Richard Branson gives away daughter Holly during wedding on his fire-ravaged private island

Found this news so  interesting, I had to share it with you.

Hero: Kate Winslet famously carried Richard's 90-year-old mother Eve down a flight of stairs in the burning home

Before the catastrophe: The island, which he bought for £180,000 in 1979, is used by both family members and friends but can also be rented for £34,000 a night

Destroyed: The Great House on her father Richard Branson's £60 million Necker Island in the Carribbean was ravaged by fire in August

Why Princess Beatrice said no to the Queen

Only twice a year does the Queen summon the entire Royal Family to the Palace. But when guests assembled for a pre-Christmas lunch on Monday there were two surprising absentees — Princess Beatrice and her sister Eugenie.
For the date clashed with another important occasion for Prince Andrew’s highly social daughters — a trip to the Caribbean for the wedding of Sir Richard Branson’s daughter, Holly, 29.
The tycoon’s daughter yesterday married her long-time shipbroker boyfriend Freddie Andrews in a romantic ceremony on the sandy beach of Sir Richard’s £60 million privately-owned Necker Island. Beatrice, 23, and Eugenie, 21, are both close friends of Holly and wanted to be there for her big day.
All the same it is rare for royals to excuse themselves from the traditional family lunch, which is extended to minor royals not invited to spend Christmas at Sandringham on the Queen’s Norfolk estate.
‘It’s a sure sign that the Queen has mellowed a little,’ says a courtier. ‘It used to be the case that attendance at the lunch was as non-negotiable as Trooping The Colour is in the summer. Of course, with new family members to accommodate this year, perhaps there was quite relief the girls couldn’t attend.’