LONDON — Britain's press has found a new royal target after Princess Beatrice was photographed wearing a bikini that displayed her curvy hips.

London's Daily Mail newspaper — which has dubbed Beatrice "Pampered Miss Piggy" — bellowed: "Can't someone buy the poor girl a sarong? For her sake, as well as ours."

AP Photo/Sang Tan (ENLARGE)

Britain's Princess Beatrice, right, Princess Eugenie, center, and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York leave St. George's Chapel in Windsor, England, after attending a recent wedding.

• Photos of bikini-clad Beatrice on The Sun site NATION/WORLD National News: [an error occurred while processing this directive] International News: [an error occurred while processing this directive] • More Nation/World News • Nation/World Photo Galleries

Even the comparatively staid Sunday Times asked whether the exceedingly well-rounded Beatrice should have covered up while on vacation in St. Barthelemy in the French West Indies.

Just over six months ago, the media was reporting a concerted effort to build "Brand Beatrice" around the 19-year-old daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, who is fifth in line to the throne.

The long-tressed royal appeared alongside her mother on the catwalk at the grand finale of London Fashion Week. Images of Beatrice clad in a gorgeous Dolce & Gabbana dress were plastered everywhere.

Then there was her role in an upcoming film about her great-great-great-great-great grandmother called "The Young Victoria."

Beatrice's romance with Dave Clark, 25, an American working on Richard Branson's space-tourism project Virgin Galactic, has been followed closely by the paparazzi, sparking discussion of plans to make her the first member of the royal family to travel into space.

So what went wrong?

"Everything's always going to be an uphill struggle for Princess Beatrice," said Max Clifford, one of London's best-known publicists. "The tabloids have never liked her mother, and so the daughter is inheriting a lot of the animosity."

"It's a shame, because it seems she's a very caring, bright girl," he said, adding that he finds it ridiculous she's been torn apart because she's not a size zero.

"Bikinigate," as the British press referred to it, sparked a vigorous defense of her daughter from Ferguson, the duchess of York.

"Bea is a healthy size 10, she's a fabulous girl, she has a completely good heart," Ferguson told reporters.

Ferguson, a longtime spokesperson for Weight Watchers in the United States, was years ago nicknamed the "duchess of pork" because of her own weight battles.

By most accounts she's been very close to both Beatrice and her other daughter, Eugenie, since divorcing Andrew in 1996 after a 10-year marriage.

Following Ferguson's counterattack, the publicity tide already might be turning back in favor of Beatrice.

The young princess has been praised for her high grades as she sets off to begin her history degree at Goldsmiths College in London in September.

Currently she's gaining some "work experience" by acting as a personal shopper at Selfridges department store.

And her choice of a garish headpiece decorated with a flock of butterflies for the wedding of Princess Anne's son Peter Phillips to Autumn Kelly last Saturday was commended by many fashion writers as delightfully daring.