Sarah Ferguson—ex-wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor—had a “friends with benefits” relationship with the rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, according to extracts from a new royal book that have been disputed by Ferguson’s camp.
Andrew Lownie’s book, Entitled, about the fall of the former Prince Andrew and Duchess of York served as a precursor to the release of the Epstein files when its highly detailed account of the numerous missteps by both royals was published last summer.
Now the paperback edition is due out on May 21 containing even more material, including the suggestion Ferguson and Combs had a sexual relationship. Extracts were published in the Daily Mail over the weekend sparking a clapback from Ferguson’s camp.
A source close to Ferguson, who Newsweek granted anonymity so they could speak freely, said: “This is absolute fabricated nonsense, blatantly untrue and yet another false allegation from him.” Newsweek reached out to Diddy via a representative over email.
In October 2024, Combs was jailed for 50 months after being found guilty of two counts of transportation for prostitution that July.
Why It Matters
Mountbatten-Windsor has for years faced allegations he had sex with Virginia Giuffre while she was a 17-year-old Epstein sex trafficking victim in 2001. He denies the allegations.
Ferguson, though, maintained her reputation and media profile until a trove of millions of emails from Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell were published and shone a light on Ferguson’s own relationship with Epstein, who paid off some of her debts. Lownie’s latest claims will add to the pressure on her.
Sarah Ferguson and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
In an advance copy seen by Newsweek, Lownie wrote: “A former employee at P Diddy’s Bad Boy Records said the rapper was obsessed with the Royal Family, bragged about ‘slamming’ Sarah and once said ‘he could not wait until Fergie’s daughters come of age’.
“This is confirmed by another associate of the singer who says Diddy, real name Sean Combs, first met Sarah Ferguson in New York in 2002 at a party thrown by Ghislaine Maxwell and that their ‘secret friends with benefits’ relationship began in 2004 and lasted for years.
“In 2006 he launched his own perfume, Unforgivable, which he claimed was inspired by Sarah and how she liked a man to smell.”
Ferguson and Mountbatten-Windsor divorced in the 1990s but they were still close as recently as last year and Ferguson’s persistent money problems were a major factor driving Mountbatten-Windsor’s continued relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after Epstein’s conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
They were in fact already divorced at the point Lownie reports Ferguson became close to Combs, in 2004.
“She introduced her two daughters to the rapper many times,” Lownie wrote, “including a yacht party weekend with Eugenie, then sixteen, in 2006. ‘Sean’s parties were wild,’ a Royal Family staff member said. ‘The fact that she brought Eugenie around was alarming.’
“The duchess and rapper met in Europe and Africa. ‘They’d meet in luxurious hotels…They once stayed at a seven-star hotel
that was over fifty thousand pounds a night. They spared no expense.’”
Lownie added that: “Several people, notably the Queen, ex-Prince Andrew and Prince Charles, were aware of her activities for years but turned a blind eye to protect the family from more scandal.”
Andrew Lownie Defends His Book, Entitled
Lownie told Newsweek he stood by his book and pointed to the fact the account comes from multiple people from both the royal and Diddy camps. Beyond the royal staff member, “there are actually two sources on Diddy’s side,” he said. And on Ferguson’s reliability, he said: “She has form here. She denied her relationship with Epstein.”
In 2011, the Evening Standard ran an interview with Ferguson in which she said it had been a “gigantic error of judgement” to let Epstein pay off some of her debts, adding that: “What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.”
The Standard reported in the same article that Ferguson had said she felt she had done nothing wrong by taking the money because “she had no contact with Epstein herself.”
However, it has since emerged she took her daughters to meet Epstein for lunch in Miami in 2009 shortly after Epstein’s release from prison.
Emails have since emerged showing she went on to later privately email Epstein to apologize for making the public statement to the Standard: “I am apologising to you today for not replying to your email, or reaching out to you when the tabloids were so vicious and horrendous…In the weeks leading up to that Monday when I made my statement. And then afterwards. When they used me to hurt you beyond realms. As you know, it was and is the worst nightmare for you, but also for me.”
“So in the eye of your storm, which I know is hellacious, may I ask you to accept my apology for not reaching out to you, in the eye of MY storm, and accept and understand that I was in fear beyond all totality and I could not move left or right because of it, and was close to bed ridden with the fear of what was happening. I was paralyzed.
“I was advised in no uncertain terms to having nothing to do with you, and not to speak or email you, and if I did, I would cause more problems to both You and The Duke and myself. So I shut down and ran away.”
Moutbatten-Windsor was arrested in February and was released by Thames Valley Police under investigation, on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. The probe follows reports Mountbatten-Windsor leaked confidential trade documents to Epstein while working as a U.K. Government trade envoy. He has always denied Epstein-related wrongdoing.