Now it’s Fergie’s time
The duchess can’t wait to tie the knot with her prince again
The disgraced duchess gets a princely proposal
They’ve long been hailed as the world’s happiest divorced couple, but Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York won’t be able to claim that title much longer.
Hot on the heels of daughter Princess Eugenie’s lavish nuptials, Woman’s
Day has learned that Sarah Ferguson and her ex-husband are set to tie the knot again!
The star-crossed couple took sightseers by surprise a few days before Eugenie’s wedding, when they were spotted happily trotting around Windsor Castle on
the Queen’s horses, together with their eldest daughter Princess Beatrice, 30.
And the pair almost burst with pride on Friday as they joined together to watch their youngest daughter, 28, exchange vows with her fiancé Jack Brooksbank, 32, in a two-day, no-expensespared extravaganza.
To the outside world, it has always seemed Andrew and Sarah’s love story had the unhappiest of endings, with the pair divorcing in 1996 amid a flurry of scandals.
But the couple remained extraordinarily close and affectionate, with Sarah still living at her ex’s Royal Lodge home in Windsor and the two often being photographed enjoying each other’s company at events.
“The spark has always been there,” a friend of the couple reveals. “They share the same sense of humour and fun. They might have divorced, but they never really left each other’s side.”
Sarah turns 59 on October 15 – three days after Eugenie’s wedding – and we hear Andrew, 58, officially popped the question at a pre-birthday dinner he hosted for his former wife.
“Andrew invited some of Fergie’s closest friends and towards the end of the dinner, he made a toast to Fergie before getting down on one knee to propose,” a palace insider tells us. “He told her he would love her for the rest of his life.”
Sarah was said to be in tears as Andrew then slipped onto her finger a remake of the original ruby and diamond ring he gave her when they got engaged the first time back in 1986.
A source close to the Yorks says the well-matched pair talked about remarrying for several months before Andrew’s proposal, adding, “It’s been an open secret among their closest friends. They’ve been living like a married couple for ages and they want to make it official.”
Sarah and Andrew wed in 1986 but separated six years later, when the duchess became disillusioned with Andrew’s long stints at sea as a naval officer. She started an affair with Texan oilman Steve Wyatt and was then sensationally photographed having her toes sucked by her “financial advisor” John Bryan while on holiday in France.
Eight years ago, Sarah brought ill repute to the royal family yet again when she was caught trying to sell a businessman access to Andrew. These scandals caused a deep and seemingly irreparable rift between her and Prince Philip, 97, who dubbed her “Frightful Fergie” and refused to have anything more to do with her.
Andrew, however, has always staunchly stood by the love of his life and in the early years of their divorce, the pair never ventured far from each other, continuing to live in the same house and raise their young daughters as a united couple.
In a 2001 interview, the prince said he wouldn’t rule out remarriage and that same year, Sarah publicly confessed the only thing standing in their way of their reunion was Philip.
But times have changed. Ahead of Eugenie’s wedding, the Duke of Edinburgh and his former daughter-in-law called a truce on their 26-year feud, and now Sarah and Andrew feel nobody can get in the way of their future happiness.
A fresh start
“Fergie is 60 next year and she couldn’t be happier,” reports our source. “She feels as though her life has been on hold for years and she’s tired of all the subterfuge. If she had her way, they’d be married by Christmas, but Andrew feels that timing is everything and it would be better if they waited until next year.”
Our palace insider adds, “They want to marry at Balmoral in a very small and intimate ceremony followed by a luncheon at the castle. Then they’ll jet off to the Azores, the islands off Portugal where they had their first honeymoon.”
The happy couple had been careful not to steal the limelight from Eugenie in the lead-up to her wedding, but we’re told both Beatrice and Eugenie have been itching for their mum and dad to get married again.
“Especially Eugenie,” says our source. “She’s got babies on her mind and would love nothing more than for her parents to be married again by the time she gets pregnant.”