Speculation is mounting that Sarah Ferguson, often seen as a resilient figure within the royal family, might be forced to betray her former husband, Prince Andrew, should they face financial difficulties.

The duo currently reside in Royal Lodge in Windsor, but reports suggest Prince William is eager to see them vacate the opulent estate traditionally provided by royal favor.

With their financial future uncertain, a royal insider has hinted that money matters could soon become a significant source of friction, especially since both have found themselves sidelined by the King.

In a potentially unprecedented situation, Prince Andrew might soon be at the center of a criminal investigation—the first royal in over two decades to face such scrutiny. Scotland Yard has confirmed an active investigation into allegations that he sought damaging information on Virginia Giuffre from a police officer.

An explosive email has surfaced, revealing that Andrew requested his publicly funded bodyguard to look into Giuffre, whom he disparaged as dishonest. The email shows Andrew sharing her birth date and social security number, details likely provided by Jeffrey Epstein.

‘Fergie will say anything to save her own skin – but her fate is closely tied to that of her ex-husband’, the Daily Mail’s source said.

‘Her career as a children’s author looks to be going down the pan – how can someone who stayed friends with and was bankrolled by a paedophile be taken seriously as a voice for children? Other commercial opportunities may be lost because of the scandal’.

Royal biographer Andrew Lownie has predicted that more revelations will come out regarding Andrew’s alleged relationship with Virginia Giuffre, claiming today: ‘This is only the beginning for the York family.’ 

It came after astonishing new emails unearthed by The Mail on Sunday suggested Jeffrey Epstein secretly bankrolled Sarah Ferguson for 15 years. 

Despite living together, Andrew and Sarah are said to live at opposite ends of their 30-room house in Windsor.

The Daily Mail’s insider said added: ‘It’s likely that she and Andrew will need each other more than ever, it seems to me, but it may depend on their individual finances.

‘I strongly suspect that Andrew has trust money and investments that allow him to stay at Royal Lodge but if he is reliant on Fergie’s income to pay the bills then that may be a source of tension’.

The source said that they may need their daughters to ‘bail them out’ financially after King Charles cut them off over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Fergie could choose to do a highly paid mea culpa interview with a soft-touch TV station – perhaps in the US – to ensure it is nothing like Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight grilling that heaped more shame on him and his family. 

The King and his eldest son have forced Andrew to accept he will no longer be known as the Duke of York. He is also stepping down from the Order of the Garter – the country’s most ancient order of chivalry. 

His ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, will also now only be known as Sarah Ferguson.

The King threatened to have Prince Andrew officially stripped of his titles unless he ‘saw sense’.

Charles, 76, made clear he would not hesitate to take decisive ‘further action’ if his brother refused to give up his dukedom and other honours after he lied about cutting ties with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, it can be revealed.

The Daily Mail understands that despite the growing tsunami of evidence against him, the 65-year-old former Duke of York was digging his heels in with a ‘startling lack of contrition’.

It was a situation the King deemed ‘intolerable’, sources said.

The only way for Charles to legally strip Andrew of his titles would have been to take it through Parliament, and he has never wished to take up its valuable time and resources in dealing with the matter.

But last week he privately made clear to Andrew that a raft of options were open to him if he did not fall on his sword.

Ms Ferguson and Andrew may need financial support from their children and their wealthy husbands. Publicly Beatrice and Eugenie are expected to distance themselves from their parents – but they remain very close.

A royal source told the Daily Mail: ‘Fergie has sold at a £400,000 loss the Belgravia townhouse she bought supposedly as an investment for Beatrice and Eugenie. It may be that their nest egg will have to be used to pay her bills.

‘Both daughters seem to be doing well financially. So perhaps they will help bail her and Andrew out.’

Last month the Daily Mail revealed that Prince William is intent on turfing the couple out of the Royal Lodge – while King Charles was reticent because he appreciates their loyalty and would prefer to keep them on side.

But now Andrew and Fergie may struggle to pay the bills, the royal source said.

Despite their privileged childhood, in later life, the young Yorks have perhaps seen their parents’ troubles with money and tried to build empires of their own. 

The girls have also made it known that they would be happy to do more royal duties but King Charles is more keen to slim down the family and its costs to the taxpayer. 

Princess Beatrice lives in £3.5million Cotswold farmhouse with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

And her businesses have done well – although Prince Andrew has ensured his daughters have impeccable contacts in the Gulf states, especially among the super-rich of Saudi Arabia where both Beatrice and Eugenie have popped up in recent years.

