after an extraordinarily turbulent year, which has seen her family engulfed by controversy and the royal forced to navigate intense scrutiny of her parents, OK! can reveal.

The mother-of-two celebrated her birthday on Saturday, August 8, after 12 months dominated by developments surrounding her parents, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, 66, and Sarah Ferguson, also 66, and their past association with Jeffrey Epstein, who died at age 66.

Beatrice and her sister, Princess Eugenie, 36, were also named in documents released by the U.S. State Department in January relating to a 2009 trip to America.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by either sister.

A source said: "The past year has been extraordinarily challenging for Beatrice because she has repeatedly found herself dealing with the fallout from events that she had no control over. Whatever difficulties surround her parents, they're still her mother and father, so naturally she feels the impact when the family is subjected to another wave of scrutiny."

"It's been one thing after another, and there has barely been an opportunity for the attention surrounding the York family to settle before something else has brought it back into the headlines. Beatrice has had to watch intensely personal and uncomfortable matters involving her family being picked apart publicly, while knowing there is very little she can personally do to change the situation," they added.

"At the same time, she has an entirely separate life of her own. She's a wife, a mother to young children and has a professional career, and those are the things she has been trying to concentrate on rather than becoming consumed by controversies surrounding other members of her family. Keeping a relatively low profile has been a deliberate and sensible approach. Beatrice hasn't wanted to add to the noise or put herself unnecessarily at the center of attention when the family is already facing such intense scrutiny," the source concluded.

Her children and her home life are incredibly important to her, and protecting that sense of normality has become even more significant during such a turbulent period.

She can support the people she loves privately without feeling that she needs to publicly answer for everything happening around them.

"Ultimately, this isn't how anybody would have imagined Beatrice spending the year leading up to her 38th birthday. There have been happy moments within her immediate family, but they have come against an extremely difficult backdrop of family turmoil, and she has been trying to navigate that while getting on with her own life as quietly as possible," the insider dished.

Beatrice and Eugenie have maintained noticeably lower public profiles amid the controversy.

Beatrice faced further scrutiny in June after a National Audit Office investigation revealed rent on her apartment at St James' Palace was being covered by the Privy Purse rather than personally by the princess.

The arrangement is understood to have originated during the reign of Beatrice's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who died at age 96.

Beatrice and Eugenie were absent from several prominent royal occasions, including the Easter gathering at Windsor Castle and Royal Ascot.

Beatrice did attend the June wedding of her cousin Peter Phillips, where she was seen with members of the wider Royal Family, including Prince William.

Away from the controversy, Beatrice has continued working as vice president of strategic partnerships at software company Afiniti while raising her family with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

The couple share daughters Sienna, 4, and Athena, 1, while Mapelli Mozzi also has son Christopher "Wolfie" Mapelli Mozzi, 10, from a previous relationship.

Beatrice has also recently become an aunt again after Eugenie welcomed a third child with husband Jack Brooksbank.