Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson’s long-standing portrayal of her relationship with former husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been challenged by a royal biographer, who claims the pair’s famously close post-divorce bond concealed a far more complicated reality.
Royal author Andrew Lownie, who wrote the 2025 biography Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, said the former Duchess of York’s repeated insistence that she and Andrew remained devoted to one another after their split “ever rang hollow”.
“It had been a convenient cover and helped generate positive media headlines but the reality is the couple very quickly after their wedding were having affairs,” Lownie told The Daily Mail.
“The only reason Ferguson continued to cadge accommodation from him was that it saved her money and burnished her royal connections and her money-making activities.”
Fergie, 66, and Andrew were married from 1986 until their separation in 1992, before officially divorcing in 1996.
Despite ending their marriage, the pair continued living together rent-free at Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate for more than two decades before being evicted from the property earlier this year by King Charles III.
Their departure followed renewed scrutiny after the release of the Epstein files, which detailed the extent of the Duke and Duchess of York’s associations with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The files reportedly led to Andrew being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Andrew has vehemently denied wrongdoing, and being mentioned in the files alone does not indicate wrongdoing.
Since then, the former prince has relocated to Wood Farm on the King’s private Sandringham estate, while Fergie has largely remained out of the spotlight, most recently being seen at a ski resort in the Austrian Alps.
The shift marks a stark contrast to Ferguson’s previous public declarations about the strength of their relationship.
In 2018, she famously described herself and Andrew as “the happiest divorced couple in the world”, insisting their bond had remained unbreakable despite their separation.
“We’re the happiest divorced couple in the world. We’re divorced to each other, not from each other,” Fergie said in a 2018 interview with The Daily Mail.
“My duty is to him. I am so proud of him. I stand by him and always will. The way we are is our fairy tale.”
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams believes Fergie’s decision to flee during Andrew’s fall from grace speaks volumes.
“This was the couple who, Sarah Ferguson boasted, were the “happiest divorced couple in the world”. It seems they now want to separate,” Fitzwilliams told the outlet.
“The reason is clearly that what made them perfect for each other after divorce and subsequent scandals and debts, was that they were both greedy and entitled.
“Now this cover is blown, they want to live apart in two homes. The world can clearly see that the previous arrangement was designed to maximise the benefit of Andrew’s public life for them privately.”
The renewed scrutiny comes as reports suggest the couple’s youngest daughter, Princess Eugenie, is preparing to welcome her third child and may be keeping the milestone largely separate from her parents.
Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said both Andrew and Fergie would naturally want to be involved, but suggested any role they play is likely to remain private.
“Well, who wouldn’t want to be involved in the birth and first few days in the life of a new grandchild? It’s only natural that Fergie, and Andrew too, would want to meet the new arrival and give any support they can to Eugenie,” Ms Bond told the Mirror.
“Will it happen? Who knows! It’s thought that Eugenie has distanced herself from her disgraced father, and possibly from her mother as well.”
Ms Bond added that while Eugenie, who spends much of her time in Portugal, is expected to share a photograph announcing the birth, any relationship between the princess and her parents is likely to remain out of the public eye.
“Whatever relationship Eugenie now has with her parents, it will remain private and extremely discreet and that’s probably for the best all round,” she said.