The Duke and Duchess of Scandal: Prince Andrew and Fergie are back in the spotlight
After a few years out of the spotlight, this controversial royal pair is back — and they could show Meghan and Kate a thing or two about scandals.
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York has been having a ball.
Spend any time on her Instagram account (@sarahferguson15 — no word on who the other 14 Sarah Fergusons are) and it is a joyful, global riot.
There she is taking a selfies with her daughter Princess Eugenie. Here she is grinning ahead of a black tie ball in Cologne. Off she dashes to Dubai for a charity shindig alongside Susan Sarandon and Ben Stiller.
Her most recent jaunt: The Gulf State of Bahrain.
Last weekend the York family enjoyed a notable outing to the Bahrain Grand Prix — Andrew was already in the country undertaking unspecified meetings. Fergie and Bea (along with her boyfriend Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi) flew in and were there as guests of the country’s Crown Prince, who is reported to have picked up the tab for their $1400-a-night suites the Ritz-Carlton.
It was an interesting choice to accept his hospitality given the nation’s bleak record on human rights abuses.
However, over the decades both the Duke and Duchess of York have ridden out more than their fair share of scrapes, debacles and fully-fledged scandals.
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RANDY ANDY AND THE AWAKENING OF EMILY
By the time the 1980s rolled around, naval officer Prince Andrew had earned himself a reputation as a bit of a ladies’ man. In about 1981, he began dating an American actress named Koo Stark, who the Queen by all accounts quite liked. However in 1982, a British tabloid published a series of semi-nude stills from a movie she had starred in 1976 called Emily (or The Awakening of Emily). After the tabloid fallout, the couple ended up splitting but have remained close. (Andrew is godfather to Koo’s daughter.)
THE MAJOR AND THE MASSAGES
Fergie’s father, Major Ronald Ferguson had been part of royal circles for years before his daughter’s 1986 wedding to Andrew, thanks to his role as Prince Charles’ polo manager. However, in 1988 it was revealed that Major Ferguson was a member of something called the Wigmore Club, a health and massage club that is alleged to have also offered patrons sexual services. Major Ferguson insisted he had only ever had non-sexual massages at the club, however, in the wake of the scandal he lost his highly prestigious role as the deputy chairman of the Guards Polo Club (Prince Philip was the Chairman).
ST TROPEZ AND THE TOE SITUATION
By 1992, Andrew and Fergie’s marriage was seriously on the rocks and in March of that year they announced their separation. Six months later the Duchess was photographed having her toes sucked by her ‘financial Adviser’ while two-year-old Princess Eugenie looked on.
In seriously awkward circumstances, the story broke when Fergie was staying with the Queen and Prince Philip at Balmoral. “It would be accurate to report that the porridge was getting cold,” she wrote in her autobiography.
AIRMILES ANDY TAKES TO THE SKIES
In 2001 Prince Andrew was made Britain’s special representative for international trade and investment, an unpaid role. Throughout his decade-long tenure in the position, he earned the nickname ‘Airmiles Andy’ for his penchant for pricey travel. Also, as the BBC has reported: “Over the years journalists have remarked on how some of Prince Andrew’s trips abroad, supposedly on government business, seemed to go via ski slopes, top golf courses and other exotic locations.” Ouch.
DEBTS, DEBTS, DEBTS
Money issues have plagued the Duchess of York for decades. When she and Andrew divorced in 1996, she owed Coutts a sum that was reported to have been upwards of $5.5 million. To help pay back the huge debt, she signed on as an official Weight Watchers Ambassador, put out a series of kids books and put her name to a collection of department store china.
Her continuing precarious financial situation came to light in 2010 when she was caught on video drunkenly offering access to Prince Andrew for $925,000. Humiliated, Fergie went on Oprah to apologise and Andrew stepped in to help his ex with her millions of pounds in unpaid bills.
DALLIANCES WITH SORTA-DICTATORS
Andrew’s relationship with a number of highly questionable international figures has repeatedly hit the headlines over the years. According to the Washington Post, there are reports that in 2008 he met with the then-Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi and that he invited the son of ousted Tunisian dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to Buckingham Palace. (Oh to be a fly on the wall to hear what they discussed over scones.)
Even after he was forced to step down in 2011 from his British trade role, Andrew continued to meet with dubious political and business figures. In 2014, The independent reportedthat the royal was set to meet with the despotic president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev for the 12th time in an unspecified capacity.
SAFE AS HOUSES
In 2016 it was revealed that the former marital home of the Yorks, Sunninghill Park had been bought after five years on the market by Timur Kulibayev, a wealthy businessman with links to the dictatorial Kazakh regime for $27 million, which was reportedly millions over the asking price. The Palace denied any suggestion that there was anything untoward about the arrangement, telling the UK’s Telegraph: “It’s not my business the second the price is paid. If that is the offer, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and suggest they have overpaid me.” In 2015, Andrew and Fergie bought a $24 million chalet in the ultra-exclusive Swiss enclave of Verbier.
JEFFREY EPSTEIN
Over the years, Prince Andrew’s friendship with American hedge fund titan Jeffrey Epstein has exposed the royal to serious scandal. The two men are reported to have met in the 1990s after being introduced by Ghislaine Maxwell, the daughter of Robert Maxwell. The Guardian has reported, through the palace has not confirmed, that Epstein and Andrew had encountered one another at parties at both Sandringham, the Queen’s Norfolk estate, and Windsor Castle, along with a dinner in St Tropez.
In 2008 Epstein was sent to jail for soliciting girls for underage prostitution and only served 13 months of his sentence.
In 2011, Andrew was photographed walking with Epstein who by that point in time was a registered sex offender, through New York’s Central Park
— Daniela Elser is a freelance writer. Continue the conversation @DanielaElser
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