A dispute about feet permanently ruined Sarah Ferguson's relationship with Princess
Diana. And that's not the only strange and colorful fact about the Duchess of York.
One of the oddest things about Sarah Ferguson is the fact that she still lives with her ex-husband,
Prince Andrew. Not only do they cohabitate, they've also bought real estate properties
together, even though they've been divorced for nearly two decades. They've called the
Royal Lodge their home for years. And though there are whispers that they'll be kicked out
due to Andrew's allowance from the royals being slashed, they remain within the walls for now.
And as former British public affairs officer Shannon Felton Spence told Fox News in 2022,
"[Fergie] speaks glowingly about him [...] She constantly talks about how she got the
best looking prince. They have maintained an extremely close relationship [...] By
all accounts the Yorks are a very tight-knit family. A real unit."
But it hasn't been all peaceful, of course. The Jeffrey Epstein scandal and Andrew's alleged
involvement have been a struggle for his family. Spence guessed that Fergie likely focused on her
daughters, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, throughout the controversy. Nevertheless,
she has still chosen to maintain her living arrangement with Andrew and stay by his side.
"Prince Andrew, your ex. You call him your favorite ex."
"Right."
It's certainly surprising that Sarah Ferguson has remained so close to Prince Andrew,
considering that their divorce was quite the scandal. But he's not the only ex that she's
close to. During a skiing trip in 2022, she even reunited with her first serious boyfriend:
Paddy McNally, whom she left for Andrew way back in the day.
Joining her two daughters and their husbands on the trip, Fergie and McNally rang in the
new year at his impressive home in Verbier, Switzerland, known as"The Castle." Though he
had a girlfriend at the time, a source told the Daily Mail that they picked up their friendship
right where they left off. It was reportedly clear that they were reminiscing and relying on
each other to get through a rather tumultuous time for Ferguson. As the source recalled,
"Paddy spent a lot of time with Fergie, rallying round her by putting on a
lavish fireworks display for her family, minus Andrew of course.
Most of Andrew's remaining friends, the ones who used to go to Tramp with him,
were there. Fergie enjoyed spending time with her dear friend Paddy, whom she adores."
In the time since her divorce from Prince Andrew,
Sarah Ferguson has maintained her firecracker persona. She's also carved out a space for
herself as an author and gone on press tours to promote her work. But in 2021,
she admitted to People magazine that she hasn't always enjoyed being at the center of attention,
and her ex-husband's scandal has only amplified that for her. As she put it,
"When you have a sense of humor and you're a redhead, everyone takes
you for a big hurricane. But sometimes, you don't always want to be the storm."
Ferguson also addressed Andrew and his association
with Jeffrey Epstein and the stripping of his military titles. Surprisingly enough,
she had nothing but supportive comments for her ex-husband. As she put it,
"Whatever challenges he has, I will stand firm to the co-parenters that we are together … I
believe that he's a kind, good man, and he's been a fabulous father to the girls."
Even though it was hardly a shock considering her advanced age, Queen Elizabeth II's death
in September 2022 rocked much of the world. So many people had simply become used to her
steady presence, and suddenly that was no longer the case. For Sarah Ferguson,
she was able to maintain a positive relationship with her former mother-in-law. In the aftermath
of her passing, she opened up about just how deep their connection was, as the queen
essentially filled the role of Ferguson's own mother, Susan Barrantes. The duchess
got into details on this subject during a March 2023 appearance on Live! With Kelly and Ryan.
"I put it like she was more my mother than my mother because Mum went to live,
run off with an Argentine, a very good-looking Argentine."
Ferguson was only fourteen when her mother left. And as she further revealed,
"That's when the queen was in my life anyway because of polo and things like that. And so,
then she became my mother-in-law, and she was always there with that wonderful hand,
that you could never see, behind your back. It was the support,
that's what the nation felt. That's what the world felt."
Sarah Ferguson's relationship with her former sister-in-law Diana Spencer had its fair share
of drama. Both women married into the royal family and certainly bonded over their shared experience,
but that was ultimately not an unbreakable bond. It was Fergie's first book, My Story,
that firmly placed a wedge between the two ladies when it was released in 1996. Despite Diana's
wish to be excluded from the pages, Ferguson detailed an interaction between the two of
them involving a weird medical condition. The duchess got into the ugly details as she wrote,
"Diana helped me by giving me all her shoes (and less happily, her plantar warts)."
Plantar warts, also called verrucas, aren't exactly the most pleasant condition to deal with,
and this incident caused an all-out row between her and Diana. Ultimately,
this episode and other struggles in their relationship resulted in the
ladies no longer speaking to each other. Tragically, Diana died on August 31,
1997 before she and Ferguson had the chance to heal the wounds in their friendship.
