Prince Andrew welcomes second grandchild as daughter gives birth 

Britain's Princess Beatrice and husband Edoardo Mozzi during a past event.

Photo credit: File

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 11:42pm 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 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, welcomed he and his wife Meghan's 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 associated 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.