Sarah Ferguson will ‘play the victim’ and has ‘no acceptance of what she’s done’, a royal biographer has claimed after the Duchess of York was plunged into a fresh scandal involving her ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The ex-wife of Prince Andrew has survived a series of scandals involving debts and deceit, but it is her relationship with Epstein that has most recently led to calls for her to finally be banished by the Royal Family.
In recent years, Fergie had made a return to the royal fold after bouncing back from several embarrassments over the years – including being photographed having her toes sucked by US financial adviser Johnny Bryant as well as being caught in a sting offering access to her ex-husband for an alleged £500,000.
But last week, the Mail on Sunday exposed how she wrote to Epstein to apologise for publicly disowning the vile billionaire.
Several charities quickly dropped the Duchess after it was laid bare how she cynically lied when she pledged to cut ties with Epstein.
Just weeks after publicly disowning him, she then wrote him a gushing private message calling him a ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’ – and admitting she only distanced herself from him to save her own reputation.
The Duchess ‘humbly apologised’ to the convicted sex offender for letting him down, and said she had been told to speak out if she wanted to save her career as a children’s author.
She sent the grovelling message ‘from the truth of my heart’, less than two months after telling journalists: ‘I will never have anything to do with [Epstein] again.’
Sarah Ferguson will ‘play the victim’ and has ‘no acceptance of what she’s done’, a royal biographer has claimed. Pictured: Fergie and Prince Andrew at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral on September 16
Historian and author Andrew Lownie, who has recently written Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, said Fergie will act as ‘the victim’.
He told the Express: ‘I’m afraid, having studied her for so long, I don’t have a great deal of sympathy for her… She will be pretending, in the way she pretended in that letter to Epstein, that she was the victim.’
The royal biographer added: ‘She has no self-awareness. She has no acceptance of what she’s done, the same problem as Andrew.’
Mr Lownie believes that Fergie will bounce back as she has often managed over the years and that she will be be working on a strategy ‘huddled with her PR people’.
The author revealed he did not believe she would return to public life in 2010 when she was caught offering to sell access to Andrew by a News of the World reporter posing as a businessman.
It comes after sources claimed Fergie and Andrew have been told they are not welcome at the Royal Family‘s Christmas celebrations following the latest fallout.
It’s understood King Charles, 76, wants to keep the Duke and Duchess of York, both 65, at arm’s length.
Andrew and his ex-wife, who live together at Royal Lodge in Windsor despite divorcing in 1996, have also been told to make themselves ‘invisible’ at future royal gatherings, insiders claim.
It comes after Charles asked the Duchess of York to help convince Andrew to ‘do the decent thing’ and avoid the Royal Family’s Christmas gathering last year after it emerged the Duke had become close with alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
The Yorks spent last Christmas together at Royal Lodge instead, but they were not joined by their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
A source close to the King told The Sunday Times: ‘You can’t sack someone from being your brother.
‘But this year, if the duke and duchess were both to be as honourable [as last year], it would be very much for the best and the family would not be disappointed, not least to avoid the King having to make any more difficult decisions.’
The Duchess’s friends say she was ‘devastated for any embarrassment’ caused by the latest Epstein scandal and ‘will explain herself to the wider Royal Family in due course’.
Sources close to the King say the monarch would prefer if Andrew and Fergie keep out of sight when appearing at family events by arriving and leaving through discreet entrances where possible.
Earlier this month, the Yorks very much made their presence known at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral at Westminster Cathedral.
After the emotional service, Andrew was seen howling with laughter and trying to speak to Prince William, who appeared to ignore his disgraced uncle.
The Prince of Wales is understood to consider his uncle a ‘risk’ and ‘threat’ to the monarch and is said to fully support his father’s stance.
Charles and William are thought to have spoken about the latest scandal during their weekend together in Scotland.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson with Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi during the Royal Family’s Christmas walk in 2023
A source said the King is ‘not of the mind to banish someone’, but would hope the Yorks can ‘find a more discreet way of attending these events’.
‘In the Duke of York’s case, he seems to relish the prospect of not being low-key about it,’ they added.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Despite a series of scandals, Fergie was invited to join the Royal Family’s Christmas gatherings in 2022 and 2023, her first invitations for three decades.
She also joined the family’s traditional walk from Sandringham house to church alongside Andrew, Beatrice and Eugenie in 2023.
