In defence of Fergie

My first reaction to anyone buying even a bog standard two-up-two-down terrace in London is a fake congratulations through gritted teeth. So when it was reported last week that the Duchess of York, ex-wife of disgraced Prince Andrew, had bought a £5 million mews house in Mayfair, I was surprised that I didn’t share the outrage of the general public.

Sure, she does very little, spending her days lounging around in Royal Lodge, the Grade II-listed Windsor property she shares with her ex. But there’s a part of Sarah Ferguson that is totally relatable, and as she has tried – and often failed – to navigate the inner workings of the royal establishment, I have watched her with admiration.

Since her marriage to Andrew in 1986, she has never been far from controversy. From being papped in the South of France having her toes sucked by her financial adviser, to being caught in an undercover sting with the Fake Sheikh, allegedly offering her former husband up for a mere half-a-mil, Sarah Ferguson could teach Meghan Markle a thing or two about locking horns with The Firm. After her series of indiscretions, it was widely known that Prince Philip couldn’t stand the sight of his former daughter-in-law, and he made it very clear that when he was present she was to make herself scarce.

But after a few years in which royal life has descended into scandal and spectacle, I think even Prince Philip might have warmed to Fergie and admired her sense of camaraderie. She has continuously gone out of her way to keep the family together. I mean, if it wasn’t for the dodgy sex stuff that her ex-husband was embroiled in, I’m sure she would have welcomed the Sussex shambles with open arms, content in the knowledge that for once it wasn’t her bringing shame on the Windsor name. But rightly or wrongly, Fergie has stood firm at the side of her family, proclaiming Andrew’s innocence and desperately trying to win the Queen’s approval. Many ex-wives would have removed themselves completely and shacked up with a nice young man on a little island.

Most of the public criticism over her Mayfair property purchase is concerned with her financial affairs. I will concede that her economic situation has never made much sense to me. Over the years she has spoken openly about her debt and was once even on the brink of bankruptcy. But in the past year or so you’d struggle to look at any magazine stand without seeing Fergie’s face plastered across glossy magazines under an ‘exclusive’ banner – so perhaps the Duchess has learnt a thing or two from the entrepreneurial Sussexes about making a quick buck.

Prince Andrew’s PR team have come out of hiding to claim that the new property is nothing to do with him, but earlier this year he and Fergie were forced to sell their £17 million ski chalet in the Swiss resort of Verbier to help cover the Prince's costs in the civil case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre. The property’s former owner, French socialite Isabelle de Rouvre, began legal proceedings against Andrew and Fergie in May 2020, claiming that they still owed her £6.7 million from the sale. But by December last year, the money magically appeared and the case had been settled, leaving the Yorks free to sell up.

Quite frankly, I wouldn’t care if the money for her new home was raised through trafficking cocaine. Fergie’s time in The Firm has seen her repeatedly draw the short straw, not only in marrying a man who made a fool of her by spending his marriage surrounded by young women, but in how she was demonised by the press to an extent that Meghan Markle could only dream of. The infamous ‘Duchess of Pork’ headline was particularly nasty, but as well as being criticised for her weight she was variously branded workshy, vulgar, uneducated, unfashionable and uncouth.

While Diana, doe-eyed and sad, was on the right side of history, victimised by the establishment, Fergie was on the wrong side, supposedly deserving all her vile criticism. The tragic irony is that Sarah Ferguson was the most relatable princess the royal family could ever have offered us. She had more grit than Diana, more personality than Sophie Wessex, more charm than Kate Middleton and more loyalty than Meghan, but somehow she was and still is treated as a royal outcast.

While everyone is up in arms about where the money came from, I can only hope and pray that Fergie’s plan is to move into her Mayfair mansion alone, spending her days sipping martinis and finally ridding herself of her ball and chain.