The man who REALLY shattered Princess Beatrice's heart: How a tech-savvy ... trends now
There was understandable relief when Princess Beatrice’s year-long romance with American playboy Paulo Liuzzo finally broke apart in 2005.
Beatrice was just 17, at the time. Liuizzo, a polo-playing socialite, was seven years her senior and devoted to the sort of hard-partying lifestyle guaranteed to cause significant embarrassment to the royals.
At one point he'd been charged with manslaughter and possession of cocaine. Another time, he was convicted of affray.
Even Beatrice's perpetually sunny mother, Sarah Ferguson, saw the downside of Paolo, noting of her eldest daughter that, 'We all have our own journeys and have to learn our way.'
The princess was said to have been heartbroken when this, her first serious romance, collapsed. And some of that sorrow returned this week, say friends, when Beatrice learned of Liuzzo's sad death at the age of 41.
The man she'd once loved had been found in Miami hotel room, killed by a suspected overdose of drugs.
Princess Beatrice with her then boyfriend Dave Clark, who was taking part in Sir Richard Branson's attempts to kitesurf across the English Channel in 2010
As Beatrice remembers Paolo in the coming weeks, however, she might be forgiven if she takes a moment to reflect on another past relationship – one that lasted rather longer and seemed to guarantee wedding bells, in fact.
But one which left Prince Andrew's daughter anguished, vulnerable and depressed when, after a decade of waiting, it finally ran into the sand.
In Dave Clark, a clean-cut, tech-savy entrepreneur, Beatrice thought she had found true love and for many years, they seemed inseparable.
If Liuzzo was never a contender, there was much to recommend his replacement. For a start, Beatrice had been introduced to him by her cousin, Prince William.
Moving in the same wealthy circles, the two men had met each other when they studied in Scotland - Clark, now 38, at Edinburgh University and William, 41, at St Andrews.
Known as 'Dashing Dave', Clark combined good looks, easy charm and a transAtlantic accent, the result of growing up in a family that lived between London and New York.
He had friends in common with the Yorks, including Sam Branson, son of multimillionaire entrepreneur, Sir Richard, and spent time on the Necker, the Bransons' private Caribbean island.
Even Clark's chosen career was modishly forward-looking. Starting off with taxi-hailing firm Uber, he would later spend time working for Branson's space programme, at one point describing himself as a 'future astronaut'.
The Duke and Duchess of York seemed pleased that their little girl had found someone so appropriate.
'I love Dave. He's cool,' Sarah Ferguson cooed in a 2008 magazine interview, two years into her daughter's new relationship. 'I call him Mr Smiley because he smiles and he's happy.'
Princess Beatrice with her ex boyfriend Dave Clark at London Fashion Week in 2010
To many of their friends – and certainly to Beatrice herself – this felt like the real deal.
Rarely apart, the couple graced at an endless if predictable round of yacht parties, ski chalets and upmarket social gatherings although they were not together, it should be said, at more formal royal occasions.
Ever loyal, Beatrice followed Dave to both coasts of America as he pursued his tech career. At one point she enrolled in a finance course in San Francisco, before following him to Manhattan and taking a job there in investment banking.
A royal wedding was widely expected – for a while at least.
Yet as the years passed, so the doubts began to form among Beatrice's friends and family.
There was growing distrust in Royal circles, in particular, including a suspicion that Beatrice's connections impressed Clark a little more than they should have done.
Prince William shared the unease. Though he was the one who'd first introduced Dave Clark to his flame-haired cousin, it is said that prince struggled to warm to the slick Anglo-American and that, whatever friendship there had initially been, had cooled.
Some, taking a more generous view, feel that Clark might well have realised the writing was on the wall for the relationship, but lacked the heart to tell her.
Things came to a head in 2011 when there was no room for him at William and Kate's wedding. Beatrice arrived at Westminster Abbey with little sister, Princess Eugenie, instead.
Perhaps mindful of his cousin's past entanglement with Paulo, William is said to have been protective of Beatrice and told friends he didn't feel Dave was right for her.
It's also been suggested that William judged Clark too 'indiscreet' to invite to the wedding – which is to say that he was concerned, rightly or wrongly, that private information about would end up in the media.
In any event, there would be no meeting at the altar for 'Dashing Dave' and Beatrice.
The decade-long relationship came crashing to an end when, in 2016, Beatrice offered Cark an 'ultimatum', insisting that they marry. She was rebuffed.
Not only did Clark fail to give her the response she needed, he promptly turned his attentions elsewhere – specifically
