The late Queen Elizabeth allowed Prince Andrew and Fergie the chance to build their own royal home, but things quickly spiralled as the lavish residence cost more than anticipated
When Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson tied the knot in Westminster Abbey in 1986, they were showered with thousands of luxury gifts from the A-list celebrities who were invited to their star-studded nuptials. Among the presents they received to celebrate their marriage was the promise from the late Queen Elizabeth to have their own royal residence.
After the newlyweds toured countless of existing properties all around the country, they decided they would build their own home to service all of their wants and needs. Thanks to a generous cash gift from the Queen of £250,000, the couple started construction on their infamous Berkshire home named Sunninghill Park.
However, while construction of the 30-bedroom home was still ongoing, the late Queen was forced to put her foot down and cut off Andrew and Fergie from overspending on the lavish property, long before their first marital home had been built.
After they very quickly hit their quarter of a million pound budget, the former monarch was at breaking point with her son, and tightened her purse strings to stop their excessive spending.
On a new Channel 5 documentary, titled Fergie, Andrew & The Scandal of SouthYork, royal author Andrew Lownie recalled the moment that the late Queen became fed up with the over the top spending on the massive property.
Lownie said: “The Queen, I think, eventually put her foot down and said, you know, this is crazy. At that point, they hadn’t built the swimming pool and the tennis court, and who knows whether the helicopter pad was there then either.”
Talk TV’s Royal editor Sarah Hewson further explained that when the couple maxed out their budget in the middle of 1990, one year after construction began, the Palace refused to pay anymore money to the grand home.
Hewson said: “By this stage, Sunninghill Park was proving to be a financial headache, in particular, for the Queen, notoriously financially prudent who was having to foot the ever-escalating bills.”
Instead of accepting the fact that they had to work within their budget to complete their marital home, the Duchess of York began exploring other avenues to fund their dream home, eventually turning to Hello! Magazine to do a photoshoot.
The 45-page magazine spread, which was the first time a royal couple had turned to the press for such an insight, earned Andrew and Sarah a further £200,000 to finish their home, while also welcoming a flood of criticism from the public over their design choices.
Many were quick to criticise the decor of the house, which included countless teddy bears, cushions with trite slogans, and personalised toilet roll holders including one that sang God Save The Queen.
“Fergie had a very enterprising idea that she would do a photoshoot for Hello!” said Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine. “Nobody in the royal family had ever done a shoot like that.”
“Although the Queen never commented publicly on it, she was less than pleased,” added Hewson. “She saw it as lacking decorum and that it was an invasion of privacy. Prince Philip, he just thought it was downright tacky and distasteful.”
In October 1990, the Yorks finally moved into their extravagant home, throwing an enormous housewarming party with a jungle theme.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson announced their separation in 1992, finalising their divorce in 1996, and putting Sunninghill Park on the market in 2002 for a whopping £12 million. The house sat on the market for five years before being purchased, falling into a state of disrepair.
Despite being divorced, the couple still live together at Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate. The disgraced Duke of York, who has no apparent income, was reportedly told last year to leave the 30-room Royal Lodge by the King.
There were claims Andrew could not meet the £400,000-a-year upkeep of the 19th century, Grade II-listed property, which has a pool and 90 acres of land. But so far, Andrew has refused to budge from the Queen Mother’s former home in Windsor Great Park.
