The Duchess of Northumberland appeared to take a thinly-veiled swipe at Meghan Markle and Sarah Ferguson in a new interview.
Jane Percy, 67, told The Telegraph this week that she writes her books under the pen name Jane Northumberland, without reference to her title.
She said: ‘Unlike other duchesses who put their names everywhere, I’m not using my title. I’d say it could be detrimental as one or two duchesses haven’t really helped the cause lately.’
Elsewhere, she added: ‘People think it must have been easy for me, but nothing comes from nothing. It’s all been down to hard work.’
Her comments appeared to be referring to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who stepped down from the royal family in 2020 with her husband, Prince Harry.
Since moving to the US, Meghan has made a series of digs against the royals, most recently telling Bloomberg’s Emily Chang that she ‘couldn’t be as vocal’ when she first married Harry.
Sarah Ferguson, meanwhile, lost her Duchess of York title last month when her ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, agreed to give up his own.
The Duchess of Northumberland has appeared to take a thinly veiled swipe at Meghan Markle and Sarah Ferguson in a new interview. Pictured in 2023 with her husband
Jane herself has connections to the royals, hosting King Charles for visits at Alnwick Castle, while her daughter Melissa is friends with Harry’s ex-girlfriend, Chelsy Davy.
She knows both Princes William and Harry, previously reflecting on their fallout in an interview with the Daily Mail in 2023: ‘To have two boys who aren’t communicating, one on the other side of the world, is the saddest thing. Hopefully they are communicating. I’m sure there’s a lot we don’t know about.’
The Duchess moved into Alnwick Castle in 1995 after marrying her husband, the 12th Duke, Ralph Percy, 69. They have four children: Katie, George, Melissa and Max, and seven grandchildren.
The former professional ice skater from Edinburgh has always had a keen interest in gardening and is in charge of a mammoth project at Alnwick Castle, which has become a major tourist attraction under her care.
In one corner she has created a magical fairy realm for children called Lilidorei, which opened in 2023, and even written a book to go along with it.
She has also added the world’s largest treehouse, and Alnwick Garden is, as of yet, unfinished, despite drawing in more than 380,000 visitors last year.
Under her pen name, Jane Northumberland, she has written Amanita, her first novel, with plans for another alongside a colouring book.
As a figure skater, she previously trained for five hours a day at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield ice rink.
King Charles on a visit to The Alnwick Garden, accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, in 2023
Jane met Ralph Percy when they were both teenagers, aged 16 and 18, and they married in 1979, when she was 21.
She previously told the Daily Mail: ‘We became best friends and now we’ve been married for 44 years. I think there’s something to be said for marrying young so that when your children grow up and leave, you’re still young enough to do things with your life.’
The Duke, 69, is worth £517million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, and owns 100,000 acres of land across Northumberland and the Scottish borders.
He never expected to have the title, as his elder brother Henry, better known as Harry, inherited it in 1988.
But in October 1995, Harry Percy the 11th Duke was found dead by his valet, with a post-mortem examination revealing he had died of heart failure brought on by an overdose of amphetamines.
The Duchess then found herself in charge of the 700-year-old estate, which dates back to the 11th century and has been the seat of the Percy family since 1309, and its grounds.
She said previously: ‘There is no instruction manual. In 24 hours our lives changed, like that. I’m sure there were some of the old guard who thought I’d wait to be told what to do. I don’t take very well to being told what to do.’
By 2005, she had raised more than £10million to fund the treehouse and the ‘Poison Garden’, and even appeared on her own reality show, The Duchess and Her Magical Kingdom on More4 in 2023.
Jane Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, with characters from ‘Lilidorei’, the brand-new attraction located in the grounds of the Alnwick Garden in Northumberland in 2023
But she’s remained humble ever since, telling the Daily Mail at the time: ‘I’m sure I’m a constant disappointment to those who have preconceived ideas of what a duchess is like.
‘I was once asked to visit a lady who’d reached her 100th birthday so I went and took cake and had a chat with her.
‘After half an hour she said, “It’s been very nice talking to you, but I’m expecting the Duchess of Northumberland so perhaps you should go.” Maybe I should have made more of an effort to dress in something grand.’
Lord Max Percy, 35, the Duke and Duchess’s youngest son, put the Rothbury Estate on the market for £35million in 2023, after his family spent nearly 700 years as the owner.
It has attracted celebrity attention, with Queen guitarist Sir Brian May once tipped to buy it and national treasure naturalist Sir David Attenborough recently releasing a video extolling its ecological importance.
A sale has been agreed, but only if a grouping of wildlife trusts can raise the cash to buy the estate outright. So far they’ve stumped up nearly £10million of their £30million target, but if they don’t hit it by Autumn of 2026, the sale will fall through.
Though Rothbury isn’t officially part of the Ducal estate, the fight for its future cannot be viewed without a glance back at the colourful recent history of the House of Northumberland.
