Princess Beatrice went on an eyewatering 10 holidays in the space of just four months when she was 19-years-old - and the £250k security bill was footed by the British taxpayers.

Before she went to read history and the history of ideas at Goldsmiths College, she took a gap year where she visited the likes of Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Belgium, Egypt, Abu Dhabi and New York. In the first four months of 2011, she went on 10 holidays alone, including two trips each to St Barths and New York, three to Verbier and visits to Aspen and Greece.

Shockingly, the annual taxpayer bill for her security alone was £250,000 as she was accompanied everywhere by her police protection officers.

Princess Beatrice was born in 1988, and her younger sister Princess Eugenie followed in 1990. The pair had 24/7 security their whole lives until it was controversially revoked in 2011, meaning they had round-the-clock security for 23 and 21 years, respectively.

Their security was removed after Princess Eugenie's gap year racked up an eye-watering taxpayer bill of more than £100,000, as she was accompanied by police bodyguards while travelling to India, the US, South Africa and Thailand.

Speaking of Eugenie's gap year controversy, royal expert Richard Kay told the Channel 5 documentary Beatrice and Eugenie: Pampered Princesses: "She was sort of flitting from country to country as most middle-class young people do who take gap years.

"But, of course, she was accompanied by police bodyguards. That meant that we, the taxpayers, were paying for policemen to accompany her to the fleshpots of the world."

According to reports at the time, it was the then-Prince Charles who stepped in to control the spending.

However, he was met with "furious" pushback by his younger brother, who did not welcome the suggestion and even reportedly contacted Queen Elizabeth for guidance.

Also speaking on the programme at the time, royal biographer Angela Levin said: "Prince Charles decided that as they were not likely to be very senior royals, that this was too much for the public to pay, so he stopped that.

"Prince Andrew was so angry that he wrote a note to the Queen. He said he wanted them to be considered as proper royals. He did not want the protection officers to leave them."

The only royals with 24/7 police security nowadays are the King, Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal do not have full-time security. However, they are guarded when they are carrying out public engagements.