Beatrice has described her BY-EQ business as ‘an advisory organisation focused on adding more exceptional emotional intelligence in an age of artificial intelligence’. 

In its first year, it reported a modest £39,000 profit. However, accounts for 2024, BY-EQ’s second year of trading, report an astonishing increase to just under £500,000 in earnings.

After bills of £214,615, Beatrice retained £274,846 in accumulated profits.

She also describes herself as a Private Equity Analyst and recently set up Purpose Economy Intelligence Limited in 2025 with Luis Alvarado Martinez, 36, who is Spanish, but resident in Switzerland.

Bea is also on the board of Franks Foundation and Big Change Charitable Trust. She is a Patron of Teenage Cancer Trust

Her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi runs a property and interior design business which is largely profitable with the main companies Banda Limited and Banda Design studio worth a combined £1.7m.

Beatrice has two daughters, Sienna and Athena, with her husband.

This year, Edo expanded his Banda interior design company to include fitting out private jets. ‘It’s escapism,’ he explained of their appeal. ‘When you’re in the air there are no people constantly asking you questions or children hanging off you.’

Princess Eugenie lives in Ivy Cottage, Kensington Palace and in a £3.6million villa on a golf resort in Portugal.

Her linked in profile says she is a Co-Founder of the Anti-Slavery Collective & Associate Director of Hauser & Wirth, where she has worked since 2015.

She is not listed as a director of Hauser &Wirth on Companies House.

She supports various charitable organisations such as Tate Modern and The Serpentine and holds various Ambassador and Patron roles at charities including Blue Marine Foundation, Teenage Cancer Trust, the European School of Osteopathy, and the Elephant Family, a wildlife charity.

Very little is known about her finances. 

Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are said to have the promise of big inheritances from multiple trusts, including one established by their great-grandmother, Queen Mother. 

There is also reportedly one each set up by the late Queen Elizabeth II after their parents’ divorce.

Details are not clear but they may be set to mature when they turn 40. Beatrice is 37 and Eugenie is 35. 

Both Eugenie and Beatrice were named on Land Registry documents relating to the purchase by their mother Sarah Ferguson, of a £4.25million mews house in south west London in 2022 which has just been sold for £3.85million. 

The property transfer names the two princesses as personal representatives, of Sarah Ferguson.

Eugenie’s husband Jack Brooksbank is doing well in business. 

They have two children, August and Ernest.

Jack runs drinks wholesale business AEB Consultants Limited which is a healthy £543,357 in the black as of 2024.

He also runs the marketing of Costa Terra Golf and Ocean Club in Portugal, which is a 300-home development where the couple spend much of their time.

Jack is known for his discretion and diplomacy – staying on impeccably good terms with senior members of ‘The Firm’.

It came after astonishing new emails unearthed by The Mail on Sunday suggested Jeffrey Epstein secretly bankrolled Sarah Ferguson for 15 years.

The convicted paedophile complained to friends about the disgraced duchess’s scrounging ways in messages that suggest his financial support went far beyond the £15,000 she admitted taking from him.

In the previously unseen emails, Epstein reveals Fergie was so desperate to cosy up to him that ‘she was the first to celebrate’ his release from jail ‘with her two daughters in tow’. Princess Beatrice would have been 20 at the time and Eugenie 19, the same age as many of his victims.

The shocking claims are contained in a huge tranche of documents under review by the US Congress. They are set to be released once they have been redacted to protect the identity of hundreds of young girls Epstein raped and sexually abused.

The sordid nature of Fergie’s relationship with the paedophile and the chummy tone of their correspondence makes sickening reading that will repulse the sex offender’s many victims.

A well-placed source said: ‘Sarah and Prince Andrew have always maintained they distanced themselves from Epstein after his conviction for child prostitution. In fact, it was Epstein who ended up dumping them. He got sick and tired of Sarah constantly asking him for money.

‘She borrowed far more money off him than has ever come out. In public she said one thing but in private she was always holding out the begging bowl.’

Last month, the MoS revealed how Fergie wrote to Epstein calling him a ‘supreme friend’, just weeks after giving an interview claiming she would ‘never have anything to do with’ the sex offender ever again – reviving the scandal that saw her and Andrew relinquish their titles on Friday.

In the London Evening Standard interview of March 7, 2011 Fergie issued a ‘heartfelt apology’ for accepting £15,000 from Epstein and called it ‘a giant error of judgment’.

