Sarah Ferguson’s mother once warned that the former wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor would be prepared to go to extreme lengths to protect herself – and the Royal Family always knew it.
Fergie’s late mum, Susan Barrantes, revealed the former duchess would be willing to reveal unpleasant stories about The Firm if she needed to.
The filmmaker claimed her daughter’s retaliation would come out of fear of losing custody of her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, following her divorce from Andrew.
Barrantes’ warning has been resurfaced in Andrew Lownie’s bombshell new book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.
The historian claims Fergie’s fears of losing her daughters were exacerbated after both her mother and sister, Jane, lost custody of their children when their own marriages broke down.
Infamously, Barrantes was embroiled in her own high-profile scandal following the end of her marriage to Fergie’s dad, Ronald Ferguson, and her elopement with an Argentinian polo player.
“Fergie was determined to avoid the fate of her mother and sister Jane, who had both lost custody of their children when their marriages broke up,” writes Lownie.
He says the 66-year-old’s “trump card” was that she “could always sell a kiss-and-tell memoir”. “The threat was ever present, and the Royal Household knew it always would be,” he said.
Recent reports have suggested that Fergie’s warts-and-all book could be on the horizon after she and disgraced Andrew were kicked out of Royal Lodge and he was stripped of his titles.
A source told the Express that Fergie was “devastated by the fallout from the Epstein scandal” and had become a “virtual recluse”.
“With no substantial income coming in, Sarah is now looking to follow in the footsteps of Prince Harry and is willing to pen a tell-all memoir about her time with Andrew and how she was treated by the Royal Family after their split.
“She has a lot of diaries and evidence of the backstabbing, scandals and cover-ups. For the right amount of money she is willing to spill everything,” the source claimed.
Fergie and Andrew separated in 1992, six years after their wedding. Sarah claimed she ended the marriage because she “wanted to work”.
Following the split, Barrantes delivered a brutal verdict on her former son-in-law, saying the ex-prince lacked “character”.
“He’s a good-looking boy and has a heart of gold to the point where he would be without any money himself to help someone, but he just hasn’t got any character… absolutely none.
“If only he had character, perhaps his marriage wouldn’t have broken up,” Barrantes told the Italian magazine.
Barrantes died in 1998 in a car crash in Argentina. She was buried beside her second husband, Hector Barrantes, in Argentina.