Prince Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson seen for first time since Queen’s death
The Duchess of York has reunited with ex-husband Prince Andrew in her first public appearance since the Queen’s death.
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Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson joined ex-husband Prince Andrew view floral tributes at Windsor in her first public appearance since the Queen’s death.
The Duchess of York was dressed in black as she and Prince Andrew walked around the castle grounds inspecting the sea of flowers and messages in memory of her former mother-in-law.
Ms Ferguson, mother to Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, divorced Prince Andrew in 1996 but remained close ever since, proclaiming the Duke his “soulmate” and calling the Queen “more of a mother”.
She crouched to read the messages and stopped to smell the thousands of bouquets that have been relocated from the Long Walk to the inside of the palace grounds.
Her absence from official events for more than a week since the Queen’s death was becoming increasingly noticed. But it has been reported the 62-year-old Duchess of York has been invited to the Queen’s funeral on Monday.
While she left a tribute to the Queen on her Instagram account saying she was “heartbroken” at the loss of her “most incredible mother-in-law and friend”, she wasn’t seen at any of the official events arranged during the 10 days of mourning.
Her daughters, meanwhile, will join the Queen’s grand children at a special vigil despite also being non-working members of the royal family.
She was once the Queen’s daughter-in-law, but Sarah Ferguson has been effectively black-listed from the royal inner circle for the last two decades after shocking photos emerged of her having her toes sucked by another man.
The Duchess of York, or Fergie as she is better known, was already separated from the Queen’s son Andrew when she was caught in the compromising position in 2002.
The couple made the split official in 2006, but appear to have the most amicable divorce in history, living together in the grace and favour 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park.
Fergie, 62, has been Andrew’s most fierce and loyal supporter following sex assault allegations against him and his friendship with the disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince Andrew, also 62, has always denied any of the sex claims against him.
Following the death of the monarch, the Queen’s other children’s partners have all been visible at one mourning engagement or another.
Last Saturday, Anne, the Princess Royal, and her husband Sir Timothy Laurence and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, inspected floral tributes with their children at Balmoral,
Prince Andrew was there on his own with his daughters.
Despite Fergie’s proclamations that she and Andrew are “soulmates” and that she was so close to the Queen she thought of her as “more of a mother to me than my mother”, she was not invited.
In a tribute to the Queen on her Instagram account last week, the Duchess of York said she was “heartbroken” by her death and thanked the monarch for being “the most incredible mother-in-law and friend”.
“I will always be grateful to her for the generosity she showed me in remaining close to me even after my divorce,” she wrote.
“I will miss her more than words can express.”
If it is true that the Queen, who was 96 when she died last Thursday, and the duchess were still close, the monarch must have been a very forgiving person.
The toe-sucking incident was just one of many scandals Fergie has been embroiled in over the years.
Most of them relate to money.
As well as running up considerable debt following the divorce, in 2010 she was caught in a tabloid sting, reportedly selling access to her ex-husband to a fake Indian businessman for ₤500,000 (A$850,000).
She later told US TV host Oprah Winfrey that at the time “she was in the gutter” due to drinking and had substantial debts.
She denied Prince Andrew had any prior knowledge of her meeting.
More recently, she received some negative press after buying a $8.5m mews house in London as an “investment” for the couple’s daughters, despite continuously moaning over the years that she was poor.
It sparked a furious tirade from the person who sold the couple a ski chalet, and had to sue them six years later to get her money.
The chalet has since been sold to recoup some of the costs for Andrew’s out-of-court settlement with his accuser Virginia Guiffre.
In the last few years, it was thought that Fergie was slowly being welcomed back into the royal circle when she was invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in 2018.
She didn’t make the guest list for Prince William’s and Catherine Middleton’s 2011 nuptials.
She was also pictured next to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, for the official wedding photos of her and Andrew’s daughter Princess Eugenie in 2018.
Philip, who had previously regarded her as his favourite daughter-in-law before the toe-sucking scandal, reportedly “could not bear the woman”.
After his death aged 99 last year, it was thought that might be the moment Fergie would be allowed back into the fold.
But with the funeral guest list tight, it remains to be seen whether Fergie will be there next Monday.
If not she will have to settle for watching it on the TV with two of the Queen’s corgis, which the Yorks agreed to adopt following her death.
Originally published as Prince Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson seen for first time since Queen’s death
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