When Prince Andrew stepped back from royal duties in November 2019 due to controversy over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, defended him fiercely, saying it was “just incredible what he has done for Britain” in an interview with Vogue Arabia that appeared just weeks later. For a cover story in People this week, however, her comments were more subdued.
“Whatever challenges he has, I will stand firm to the co-parenters that we are together,” she said of Andrew. “I believe that he’s a kind, good man, and he’s been a fabulous father to the girls.”
Though the pair separated in 1992 and finalized their divorce four years later, they continued to live and travel together after their daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice, became adults. As recently as April 2019, tabloids speculated that they might be getting back together, though sources close to Andrew and Sarah told Vanity Fair at the time that the rumors were incorrect.
Later that year, Andrew stepped back from royal duties following a widely derided Newsnight interview, where he addressed his friendship with Epstein and emphatically denied Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s allegations of assault. After the controversy, he continued living with Sarah in Royal Lodge, the Windsor home they have reportedly shared since 2008. In May 2020, the two reportedly self-isolated together at Royal Lodge along with Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank. In April that year, they were spotted volunteering for a charity together, and that July, they hosted a reception for Beatrice’s wedding to property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.
Though Andrew has continued to avoid the spotlight, Sarah has spent the last year seeking it, even as further revelations about Andrew’s ties to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have been uncovered. Last year, she started a YouTube channel for children’s books, much of which was filmed from Royal Lodge. In December 2020, a Daily Mail investigation revealed that Andrew once shortened a family vacation with Sarah to visit Epstein’s Caribbean island, Little St. James. The Mail also reported in 2015 that Sarah herself met with Epstein in the Bahamas in 1998. (She did not comment to the Mail at the time, but when a financial relationship between Sarah and Epstein was reported in 2011, she said in a statement, “I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me.”)
Next month, she is releasing her debut novel, Her Heart for a Compass, a fictional retelling of her ancestor Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott’s life. Sarah spoke to People about writing the novel and her desire to reinvent herself at the age of 61. “It’s like I’ve gotten out of my own way,” she said. “I’ve really become Sarah. The duchess is there. Good old Fergie’s there too. But Sarah is authentically present.”
Even though she has continued to post photos of her daughters and young grandson August Brooksbank on her social media accounts, she’s remained relatively quiet about Andrew and their living arrangement. But as long as Maxwell—who pled not guilty to charges of sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor, and is scheduled to be tried this November—remains a topic of fascination, she might need to be prepared to talk about more than just her fiction.
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