In this episode of As the Royal Family Turns: Fergie miffed over party snub
Prince Harry reportedly had to intervene against the wishes of his family to make sure his uncle’s former wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, was invited to his wedding next Saturday.
Even still, the former Sarah Ferguson, 58, popularly known as Fergie, is said to be “deeply upset” to be excluded from the “inner sanctum” evening reception at Frogmore House, a large estate near Windsor Castle, at which the guest list is controlled by Prince Harry’s father, Prince Charles.
What is worse, from the Duchess’s perspective, is that her daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, who are both close with their cousin Harry, are invited.
The snub is the latest flashpoint in a long history of tension between the Windsors and the former wife of the Queen’s second son, Prince Andrew, Duke of York.
The Queen’s husband Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is said to be the frostiest toward his former daughter-in-law, with the Queen taking pains to ensure they are never in the same room. Charles is thought to take his cue from his father, and William from his.
That dynamic led to the worst moment in the relationship, when the Duchess was pointedly not invited to Will and Kate’s 2011 wedding, despite the capacity being more than three time higher than Harry’s affair. She instead went to a spa in Thailand, and went on Oprah to air the dirty laundry.
Back then, the Duchess’s most notorious public disgrace was still fresh in the public mind, and she was in need of the redemption Oprah can offer. In 2010, she was secretly filmed by an undercover journalist appearing to drunkenly offer access to Andrew, then a government trade envoy, in exchange for piles of cash. This was late in the storied career of Mazher Mahmoud, known as the Fake Sheikh, a tabloid reporter who later went to jail for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
This year, though, there is not such an obvious reason to exclude her, other than the lasting grudge.
The Daily Mail reported the Duchess has been complaining about this “to anyone who will listen,” and quoted a source: “Numbers are limited to the evening party. She is not a member of the Royal Family any more and Prince Charles simply doesn’t have time for her. He just can’t see why she is still such a big part of his brother’s life.”
Sarah married Andrew in 1986 and divorced 10 years later, but they remain close. They share a home, Royal Lodge in Windsor, and have recently bought a ski chalet together. There are even rumours of remarriage, which is more plausible today than it once seemed, mainly because the children born to Will and Kate have bumped Andrew down the line of succession. As a result, he is no longer among the first six heirs whose marriages must be approved, by law, by the monarch.
Royal watchers have pounced on this first hint of scandal over the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, reminding the public how much everyone used to enjoy hating Fergie.
Because they are insulated by their vast privilege, the royals are an easy target for the British public’s tendency toward withering, classist putdowns. Prince Charles, for example, is not merely an eccentric environmentalist with an organic food business. He is a dilettante toff pretending to farm in shiny new boots.
Sarah Ferguson has always got the worst of this tendency. She has an aristocratic family background but always stood out among the Windsors as someone who was a little rougher around the edges, and proud of it, even as she spent so freely that she twice came close to bankruptcy. In a report this week, The Daily Telegraph rather cruelly called her a “jolly ginger nut” with a “blundering naffness.”
In 1992, while still married to Andrew, though separated, she was photographed in the South of France with John Bryan, her financial adviser. She was topless and he was sucking her toes. A few days later, when the photos came out in the papers, she was with the Royal Family at Balmoral in Scotland. The family relationship, not good to begin with, never recovered.
Nor is there much hope for a lasting peace. Later this year, Princess Eugenie is set to marry Jack Brooksbank, also at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. As mother of the bride, the Duchess is likely to have the opportunity to host her own party, and set her own guest list.