This next one might sound especially strange to anyone who's never had a pet, but it's plenty
relatable for all the animal lovers out there. As it turns out, Sarah Ferguson lets her dogs – all
seven of them – rule over her home. In addition to her five Norfolk terriers, she adopted the late
queen's two corgis after Elizabeth passed away. In October 2022, the duchess told The Telegraph,
"They all balance out. The carpet moves as I move, but I've got used to it now."
She also referred to the two corgis, Muick and Sandy, as "national treasures." While the
decision to give the queen's beloved corgis to Fergie and Prince Andrew surprised many,
it was actually for a good reason. Fergie and the queen's relationship often included
conversations about their mutual love of animals, and a source revealed to
Entertainment Tonight that Fergie was the best person for the job. As the insider explained,
"It was the duchess who found the puppies which were gifted to Her
Majesty by the duke. The duchess bonded with Her Majesty over dog walking and
riding horses and even after her divorce, she would continue her great friendship
with Her Majesty, by walking the dogs together and chatting."
"I did take her out into the garden,
and we both went wandering around the garden, with the doggies."
If there's one thing about the royal family that plenty of people turn a blind eye towards,
it's that a number of their married couples are technically related. It's not exactly a secret,
but it certainly feels like a practice that should've ended centuries ago.
For instance, the late Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip were married for more than
seven decades and had four children together, even though they were third cousins. They had
a great-great-grandmother in common in the form of Queen Victoria. That might be common knowledge
for the most obsessed royal watchers, but it's probably a little shocking to those who aren't
paying close attention. As for Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew, the former couple are also related,
though their common ancestor isn't quite as close as a shared great-great-grandparent.
In anticipation of their 1986 wedding, headlines emerged about their mutual connections to both
King James I and the fourth Duke of Devonshire. Despite all that, Fergie and Andrew went ahead
with their plans for their union. And if the royals were uncomfortable with the idea of
relatives getting married to each other in the 20th century, they certainly didn't express that.
When Prince Charles and Diana Spencer got married in 1981, the young bride notably omitted a
particular phrase in her vows. Despite marrying a future king, Diana refused to say that she would
obey her husband. This decision definitely showed the world that she was not to be messed with.
So when Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew got married five years later, it was a bit surprising
that the duchess didn't follow in Diana's footsteps when it came to her own vows. Instead,
she chose to say that she would obey Andrew throughout their marriage, and she ended up
having to defend her choice during an interview with the Associated Press. As she explained,
"I was thinking of obeying in moral terms, as opposed to physically obeying. But I am
not the sort of woman who is going to meekly trot along behind her husband."
"He made me eat chocolate puffy rolls, which I didn't want to."
As soon as Sarah Ferguson came onto the royal scene as a young woman, she was dealt an awful
hand by the British press. Simply put, they were relentless in their characterization of her,
as she was portrayed as the chubby sidekick to Diana Spencer's graceful Princess of Wales.
And such coverage didn't stop after she and Andrew divorced. If anything,
it only got worse. But then the duchess did something very uncharacteristic to bring a little
bit of levity to her situation. It was something that plenty of celebrities had done before her.
But not many of them were actual royalty, as she guest starred on the hit American sitcom Friends.
The episode was the two-part season four finale "The One with Ross's Wedding," which originally
aired in May 1998. While in London to attend the wedding of Ross and Emily,
Joey hits the streets and captures his explorations on video. Later on,
he shows Chandler the footage of his day out, which includes a moment between him and Fergie,
whom he ran into while wearing an obnoxiously British hat.
"Joey says you don't really like his hat, but I think it's kinda dashing."
As it happens, Fergie was encouraged to cameo as herself thanks to her daughters'
love of the show, and her appearance certainly did not disappoint. In the
book I'll Be There For You: The One About Friends, author Kelsey Miller
wrote about the duchess' decision to join the Central Perk crew, as she revealed,
"[Fergie had been] coaxed into the appearance by her daughters. At a time
when Fergie-bashing had become a national pastime, Friends was a welcome relief."
When we think about British royal drama in 2023, two names probably come to mind immediately. First
there's Prince Andrew, for obvious unsavory reasons. And then there's Prince Harry,
who has charged ahead with his own life in California outside of the confines of the firm.
In various interviews and in his memoir Spare, he hasn't left anything out of the official record,
as he's instead insistently spoken his truth. His actions might seem unprecedented,
but he's far from the first royal to release a tell-all.
As it happens, Sarah Ferguson hit the bookshelves with her memoir My Story all the way back in 1996,
and she similarly held nothing back. While addressing her split from her husband, she wrote,
"From early on [in 1992], Andrew and I had been discussing a separation.
Not because we'd stopped caring for one another, but because I had reached the
end of my royal rope. For six years I had shouldered the demands of Palace life."
The duchess also detailed her experience within the firm. She asserted that she hadn't
received support from the royal family members when it came to her faltering
marriage and also discussed the harsh media coverage she experienced. As she put it,
"I'd endured the constant scrutiny of the British press and the barely veiled hostility of the
Royal Household, the courtiers who run the show. Gradually, relentlessly, they had beaten me down."