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Once, Sarah Ferguson remarked that Queen Elizabeth II felt “more like a mother” to her than her own, a sentiment that didn’t stop her from allegedly “betraying” the late monarch through questionable associations, according to a royal insider.
At 66, the former Duchess of York has consistently expressed her admiration for the Queen, describing her as everything from “legendary” to an “invisible hand of love.” Ferguson even claimed last year that she continues to “talk to her” three years after the Queen’s death.
Royal analyst Richard Fitzwilliams has now suggested that Ferguson’s undisclosed connections with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, hidden from the Queen who supported her post-divorce in 1996, highlight a lack of remorse on Ferguson’s part.
As the scandal surrounding Epstein intensified, Ferguson and her ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, left the UK. The situation escalated with Andrew’s arrest last month, drawing increased scrutiny on their involvement with Epstein.
Fitzwilliams commented that betrayal is a grave fault, noting that Ferguson’s actions towards both the Queen and the royal institution show a disregard for loyalty. He emphasized that her behavior signifies an absence of shame.
‘Queen Elizabeth II, a monarch whose rule will go down as one of the finest in our history, was kind to her. We now know that Ferguson’s grovelling emails to the deceased paedophile Jeffrey Epstein are proof of her culpability and greed.’
‘After the Falklands War, Andrew was extremely popular. He was considered something of a hero and more loved than the more philosophical Charles. Ferguson took advantage of this, after their wedding, trading on her “breath of fresh air”.’
‘The Queen was naturally frugal by nature. Ferguson’s extravagances reached bizarre heights time and again, and the Palace even issued a statement that they would no longer be paid.
She likened the late Queen Elizabeth II to her mother figure, but according to royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, Sarah Ferguson betrayed the former monarch (pictured together in Windsor in 2004)
Fitzwilliams continued: ‘During the Queen’s “annus horribilis” in 1992, Ferguson’s toe-sucking episode with her “financial adviser” John Bryan, made the Royal Family look ridiculous.’
In August that year, the Mirror published 55 pictures over nine pages showing a topless Fergie rubbing sun cream on the head of her financial adviser, kissing him, lying under him and letting him ‘suck’ her toes.
The royal commentator added: ‘After she divorced Andrew in 1996, she lied publicly about her generous divorce settlement, reports indicate that it was a package worth some £3million, including a trust fund for her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie.
‘Then there was the infamous “Fake Sheikh” sting in 2010, where she offered access to Andrew for £500,000 and took $40,000.
‘She was clearly beyond the pale and a disgrace to the Royal Family, though she lost her HRH when she divorced.
‘Yet the Queen had a soft spot for her, almost as though she was a mother figure trying to resurrect someone who was clearly utterly irresponsible.
‘It is also another example of Ferguson’s amazing ability to bounce back from disasters, and also the way she apparently can use her energy and resilience to charm.
‘It also has to be borne in mind that the Queen famously disliked family confrontations, though Prince Philip would not appear in the same room as Ferguson.
Pictured: Queen Elizabeth II and Sarah, the former Duchess of York, at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in May 1988
Pictured: Queen Elizabeth II and Sarah, the then-Duchess of York, at the 1990 Braemar Games in Scotland in 1990
‘After everything that had happened, but before the release of the Epstein files, King Charles invited her for Christmas in 2023.
‘This shows her ability to return to favour against the odds, which worked time and again as though there was a perverse part of the British character to which it appealed.
‘Now her charity has folded, and those charities with which she was connected shun her.
‘The full extent of her betrayal of Queen Elizabeth’s good nature is not yet known with more to come out from the Epstein files.’
In May last year, Ferguson claimed the late Queen Elizabeth still ‘talks to her’ three years after her passing – through her beloved corgis.
Ferguson adopted the late Queen’s corgis, Muick and Sandy, with ex-husband Andrew, in 2022, housing them at the Royal Lodge in Windsor.
She made the comments in an address to the Creative Women Platform in London, revealing she believed that the late Queen has been communicating to her through the dogs’ barking, The Times reported.
‘I have her dogs, I have her corgis. Every morning they come in and go, “Woof woof” and all that and I’m sure it’s her talking to me’, she said, adding: ‘I’m sure it’s her, reminding me she’s still around.’