The comment angered the financier, who sent an email to his friend, French modelling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, that day, complaining: ‘The duchess that I have financially helped for 15 years said that she wants nothing to do with a paedophile and child sex abuser. It has caused quite a stir.’

Brunel was later arrested on rape charges and killed himself in jail in 2022, three years after Epstein’s own jail suicide.

Epstein demanded Fergie write him a public letter of apology over the interview and threatened to sue her if she did not.

The tranche of emails contain various drafts of the letter. One read: ‘Dear Jeffrey, I wanted you to know with certainty that many things said in the press about you that were attributed to me were either a totally malicious fabrication or an outrageous exaggeration… There was never a claim of paedophilia… You have been a loyal friend of my family for many years.’

The denial of paedophilia hinged on Epstein’s insistence that the crime he was initially punished for – having sex with a 16-year-old – would not have been illegal in the UK where the age of consent is 16. But in Florida, where some of his crimes took place, the age is 18.

In another email, on April 7, 2011, Epstein again insisted that Fergie ‘should affirmatively state that she was misquoted’ in the Standard.

He wrote to his British lawyer Paul Tweed saying: ‘[Fergie] took apartments in New York. She was the first to celebrate my release with her two daughters in tow. She visited me with [a] policeman sitting at my front desk. She has asked for help with her charities.’

He revealed he bought her the web address Mother’s Army, adding: ‘The fact that I bought it, if it were to be disclosed by her leaking staff, would be problematic.’

On April 25, Fergie revealed she had dragged her daughter into her sordid world. She told Epstein that immediately after her interview with the Standard, she had talked to Beatrice and then called editor Geordie Greig, who had conducted it, to tell him he should ‘NOT in any way… go down the P [paedophile] route’. She said she wanted to ‘make sure he understood the severity of NOT making a mistake’.

The emails offer more proof that Fergie continued to suck up to Epstein despite publicly disowning him. On August 1, 2011, Epstein wrote: ‘When you first got in trouble you said to me, ‘Jeffrey, I know that as I told everyone, you’re either on the team or off. I knew you were always on my team.’ That was right.’ The duchess responded: ‘I am on yours and you on mine. With great love and strength.’

Earlier emails show how close the pair were, despite Epstein having admitted to soliciting a minor for prostitution in a ‘sweetheart deal’ that led to 13 months in a low-security jail with day release.

He was let out in July 2009 and remained under house arrest until July 21, 2010. He exchanged a number of emails with Fergie in that time. In June 2010, Sarah told Epstein: ‘I will never forget your kindness and friendship at this time’ to which he replied: ‘A-team or no team. It’s your line.’

On January 16, 2010, Sarah wrote: ‘Is there any chance I could borrow 50 or 100,000 US dollars to help get through the small bills that are pushing me over? Had to ask.’

Epstein was having his bank accounts monitored at the time and said he couldn’t help. Undeterred, Sarah told him to ‘ask Giuseppe… I would be so grateful.’ Epstein replied: ‘I could but it would be impolite. You need to address these issues. You are great.’

It is thought this is a reference to New York restaurant owner Giuseppe Cipriani, an old friend of the duchess. Tonight his representative declined to say whether Mr Cipriani gave Fergie money.

Epstein is known to have given Fergie £15,000 to repay a loan from her former personal assistant John O’Sullivan. On January 20, 2011, Epstein told Prince Andrew he had made a payment to O’Sullivan, writing: ‘JS done.’ Andrew responded ‘Fantastic!!! Thank you. Thank you.’ The emails suggest Mr O’Sullivan was seeking another $60,000 in unpaid wages. In an email to Andrew on February 28, 2011, Epstein wrote: ‘I don’t trust him at all and a payment from me… if disclosed to the press, would look like a payoff for the little s***’.

Andrew asked Epstein, ‘So I could get it paid by someone else?’ to which the financier replied, ‘Yes’.

It remains unclear whether this payment was made – and if so by whom. Mr O’Sullivan did not respond to a request for comment.

Several months later – and after the Standard interview – an impatient Epstein asked Fergie for the money back, saying: ‘There is little reason to have me questioned on this again and again.’

A source said tonight: ‘Andrew and Sarah were in it up to their necks with Epstein. It was always about the money. This was always going to be their downfall.’

Sarah Ferguson’s spokesman tonight declined to comment.