Peace at last
Fergie and Philip call a truce
As Princess Eugenie’s dream wedding day edges closer, one word could sum up the mood of the bride’s mother – dread.
The flame-haired Duchess of York – who shocked the world when she was snapped having her toe sucked by an amorous lover while still married to Prince Andrew – has been personanongrata at the palace ever since.
But no-one holds more contempt for Sarah Ferguson, 58, than her former fatherin-law Prince Philip – so much so that he dubbed her “Frightful Fergie”. He saw that she was specifically not invited to Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding in 2011, and she was only allowed to attend the nuptials of Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex after the groom put his foot down and insisted.
The Duke of Edinburgh has never been able to forgive the party-loving duchess for a long string of embarrassing missteps, including trying to sell a businessman access to Andrew in 2010. For Fergie, the prospect of coming face to face with her number-one enemy – at her own daughter’s wedding, no less – has been causing her more than a few sleepless nights.
But a well-placed source deep within her camp tells
Woman’sDay that in the past few weeks, she and Philip, 97, have finally buried the hatchet, much to the relief of the rest of The Firm.
“Those two have been at loggerheads for 26 years,” shares our source. “In all that
time, they’ve never said more than a frosty hello to each other. But in recent weeks, they’ve been brought together on three separate occasions and, bit by bit, the tension between them has diminished.”
The thawing of relations has been secretly engineered by father of the bride Andrew, 58, with a little help from royal family peacemaker Kate, 36.
“The two of them managed to convince Philip to give Fergie another chance and everyone in the royal household is delighted – for Eugenie and Beatrice’s sakes especially,” reports our source.
Tea&sympathy
“They most recently met a few days ago, when Andrew took Fergie with him to visit the Queen and Philip at Balmoral. It was very cordial –
they had tea and cake, and chatted for a couple of hours, mainly about the wedding.
“Kate has also been turning on the charm with Philip, suggesting that Fergie could be allowed back into the fringes of the family without making too much of a big deal about it and that he really doesn’t have to see her much at all – even at the wedding! Kate has always liked Fergie and finds it sad that she’s excluded from royal events.”
Knowing she’s not going to be humiliated by being given the bum’s rush on her daughter’s big day has given Sarah the tonic she needs as Eugenie, 28, prepares to wed fiancé Jack Brooksbank, 32, at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle on October 12.
It was revealed last week that the palace had received
100,000 applications from the public to attend the ceremony inside the palace grounds and, from those, 1200 names have been selected.
The security bill is set to top $4 million and despite Andrew going all-out to make sure the star-studded, two-day, three-party affair is more extravagant than Harry and Meghan’s wedding, we’re told the Yorks are furious that the BBC has declined to televise the event, claiming it would be a ratings flop. However, the BBC has confirmed there will be news coverage of the wedding.
“Andrew’s now in talks with ITV,” says a Windsor insider. “The way he sees it, this is going to be a huge royal wedding with all the senior members of the royal family in attendance.”