Queen Elizabeth II and Sarah are seen chatting in the back of the Queen’s car at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 1992
It comes as Sarah’s faced fresh backlash after newly released Epstein files revealed that she told the convicted paedophile that she was waiting for her youngest daughter ‘to come back from a sh***ing weekend’.
The extraordinary exchange is contained in the tranche of three million documents released last month.
In the email, sent on March 21, 2010 – two days before Eugenie’s 20th birthday – Epstein asks the then-Duchess of York: ‘NY?’, in an apparent reference to an upcoming New York trip.
Sarah replies: ‘Not sure yet. Just waiting for Eugenie to come back from a sh***ing weekend!!’
Eugenie met her now-husband Jack Brooksbank during a skiing trip at the beginning of 2010 and later described it as ‘love at first sight’.
The couple wed in 2018 and have two young children.
Last month, the Mail on Sunday revealed Eugenie has cut off all contact with her disgraced father in the wake of the Epstein scandal and refused to visit him at Christmas.
Ferguson has apologised repeatedly for her friendship with Epstein yet the new documents show the paedophile helped pay off around $60,000 worth of debts she owed to a former assistant.
In one email dated April 4, 2009, and signed ‘Love Sarah, the red head!’ she tells Epstein: ‘I am landing in Palm Beach in a couple of hours. Is there any chance on my quick layover that I can get to have a quick cup of tea?’
She goes on to discuss ‘Mother’s Army’, a website Epstein purchased for her, and says: ‘My dear, spectacular and special friend Jeffrey. You are a legend and I am so proud of you.’
The paedophile was still under house arrest when the email was sent.
In July 2009 financier Glenn Dubin, one of Epstein’s close friends, writes to him saying: ‘Fergie said she would organise tea in the Buckingham Palace apts…or Windsor Castle..she said you should call her directly.’
In another exchange in August 2009 Sarah thanks the billionaire ‘for being the brother I have always wished for’.
In 2010, Epstein was invited to Andrew’s 50th birthday party in an email which read: ‘Dear Jeffrey, Beatrice, Eugenie and I would love to invite you to celebrate the 50 years of Papa/Andrew.’
The invitation to drinks and dinner at St James’s Palace in London continues: ‘It will be suits and cocktail dresses, and you know me, mysterious mischief, so bring your presents, your presence and your humour!’
When Andrew’s office hears nothing back from the billionaire they politely send a reminder to which Epstein replies curtly: ‘Not able.’
A source said: ‘Epstein was always falling out with Sarah over money. She would borrow it from him and then say something stupid which would make the papers and infuriate him. He wasn’t that fond of her, she was more of a useful idiot to him. She offered him a way into Andrew’s good graces and, by default, the good graces of the Royals.’
By July 2010, they appeared to have patched things up with Epstein saying an unnamed friend will be in London, adding ‘any chance of your daughters saying hello?’ to which Sarah replied: ‘Beatrice is in London with her father. Eugie is away with a cool boyfriend.’
But in March 2011, Epstein was ‘enraged’ after Sarah gave an interview to London’s Evening Standard newspaper calling him a paedophile. He even considered suing her.
He hired Michael Sitrick, a high-powered New York crisis manager who wrote: ‘Jeffrey, the Fergie retraction is critical. One of your good friends, a member of the Royal Family, is calling you a paedophile.
‘If gentle persuasion doesn’t work it is my view that we need to turn up the heat to the point of sending her a draft defamation lawsuit. As I said yesterday, this would be a major turning point and be picked up everywhere.
‘This is about your name and your reputation. You really can’t worry about her, in my view you need to worry about you. She certainly isn’t concerned about you or your reputation.’
Just weeks after telling the Standard she would ‘never have anything to do with Epstein again’, Sarah wrote him a grovelling letter in April 2011 in which she called him a ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’.
She said: ‘I know you feel hellaciously let down by me. And I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that. You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.’
A spokeswoman for the former duchess said she had been left terrified by Epstein’s threats to sue saying: ‘Like many people she was taken in by his lies.
‘As soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations against him she not only cut off contact but condemned him publicly to the extent that he then threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with paedophilia.’
The former duchess has previously been contacted for comment by the Daily Mail.