The former Duchess of York, 66, has seen her world crumble around her in recent months, and she is said to be struggling as tries to accept a very uncertain future
Having once enjoyed all the prestige and considerable perks that comes with being a royal, Sarah Ferguson is reportedly struggling to come to terms with her new position.
The former Duchess of York – who has had to give up her title, along with her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – has retreated from the public eye amid the ongoing furore over the couple’s connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew has vehemently denied all accusations against him.
Both are said to have lied about the timeline of their friendship with the convicted paedophile – and the very public backlash has had a major impact on Sarah, according to insiders. Now with no public standing, and essentially homeless – both she and disgraced Andrew have been told to leave Royal Lodge – Sarah is said to be in a bad way.
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Royal commentator Helena Chard told Fox News: “Her [Fergie’s] nerves are frayed. She is shaken to the core by the loss of her royal safety net. She fears further humiliation and worries that the serious allegations will affect her girls’ standing.”
Another expert, Hilary Fordwich, added: “She’s described as ‘massively on edge’ and ‘panicking’ about her own future. While Sarah and Andrew are currently both still residing in Windsor, they are reportedly sleeping at different ends of the sprawling Royal Lodge. They do get together to discuss their respective uncertain futures.
“While their relationship had long been described as unusually close for divorced exes — cohabiting and supporting one another through public crises as a result of her association with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Sarah has been disowned by every charity she supported, and faces an ongoing wave of public outrage.
The phone has apparently stopped ringing altogether, with friends and business associates allegedly keen to distance themselves from the disgraced former couple.
Andrew and Sarah have both gone to ground, hunkered down in their decaying 30-room Windsor mansion ahead of their eviction, with a steady stream of Amazon deliveries reportedly turning up on a regular basis.
A source told the Daily Mail: “Sarah is going around blaming herself. She keeps repeating ‘what if I hadn’t done this, or hadn’t done that’. The phone has stopped ringing overnight. Even those who were willing to defend her less than a month ago don’t want to have anything to do with her now. It’s a disaster. Professionally and personally. Even she can’t see a way of bouncing back.”
It’s thought that Sarah is now considering quitting the UK altogether and setting up home abroad – something Andrew is also said to be contemplating. With her invitations and work opportunities reportedly dried up, there is not much to keep her in the country – aside from her children and grandchildren. Younger daughter Eugenie does split her time between London and Portugal, however, so this is perhaps a potential new location for Sarah.
But what about her relationship with Andrew? Having famously described them as the ‘happiest divorced couple in the world ‘, it seems the fall-out from the Epstein scandal has finally broken the exes.
According to royal expert Tina Brown, Sarah’s loyalty has already ‘evaporated’ now her ‘freebie digs’ in Windsor have gone. She said: “Andrew’s banishment to an as-yet unnamed property in windswept Norfolk on the Sandringham estate seems to have evaporated Fergie’s much-vaunted loyalty to her ex-husband, now that her freebie digs in a wing of Royal Lodge, 25 minutes from London, will soon have the locks changed.”
For the time being, at least, Sarah continues to keep a low-profile. Her latest book, Flora and Fern: Kindness Along the Way, had been due for publication on 9 October, but was postponed until 20 November. It has now reportedly been removed entirely from publication schedules, and publishing sources have claimed that printed copies are being sent for recycling.
More upsetting for the ex-royal, however, will be the likely strain this scandal has put on her relationship with her girls, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. The sisters have both spent time out of the country as the furore continues.
