For years Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Sarah Ferguson referred to themselves as the “happiest divorced couple in the world”, but a royal author has alleged this was far from reality
Andrew allegedly flung a two-word insult at his ex-wife over her appearance(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
A royal author has claimed that Andrew and Fergie’s dynamic has been far from rosy for years.
The author, Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair, alleged in her bestselling book ‘The Palace Papers’ that Andrew once lobbed a two-word insult over her appearance at his ex-wife whilst she was sharing a meal with an unnamed media executive, painting a picture that is a far cry from how the divorced couple used to describe themselves as the “happiest divorced couple in the world”.
Splitting up in the mid-1990s amid salacious scandals of infidelity, the pair remained close for decades. So much so, that until recently they lived together at Andrew’s lavish mansion, Royal Lodge, a stone’s throw from Windsor Castle. However, Brown claims, Andrew once called Fergie a “fat cow” leaving the media executive totally “stunned” and with the impression that Sarah is actually a bit afraid of her ex-husband.
Sarah and Andrew with their daughters in happier times, before the Epstein scandal unfolded(Image: Instagram)
The incident is said to have taken place in 2015, at Royal Lodge itself – the 30-room home that Andrew was unceremoniously evicted from earlier this year. Andrew is alleged to have come in the room whilst Sarah and the executive hailing from the US were eating lunch and said, “What are you doing with this fat cow?” apparently referring to his ex-wife.
Sarah famously struggled with her weight over the years, and found criticism from the public about her appearance difficult to deal with, saying previously, per the Irish Independent, “It took courage to go out in public in all the years I have been overweight. Every time there was a ‘Duchess of Pork’ or ‘Fat Frumpy Fergie’ headline, they didn’t have any idea they were reaching to the depths of my soul.”
The executive who witnessed the moment between the former husband and wife was “stunned at his level of sadism. I thought, ‘What an a–hole.’ She has to sing for her supper. She’s afraid of him.”
Brown alleges this is an example of the ‘symbiotic’ relationship shared by Andrew and Fergie for many years, where they both had something to gain from the other. “Whatever the undertow of their curious arrangement, the deal seems to be that he bails her out when she’s in trouble,” Brown wrote, nodding to Sarah’s repeated money troubles that the Royal Family are alleged to have helped her out with, “and she backs him up when he’s assailed by scandal. It is the symbiosis of sheer survival.”
More than once, Fergie has come to Andrew’s defence during the controversy over allegations of sexual assault made against him by the late Virginia Giuffre, a victim of sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew vehemently and repeatedly has denied these claims.
Fergie has not followed Mountbatten-Windsor to his new Sandringham home(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2021, Sarah said whilst her ex-husband was mired in scandal that he is a”kind, great man…I feel very strongly that in this day and age that we must stand by our hearts, what we think is right with integrity and honour and loyalty.”
Epstein, who was a friend of both Andrew and Sarah’s, has cast a long shadow over the former couple and the Royal Family itself. Andrew was arrested on his 66th birthday (19 February) on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, after emails to the late paedophile emerged that saw him share confidential documents from his time as UK Trade Envoy.
The Epstein Files – millions of documents that included correspondence, bank and phone records, and flight logs – released by the US House Oversight Committee showed that both Andrew and Sarah had remained in contact with Epstein far longer than they had previously admitted.
In Andrew Lownie’s bombshell book, ‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York’ there are many allegations about Andrew often indulging in crude pranks and childish insults – particularly towards members of staff.
Barking “Do it!” at staff was something of a “catchphrase of sorts” from Andrew’s, one of the Queen Mother ‘s former equerries , Colin Burgess, claimed. “He would say things such as: ‘I want this done and I want it done now,’ or ‘Have that done by such and such a time.’ I remember him always saying ‘Do it!’ which was his catchphrase of sorts,” Burgess told Lownie. This was quite the opposite approach that King Charles or the Queen Mother took with their employees, the former equerry said, who treated their staff as “human beings”.
Lownie’s book also alleged that on one occasion he called a staff member a “f***ing imbecile” because they did not use the full title for the Queen Mother and told them to “get out”.
The book further alleges that Andrew had a love for childish pranks, that often left the person on the receiving end humiliated. The former Duke would force party guests to close their eyes with outstretched hands, before getting them to clap – unbeknownst to them that there was an open tube of mustard in their hands, leaving them with the condiment over their faces.
He is also alleged to have pushed a dinner companion’s face into their meal, and unzipped a woman’s dress the whole way down during a society event.