‘Penniless’ Fergie buys $8.7m Mayfair pad

A French socialite to whom the Duke and Duchess of York owed millions of pounds after a dispute about a Swiss chalet is outraged that the duchess has bought a house in Mayfair.

Isabelle de Rouvre described the news that Prince Andrew’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, had bought the central London property for $8.7m as “incredible and unbelievable” as she believed she “didn’t have a penny”. The Yorks bought de Rouvre’s chalet in Verbier in 2014 for $31.5m, agreeing to pay her in cash instalments of $8m. When they failed to settle, de Rouvre took them to court.

She said she is owed $12m but agreed to half that because she believed the Yorks were short of money as Prince Andrew was facing a sexual assault case brought by Virginia Giuffre. “I understood they didn’t have the money and believed he would be going to prison in America so I thought it best to get what I could,” she said. “I am outraged that I am now told she has spent millions on another property. It is just incredible and the whole story unbelievable. It is a dirty story as far as I am concerned.”

De Rouvre reached a settlement with the Yorks in November, allowing them to sell the chalet, but it was frozen as an asset because a Swiss couple said they were owed a $2.8m “business debt”.

Andrew is reported to be disputing the amount he owes the couple, but does not deny the debt. He is believed to have borrowed from family members to pay Giuffre an estimated $17.5m in March because of the delay in getting funds from the chalet’s sale.