{"id":500727,"date":"2025-10-15T05:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T05:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/500727\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T05:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T05:57:14","slug":"i-worked-for-the-royal-family-sarah-fergusons-habit-left-staff-fuming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/500727\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I worked for the Royal Family \u2013 Sarah Ferguson’s habit left staff fuming’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former royal butler Paul Burrell has claimed in his new book that royal staff members used to rage about a particular habit of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson shortly after they married<\/p>\n

Liam McInerney<\/strong> Content Editor <\/p>\n

06:00, 15 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Burrell has spilled some palace secrets in his new book, including about scandal-hit Sarah Ferguson (Image: Ken McKay\/ITV\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Sarah Ferguson is celebrating her 66th birthday today after what has been a challenging few weeks for her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last month, she was dropped as a patron by a number of charities after an email she sent to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> was leaked. The Duchess of York<\/a> wrote \u201cI did not use the P word about you\u201d in 2011 \u2013 just weeks after vowing never to speak with him again.<\/p>\n

And in a new book, former Royal butler Paul Burrell <\/a>has now revealed how Sarah once left kitchen staff \u201cup in arms\u201d shortly after marrying Prince Andrew<\/a> in 1986.<\/p>\n

Paul, who spent years inside Buckingham Palace, said Andrew was \u201cbesotted\u201d by his new wife who could \u201cdo no wrong\u201d in his latest memoir titled The Royal Insider: My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana.<\/p>\n

Yet, discussion tensions, he added: \u201cBut the staff were up in arms early in the marriage. From the beginning, the royal newlyweds refused to leave their martial bed.<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Ferguson and ex-husband Prince Andrew at an Easter Sunday service this year (Image: \u00a9Karwai Tang)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe maids weren\u2019t allowed to go into the bedroom to make the bed for days. When the couple did surface, they held lavish dinner, lunch and tea parties with all their friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul, who worked under Princess Diana<\/a> from 1987 to 1997, claimed this caused issues with exhausted staff members who reportedly preferred sticking to set meal times.<\/p>\n

He further elaborated: \u201cThe kitchen staff were run off their feet. Even the Queen didn\u2019t entertain so extravagantly. The royal chiefs were furious to be making food like it was an \u00e1 la carte restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were used to serving food to the Queen and the Royal Family<\/a> at set times. It was too much. The staff rebelled and protests were made to the Master of the Household who informed the Queen of her staff\u2019s unhappiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had to intervene and put a stop to the lavish gluttony. After all, she despised waste, deciding in advance which food should be cooked for her each day. So why should Andrew and Fergie be different?\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul, 67, then claimed Andrew was \u201cnever easy\u201d to get along with, especially for the staff members.<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Burrell and Princess Diana(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

The author, who also wrote A Royal Duty, first worked as a footman to Queen Elizabeth before acting as King Charles\u2019 <\/a>butler. However, he was most famous for being a confidante to Diana.<\/p>\n

And in another part of his new book, he revealed the hilarious two-word nickname staff used for Buckingham Palace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Referencing a drinking culture inside the palace walls, he wrote: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t just bed-hopping that went on in the palaces; there was a degree of inebriation which often helped people\u2019s inhibitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cForget Buckingham Palace, it was nicknamed \u2018Gin Palace\u2019 after the spirit that flowed freely through the everyday workings of the building. Gin, always, Gordon\u2019s, was the drink of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former royal butler Paul Burrell has claimed in his new book that royal staff members used to rage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[2633,31795,518,75746,2205,1412,5105,7710,519,448,7717],"class_list":{"0":"post-500727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-buckingham-palace","9":"tag-duke-of-york","10":"tag-king-charles-iii","11":"tag-paul-burrell","12":"tag-prince-andrew","13":"tag-princess-diana","14":"tag-royal","15":"tag-royal-families","16":"tag-royal-family","17":"tag-royals","18":"tag-sarah-ferguson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}