{"id":484057,"date":"2026-05-14T09:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484057\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T09:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T09:40:11","slug":"tablets-sleazy-men-claims-of-fergies-crazy-world-emerge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484057\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tablets, sleazy men\u2019: Claims of Fergie\u2019s crazy world emerge"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a story that is going to make you long, oh so deeply long, for the days of Toe-Sucking Fergie: When the worst thing the former Duchess of York<\/a> was alleged to have done was waltzed off to the South of France to get \u2018financial advice\u2019 from a man who applied himself to her tootsies like man holding a melting Paddle Pop.<\/p>\n

And now? Tablets. Psychics paid with cigs. \u201cSleazy\u201d boyfriends. The claims about Fergie are getting far less cheeky, rumpy-pumpy and a whole lot more sordid. <\/p>\n

This week we have a tranche of fresh allegations about Sarah Ferguson, courtesy of the revised, bulked out paperback version of Andrew Lownie\u2019s Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York set to be published this month. Based on the extract that has run in the Daily Mail, the added claims about the former Duchess of York read like a Jackie Collins manuscript her editor would have rejected for being too salacious. <\/p>\n

\"Melania<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that sources of Lownie\u2019s new material are, as he wrote on his Substack<\/a>, \u201cdozens of former staff and associates [who] have spoken to me and many of them on the record\u201d since Entitled was originally published last year.<\/p>\n

Or you could say, these new claims come from the horsey set and their not so loyal retainers\u2019 mouths.<\/p>\n

The claim that has gotten the most headlines so far is that Fergie had a \u2018friends with benefits\u2019 relationship with disgraced rapper P. Diddy and who is serving a four-year sentence for prostitution-related offences. <\/p>\n

The only good thing to say about this mind melding pairing, if there is any truth to it, is at least they were both consenting adults.<\/p>\n

That their staff weren\u2019t dragged into it. Because if you think your job can sometimes be a right punish, spare a thought for the brave and hardy souls who signed on to join Team Fergie.<\/p>\n

One assistant told Lownie that life with the former HRH was \u201cchaotic\u201d and that this staffer, along with other employees, \u201chad problems getting paid.\u201d So bad was it that \u201cthey often had to buy things using their own credit cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were they also asked, you have to wonder, BYO loo roll and teabags?<\/p>\n

But this is just the tip of the Ferg-berg. <\/p>\n

Ever since the 90s, the ex duchess has been famed for her parlous finances, Icarus-like constantly flying towards the perpetually skint sun, however the lengths she would resort to really defy dignity. According to Lownie, \u201cSarah herself drew on Beatrice\u2019s credit card constantly and paid one psychic in cigarettes. She rarely paid for anything, expecting to be given products for free or be entertained by friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet somehow Fergie still seemed to live a life such that Louis XIV might have suggested she pull her head in. Take the apartment she maintained in New York or the \u201cpersonal trainers waited on call but were never used\u201d. There was \u201cone person\u201d, Lownie writes, \u201cemployed just to organise all the tablets Sarah took.\u201d (Bet that looked good on their LinkedIn.)<\/p>\n

This jibes with the picture the historian painted of her in his original hardback, of a woman who lived like a Tudor Queen if Henry VII had been really into shag pile carpeting.<\/p>\n

One former staff member described life with a newly divorced Fergie: \u201cEvery night she demands a whole side of beef, a leg of lamb and a chicken, which are laid out on the dining room table like a medieval banquet. But often there is just her and her girls Bea and Eugenie and most of it is wasted \u2026 It just sits there all night and the next day it\u2019s thrown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Henry-worth profligacy: On holiday in Spain, rising to greet the day at 2pm she \u201cordered a lavish party for later that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

A guest said: \u201cShe demanded the best DJ in the country and 1,000 candles to light the garden. Then she became fixated with getting a suckling pig.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Side note \u2013 Whoever knew she was such an ardent carnivore? And no snickering in the back row!)<\/p>\n

Other details from Enfield: She would travel with 25 suitcases including one just for coat hanger and which cost her up to $8,000 excess baggage; She once spent $10,000 to fly her assistant to New York on the Concorde \u2013 she could bring her some paperwork.<\/p>\n

But you know what they say \u2013 pipers need paying and throwing yourself Marie Antoinette-ish bacchanals with extra pork crackling need someone to help pick up the tab. <\/p>\n

At one point, Lownie notes, Fergie \u201cwas so desperate for money she offered to work as a house assistant\u201d to Epstein.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately no one ever taught Fergs, whose entire secondary education was learning to clatter away on an IBM Selectric at secretarial college and drinking Avocat at Annabel\u2019s, and so missed out on being dosed up on 70s feminism and never learnt that a man is not a financial plan. <\/p>\n

A Palm Beach friend of Epstein told Lownie: \u201cFergie made no secret how she wanted to marry someone in the US who was wealthy and powerful. If Jeffrey popped the question, she would have said yes. Even after \u2026 he was convicted of being a sex offender. She had a reputation for being an opportunist and for sleeping with wealthy men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emails released by the Department of Justice show Fergie calling the pedophile a \u201clegend\u201d and saying \u201cI am at your service \u2026 Just marry me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even when not angling to become Mrs Jeffrey Epstein, Fergie really did not show good taste in men. As a Palace source pointed out to Lownie she has something of a type: \u201cLook at her long history; every man she dated or associated with had a controversial past \u2013 they all have sleazy and chequered pasts. She likes to live on the edge. She can\u2019t settle down with a good man. It would bore her to tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boredom is probably something that she can only dream about these days as she continues to hide out in whatever Alpine rehab offering four-figure seaweed wraps will bung her a freebie and she tries to hit redial on her King Charles\u2019 third lowest courtier\u2019s second mobile phone to see if they can spare her a tenner.<\/p>\n

