Sarah Ferguson’s warped life behind closed doors from seething staff to Epstein s@x joke

The former Duchess of York is facing fresh questions about her friendship with paedophile financer Jeffrey Epstein after she was linked to a number of astonishing emails released in the latest Epstein files

Andrew ‘should be prepared’ for Congress probe PM says after Epstein files dump

Sarah Ferguson is facing homelessness as result of her links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but the blows aren’t over as more details about their astonishing friendship have surfaced.

The ex-Duchess – who will soon be evicted from Royal Lodge along with her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – has been linked to a number of emails released in the latest tranche of Epstein files. The numerous exchanges are said to have left her daughters Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice ‘aghast’, as the ex-duchess appears to reference Eugenie’s s@x life, plead for money and even suggest marriage in the never-before-seen correspondance.

Last night Ms Ferguson’s begging mobile phone messages emerged in which she asks Epstein why he cut her off. The newly released communications come after Sarah’s life was torn apart last year when it was revealed that both her and her ex-husband misled the Palace and the public about exactly when they both cut Epstein off. The scandal resulted in them both losing their royal titles, with Andrew agreeing to give up his mansion they both shared, Royal Lodge. Charities who once worked loyally with the former Duchess quickly cut ties after leaked emails showed her links to Epstein.

Further shame came when royal authour Andrew Lownie released a biography on the Yorks with bombshell claims about Fergie’s reckless spending, love of freebies and the couple’s alleged infidelity during their marriage. We take a closer look at some of the biggest revelations about Sarah behind closed doors…

View 7 Images

Sarah Ferguson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is again under scrutiny(Image: TOPSTAR / BACKGRID)

‘Compliments and visits’

In one email exchange from August 2009, “Sarah” updates Epstein on potential business opportunities and gushes over a “compliment” that the paedophile made about her “in front of my girls”.

Epstein had been released in July 2009 after serving less than 13 months for pleading guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and of solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18.

The email reads: “In just one week, after your lunch, it seems the energy has lifted. I have never been more touched by a friends [sic] kindness than your compliment to me in front of my girls. Thank you Jeffrey for being the brother I have always wished for.”

View 7 Images

In one of the emails, ‘Sarah’ suggested a recent meeting with Epstein and her daughters, and described him as a ‘brother’(Image: DOJ)

Another email, sent in July 2009, seems to indicate a lunch was held between Sarah, both her daughters and Epstein. In July 2009, Epstein sent an email to a “ferg” address asking “where are you? .. ” The reply from “Sarah” reads: “In Miami. What number shall I call you on now” (sic).

She goes on to say that she stayed at “Phillip Levine house with the girls. I am aiming to get to you for 12:30 for lunch. Does that suit?” Epstein then replies offering “a ride,” which is declined. “I made Phillip give us his car and a back up one for the policeman,” she says, confirming it will be “myself, Beatrice and Eugenie”.

It comes after a leaked email last year showed Epstein mentioning a visit from Sarah and the princesses to his UK lawyer in April 2011. Sarah had given a newspaper interview apologising for the “terrible, terrible error of judgment” in associating with Epstein and accepting his money, promising she would have “nothing ever to do” with him again. But it appears she continued the friendship.

In his email, Epstein responds to her statements by saying she “should affirmatively state that she was misquoted”, and claiming she was “the first to celebrate” his release from jail by taking her daughters to visit him in New York. Epstein wrote: “[Sarah] took apartments in New York. She was the first to celebrate my release with her two daughters in tow.

View 7 Images

Sarah with her daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie(Image: Getty Images Europe)

“She visited me with [a] policeman sitting at my front desk. She has asked for help with her charities.” A source close to Sarah at the time insisted that neither she nor her daughters, who would have been 20 and 19 at the time, had any recollection of such a visit.

Additional documents also show that ‘Sarah’ sent Epstein an invitation to Andrew’s 50th birthday party in February 2010. “Beatrice, Eugenie, and I would love to invite you to celebrate the 50 years of Papa/Andrew,” the message said. “It will be on February 26th 2010…at St. James’s Palace, London…It will be suits and cocktail dresses, and you know me, mysterious mischief, so bring your presents, your presence, and your humour!”

Crude comments

One major source of humiliation for the ex-Duchess is a reference to her daughter Eugenie’s love life. In one email, ‘Sarah’ responds to Epstein’s question about a possible trip to New York by writing: “Not sure yet. Just waiting for Eugenie to come back from a sh*****g weekend.”

View 7 Images

Eugenie and Jack have been married since 2018(Image: UK Press via Getty Images)

The message, sent in March 2010, would have been around the time Eugenie was celebrating her 20th birthday, likely with then-boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, who she married in 2018.

Another exchange, dated July 2010, showed Epstein asking Fergie if he could “say h=llo” (sic) to Eugenie and her sister Beatrice while visiting London. The reply stated that Beatrice was in London with Andrew while Eugenie was “away with cool boyfri=d” (sic).

