Sarah Ferguson finds herself without a home after the scandal around her ex husband Andrew erupted, but it’s not the first time she’s faced controversy. Her daughters once shared a bold reaction to the scandal that changed her
Sarah Ferguson is no stranger to scandals, but the latest downfall of her disgraced ex husband Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – as he’ll now forever be known – has proved to be one too many.
The former duchess has given up her title and finds herself without a home after King Charles delivered the final blow to his younger brother and booted him out of Royal Lodge, the crumbling 30-room mansion the former couple have spent decades in together.
Andrew was also stripped of his prince status last week, confirmed in a blistering statement by the Palace – who made clear that Charles and Queen Camilla stand by victims and survivors of abuse in all forms. Virginia Guiffre, a Jeffrey Epstein victim who died by suicide earlier this year, accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her three times when she was a teenager, claims he vehemently denies.
READ MORE: What’s next for disgraced Andrew – more titles stripped, money snub and ‘move abroad’READ MORE: Meghan Markle’s staggering decision that ‘sparked furious warning from Queen’READ MORE: Andrew’s intimate ‘tastes’ from ‘attractive masseuses to ban on larger women’
But the furore surrounding his relationship with the late billionare paedophile – and the lies he told about when he cut ties – sealed Andrew’s fate, as he has now been exiled from royal life alongside his ex wife, who also had her own links to Epstein. While Andrew is expected to move into a property on the sprawling Sandringham estate, Fergie has been told by the Palace to find her own living arrangements.
Fergie’s two daughters have so far stayed silent on their parents’ downfall, but it’s not the first time they’ve seen the former couple battle ferocious scandals. Back in 2010, Sarah was caught by undercover journalists from the now-defunct News of the World offering access to Andrew and leveraging his royal status in exchange for £500,000.
“£500,000 to me when you can, open doors,” Fergie was caught on videotape saying regarding her ex-husband, with the fake businessman saying to her, “It’s a deal?” with Sarah replying, “Yes,” before shaking his hand. When the scandal broke, Andrew was reportedly forced to step in and clear some of Sarah’s debts.
Sarah then went on The Oprah Winfrey Show to admit that she had been a little drunk during the interaction, and living beyond her means. “There aren’t really very many words to describe an act of such gross stupidity,” she confessed.
However, her daughters stood firmly beside her, as she added: “Beatrice and Eugenie just called me and said, Mum, actually, it’s a really good, fresh, clean start for you because we’re here 100 per cent for you and we love you. And I said to them, ‘I’m so glad that through my mistakes you’ll never do this.'”
Eugenie and Beatrice have so far not responded to the latest scandal engulfing their parents. Both jetted out of the UK last week, not long before the Palace dropped its bombshell announcement. Beatrice was photographed with friends in Paris on a girls’ trip, while Beatrice went to Saudi Arabia for the Future Investment Initiative.
Sarah’s links to Epstein have attracted huge scrutiny in recent weeks. She borrowed at least £15,000 from disgraced financer, with newly surfaced emails allegedly showing that she also asked for further sums: $50,000 (£37,240) to $100,000 (£78,475) from him to help with “small bills” and that she asked to visit his private island in the Caribbean. Her daughters have also been inadvertently dragged into the Epstein scandal.
When an email recently emerged that she wrote to Epstein in 2011, shortly after publicly disowning him in a newspaper interview, many of the charities she had long worked with dropped her like a hot potato. Several of these charities announced they found it would be “inappropriate” to continue their professional ties with Sarah, who called Epstein a “supreme friend” in the email and apologised for her comments about him.
Her spokesperson has claimed that Sarah wrote the email in question under extreme duress, with the convicted sex offender allegedly threatening to “destroy” her and her family after she said in the interview that she “abhors paedophilia”.
However, another email emerged later, from Jeffrey Epstein to his own legal team about her interview, which made a shocking allegation about Sarah “celebrating” his release from prison for sex crimes by bringing her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 20 and 19 at the time, to visit him. A source from Sarah’s circle says she and her daughters don’t recollect this trip.
