Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew finalised their divorce in May 1996, at which point the late Queen presented her former daughter-in-law with a very generous gift
Sarah Ferguson’s marriage to Prince Andrew might have ended in divorce, but she remained close to her mother-in-law, the late Queen.
Following the monarch’s passing in September 2022, Sarah paid a heartfelt tribute to her ‘second mother’ in a moving Instagram post.
“You were a wonderful friend, a mentor, a second mother to me and grandmother to my daughters who share so much of your courage and heart,” she wrote. “You will always be loved and missed by our family and our nation.”
Sarah’s bond with the Queen was most evident when the monarch bought a £1.5million home in Surrey for Sarah to live in with Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, once her divorce from Prince Andrew was finalised in 1996.
But while the kind gesture was a clear show of support from her former mother-in-law, Sarah was never able to use the property and was actually forced to sell it.
The lavish seven-bedroom Surrey mansion, known as Birch Hall, was intended for Beatrice and Eugenie for them to live in with their mother and for them to use when they were older.
Despite the supportive gesture, however, Sarah reportedly refused to move into the home because she would be unable to keep up with the huge maintenance costs. It meant that the home stood empty for two years before it was eventually sold for £1.5 million in 1999.
Despite their separation in 1992 and subsequent divorce four years later, Prince Andrew and Sarah have maintained a close relationship – in fact, they still live together at Royal Lodge in Windsor. While their set-up may appear strange to some people, they have been dubbed as “the happiest divorced couple in the world ” having raised their children together, while still enjoying family holidays and days out.
The fact that they are still on such good terms is something many royal experts have praised over the years. Ingrid Seward, the Editor of Majesty Magazine, previously said that Beatrice and Eugenie “love that their parents get on so well”.
In a rare interview with The Telegraph, Sarah herself spoke about their relationship and didn’t make any effort to quash rumours that the pair may remarry one day. She told the paper: “All I can say is that we’re happy with the way we are right now.
“We always say we are the most contented divorced couple in the world. We’re divorced to each other, not from each other. We are co-parents who support each other and believe that family is everything.
“I’m proud of the job we have done together in bringing up our children and sustaining a strong family unit. Our bywords are communication, compromise and compassion.”
And in a previous interview with the Daily Mail from 2018, she again gave details on her uniquely close relationship with the disgraced royal. She said: “July 23, 1986, was the happiest day of my life. Andrew is the best man I know. What he does for Britain is incredible; no one knows how hard he works for his country. My duty is to him. I am so proud of him. I stand by him and always will.
“The way we are is our fairy tale. Although we are not a couple, we really believe in each other. The Yorks are a united family. We’ve shown it. You saw it at the wedding [Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank’s wedding].
“We stand up for each other, fight for each other. We’re totally respectful of each other’s position and thoughts and we listen to each other. Our children listen to us, too. And we sit around the table and have afternoon tea together. It’s a very important part of our lives.”
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