She has not responded to any of the new claims. <\/p>\n

Zoom out for a moment and it\u2019s worth keeping in mind that her perpetually-on-thin-ice finances that would set in motion some of the events that would lead to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s de-princing and arrest. (He has previously denied any wrongdoing.)<\/p>\n

In late 2010, battling to stave off bankruptcy, Andrew flew to New York to see if his nice mate Jeff could help his ex-wife out. In fact, as Vanity Fair<\/a>\u2019s Mark Seal has reported, the then Duke of York \u201centered the rattlesnake\u2019s den for what turned out to be a mere $USD125,000 [$172,000]\u201d, to settle the unpaid wages and bills she owed her former assistant, Johnny O\u2019Sullivan, in unpaid bills and wages. This sum \u201cwas a small fraction of the more than $USD7 [$9.65] million that Ferguson owed\u201d at that point. <\/p>\n

It was during that New York trip that Andrew would be photographed walking in Central Park with, by then, convicted sex offender Epstein, firing the starting gun on Andrew\u2019s downfall, disgrace and other \u2018d\u2019 words. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile could Fergie be working on a \u2018d\u2019 word of her own? Deal.<\/p>\n

There has been much speculation that the woman who has been forced to bin her crested doodle pads might write a tell-all or do an Oprah-style interview to bring in some cash and as a reputational clean up effort, which is like trying to mop up Hurricane Katrina with a hankie. (Imelda Marcos\u2019 reputation would not have been saved by a ghostwriter\u2019s tender recounting of her inner turmoil at not being able to find the perfect Manolo or getting a sympathetic turn on a daytime TV sofa.)<\/p>\n

If all of this leaves you shaking your head, your surname is clearly not Windsor.<\/p>\n

A royal source told Lownie: \u201cSeveral 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, that tactic worked a treat now didn\u2019t? And I bet Crown Inc finds themselves in the strangest of places \u2013 also wishing that the grubbiest that Fergie was up to was having her toes eagerly slurped.<\/p>\n

Daniela Elser is an editor and commentator with more than 15 years\u2019 experience with Australia\u2019s leading media titles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a story that is going to make you long, oh so deeply long, for the days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[7605,1128,87020,211717,434,30419,211737,211735,55694,211743,211739,13062,211725,103871,73207,13169,211714,85328,41728,18,117,154983,1015,211726,211734,2220,179783,211715,211731,211722,19,211750,211744,17,211730,79466,211742,211738,8417,196986,87252,85904,211724,211733,50217,968,211732,211746,1539,161032,27250,211727,18352,211718,211736,211728,15156,35306,211719,211749,211747,196976,15158,211741,85348,211740,211729,149971,383,211716,211721,211723,211748,19366,30038,211720,8952,211745],"class_list":{"0":"post-484057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","11":"tag-castle-hide-out","12":"tag-celebrities","13":"tag-charles","14":"tag-clear-denial","15":"tag-coat-hanger","16":"tag-combs","17":"tag-convicted-sex-offender","18":"tag-crazy-world","19":"tag-credit-cards","20":"tag-crested-doodle-pads","21":"tag-crown","22":"tag-daily-mail","23":"tag-department-of-justice","24":"tag-dining-room","25":"tag-duchess-of-york","26":"tag-duke-of-york","27":"tag-eire","28":"tag-entertainment","29":"tag-eugenie","30":"tag-europe","31":"tag-excess-baggage","32":"tag-four-figure-seaweed-wraps","33":"tag-france","34":"tag-getty-images-inc","35":"tag-hardy-souls","36":"tag-house-assistant","37":"tag-house-of-york","38":"tag-ie","39":"tag-imelda-marcos","40":"tag-inner-turmoil","41":"tag-ireland","42":"tag-jackie-collins","43":"tag-jeff","44":"tag-jeffrey-epsteinmelania-trump","45":"tag-jon-furniss","46":"tag-king-charles","47":"tag-leading-media-titles","48":"tag-mac-cosmetics","49":"tag-marie-antoinette","50":"tag-medieval-banquet","51":"tag-mind-melding-pairing","52":"tag-mobile-phone","53":"tag-new-york","54":"tag-new-york-post-company","55":"tag-nice-mate","56":"tag-north-america","57":"tag-northern-america","58":"tag-oceania","59":"tag-online-speculation","60":"tag-p-diddy","61":"tag-paperback-version","62":"tag-perpetually-on-thin-ice-finances","63":"tag-pork-crackling","64":"tag-prince-andrew","65":"tag-prince-of-wales","66":"tag-problems-getting","67":"tag-public-sighting","68":"tag-reputational-clean","69":"tag-royal-source","70":"tag-sarah-ferguson","71":"tag-secondary-education","72":"tag-sex-offender","73":"tag-shag-pile-carpeting","74":"tag-sleazy-men","75":"tag-southern-europe","76":"tag-spain","77":"tag-staff-member","78":"tag-suckling-pig","79":"tag-tender-recounting","80":"tag-tom-stoddart","81":"tag-united-states-of-america","82":"tag-vanity-fair","83":"tag-wealthy-men","84":"tag-western-europe","85":"tag-worth-keeping"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}