After an annus ‘calamitosus, horribilus and terribilis’ all rolled into one, you would assume Sarah Ferguson would be dignified, considered, selfless and ashamed. No chance. It’s been claimed the globe-trotting 66-year-old has been lying low in the United Arab Emirates – enjoying time with daughter Eugenie who was at an art fair in Doha, Qatar – while hunting a new PR team to kickstart her UK relaunch and return.
Sources say she has openly told friends: “I need to get back to work. I need money.” But this excessive spending, huge debts and desperate craving for cash is what got her into Jeffrey Epstein’s willing clutches, and subsequently into this whole mess, in the first place.
Boy, she had extravagant spending!
Historian Andrew Lownie detailed excesses such as £65,000 to have a personal trainer on permanent standby – despite using their services just twice in a year.
Fergie also allegedly ran up a bill of £51,000 at the luxury department store Selfridges, and £14,000 in a month at a London wine merchant.
After one bill of £500 went unpaid, a newsagent reportedly refused to supply the then Duchess, while a local butcher, dry cleaning company, and car hire firm have at one time been listed among creditors.
The late Queen bailed Fergie out of financial trouble in the past – but Fergie also invited paedophile Jeffrey Epstein to be her limitless overdraft too.
She previously admitted she borrowed £15,000 from Epstein but new emails claim she repeatedly asked for more, such as one request for $50,000 (£37,240), another was for $100,000 (£78,475) to help with “small bills”.
Fergie apparently hopes to buy a new home in the Windsor area but with her net worth reportedly around £745,000, she won’t be buying a big detached house in the Berkshire town.
But while Andrew is persona non grata, friends believe she is “kidding herself” if she thinks she can jet back to the UK soon and restart her career of public appearances, writing books and luxury endorsements.
At the end of the day, she did call Epstein a “steadfast, generous and supreme friend”, ask him to “marry me”, gossiped to him about her daughter enjoying a “sha**ing weekend” and jet to the US to welcome his prison release after he admitted procuring a 14-year-old girl for prostitution.
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As deeply troubling as Sarah Ferguson’s emails and idolising of Epstein are, they do not indicate or even imply any wrongdoing.
But she is deeply tainted. Epstein has stained all who came close to him.
And have no doubt, she targeted Epstein just as much as he targeted her. They had a symbiotic relationship. He knew her levers, and she knew her needs.
It is a stain that may never wash away, and Fergie has to accept her public persona can never be the same again.
As another royal source aptly said: “She is said to be looking to bounce back, in typical Fergie style. I’m just not sure the public will buy it.”