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Once upon a time, a commoner named Sarah Ferguson married into Britain’s royal family. She and her new husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew) lived in a custom-built 12-bedroom home that had been a wedding gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II. Sarah enjoyed a life of luxury, reportedly spending $18,000 a month on wine and $132,000 a year on clothes. She employed a household staff that attended to her every whim. Then, in 1996, she and Andrew divorced after 10 years of marriage. By 2004, the friendly exes were ensconced in the Royal Lodge on the grounds of Windsor Castle, where they spent two decades enjoying the 100-acre property and its luxe amenities, including a swimming pool and several cottages.
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Sarah’s days as a pampered royal are over. In September, after The Mail on Sunday published a 2011 email from the 66-year-old to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in which she called him a “supreme friend,” she was fired from her coveted ITV gigs on Loose Women and This Morning and dropped from her beloved charities. The following month, she and Andrew — who was previously accused of sexual assault by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre (he’s denied the allegations) — were stripped of their Duke and Duchess of York titles and kicked out of Royal Lodge.
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It’s been a rude awakening for the mother of Princess Beatrice, 37, and Princess Eugenie, 35, who with her bubbly personality was once one of the most popular royals. “It’s appalling to Sarah that she’s gone from this wonderful regal lifestyle to living like a common peasant almost overnight,” a source tells Star. “She finds the situation humiliating beyond belief.”
Victim Card
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She also feels she’s being unfairly punished. “The consensus is Andrew and Sarah are unrepentant and don’t understand how egregious it was to associate with Epstein and to lie about it,” says the source. In her chummy 2011 email to Epstein, the former Weight Watchers spokesperson “humbly” apologized to him after publicly distancing herself from him a few weeks prior. (A spokesman said the apology was written after Epstein threatened to sue her for defamation.) For his part, Andrew — who paid Giuffre, who died in April, a reported $16.3 million settlement — downplayed his relationship with the pedophile in his disastrous 2019 BBC interview.
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Sarah believes Andrew’s brother King Charles III has gone too far by booting them out of Royal Lodge. “To strip away Andrew’s birthright and toss him out feels unfair,” says the source, adding that an incensed Andrew “is ranting that this is the last thing his mother would have wanted.” As Star previously reported, Prince William encouraged Charles to oust Andrew. Says the source, “Sarah and Andrew think Charles is weak and unwilling to stand up to his own son.”
Grasping At Straws
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A desperate Sarah is now turning to her daughters. The U.K.’s GB News reported she is looking to relocate to Portugal, where Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank, live part-time in a coastal villa. The girls are in an awkward position, as they don’t want to lose their standing in the royal family. (The sisters reportedly received invites to Princess Kate’s annual “Together at Christmas” Carol Service, at Westminster Abbey, which airs on Christmas Eve in Britain.) “Eugenie and Beatrice came close to losing their titles over the Epstein scandal,” says the source. “They’re being courteous towards their folks but keeping them at arm’s length.”
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It’s not the first time Fergie has needed to be bailed out. In Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, author Andrew Lownie writes that the queen was forced to pay off hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt for the former duchess because of her outrageous spending habits, and that a friend once threatened to sue when Sarah only paid back $6,500 of a $132K loan for a vacation to the South of France. The New York Post reported that Sarah spent more than $1 million a year on staff, gifts, flowers, lavish parties and shopping sprees. Her shady business deals have also made headlines: In 2010, she was busted trying to sell access to Andrew to a News of the World reporter for $750,000. “Sarah finds it very hard to say no if there’s money involved,” says the source.
She’s in a panic about finances. In November, it was reported that her latest children’s book had been pulped. “Sarah’s set-up at Royal Lodge was ideal and she thought she’d be there until she died,” says the source. “She didn’t anticipate having to pay bills at this stage in life and she has no prospects. She’s not prepared.”