In response to the latest revelations regarding Sarah, a source close to Eugenie and Beatrice reportedly told the Daily Mail: “They are aghast at what they have read. They are mortified by the emails their mother has sent to Epstein. It is so embarrassing for them.”

Begging for cash

In her 2011 interview when confronted about her friendship with Epstein, Sarah was apologetic and spoke of her regret at borrowing money for the financier to pay off her debts. “I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me,” she said.

“I abhor paedophilia and any s@xual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say.” Confirming she had allowed Epstein to settle £15,000 of her debts, she added: “Whenever I can I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.”

View 7 Images

Epstein is believed to have lent Sarah large sums of money(Image: US Department of Justice.)

However, it now seems that Epstein secretly funded her lifestyle for a considerable period, giving her far more than the £15,000 she admitted to receiving. In 2009, after the crash of a business venture, Sarah appears to write to Epstein: “I urgently need 20,000 pounds ($27,521) for rent today. The landlord has threatened to go to the newspapers if I don’t pay. Any brainwaves?” Account transactions further show that Epstein transferred $150,000 (£109,000) to Fergie following a share sale, wiring the cash to the former Duchess.

Desperate messages

Writing to Epstein about her sense of betrayal, the then duchess said: “Don’t know if you are still on this bbm but heard from The Duke that you have had a baby boy. Even though you never kept in touch, I still am here with love, friendship and congratualtions [sic] on your baby boy. Sarah xx”

According to The Times, Ms Ferguson did not receive a reply within eight minutes, amd so she wrote: “You have disappeared. I did not even know you were having a baby. It was sOOOOO crystal clear to me that you were only friends with me to get to Andrew. And that really hurt me deeeply [sic]. More than you will know.”

Marriage request

In 2010, just months after Epstein was released from jail for s@x offenses, ‘Sarah’ sent an email in which she told him to “marry me”. It read: “You are a legend. I really don’t have the words to describe, my love, gratitude for your generosity and kindness. Xx I am at your service . Just marry me.”

Massive debts

Reports of Sarah’s overspending have been circulating for years. On more than one occasion, she reportedly had to be bailed out by the late Queen after racking up enormous debts. One of these saw Coutts banks demand a payment of £500,000 in 14 days, which saw the former monarch allegedly forced to step in.

Much of this financial debt came from Sarah’s love of a life of “opulent excess” and in 1994, she is said to have owed a total of £3.4 million. Paul Burrell said Fergie was “like a little girl brought into a sweet shop and told she could have anything she wanted. And she did, she had everything, not just one thing, she had the lot. Absolutely. Abused everything and had everything she could possibly, gorged herself. I saw it”.

View 7 Images

Image of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson from the Epstein Files(Image: DoJ)

Another former member of Sarah’s household staff, quoted in Andrew Lownie’s book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, said, “Every night she demands a whole side of beef, a leg of lamb and a chicken, which are laid out on the dining room table like a medieval banquet. It’s a feast that would make Henry VIII proud.

“But often there is just her and her girls Bea and Eugenie and most of it is wasted. There is no attempt to keep it to have cold the next day. It just sits there all night and the next day it’s thrown away.”

‘Head turned by royal marriage’

Sarah’s initial appeal to both the public and inside the royal circle was her grounded, down-to-earth nature, which provided something of a foil to the usually poised nature of the royals. However, her position as duchess is alleged by some who knew her to have “turned her head”.

“Marriage brought her attention and a list of privileges that she could never have dreamed of. It was quite to turn her head,” a housekeeper at Highgrove was quoted by biographer Lownie as saying.

View 7 Images

Sarah and Andrew on their wedding day in 1986(Image: Getty Images)

One interviewer said of Fergie that there was a deep contrast in her personality, as if you were almost dealing with two different people when speaking with her. “One is ‘no longer a people pleaser’, who snaps at you and regards you coldly. But when she calms down, another Fergie emerges – the skittish, smiling, English eccentric we all love … The thin line between the two is unnerving.”

Another journalist for the Daily Mail said that her personality was of a contradictory nature, both “warm and engaging,” but then suddenly “cold and imperious” and demanded “one-way loyalty”, adding: “Should anyone dare to question her behaviour, she is liable to turn nasty”.

Party reputation and love of ‘freebies’

The marriage between Andrew and Sarah was claimed to have quickly lost some of its lustre, with Sarah admitting that how much her new husband was away carrying out his Naval duties bore part of the blame.

She had something of a reputation for being in a party-loving set before her marriage, and before too long she is alleged to have returned to her old habits. After one trip to New York, where she was put up in a $3,000 a night suite, “partying continued long into the night to such an extent that the sponsors faced a charge of several thousand dollars for extra catering and room service.”

One who scrutinised a break- down of the wine bill reportedly commented: “Well, she certainly knows her vintages.” Sarah is also claimed to have taken advantage of any “freebies” that came her way as a member of the Royal Family, including lavish holidays.

Staff complaints

Some of her staff are said to have found her difficult to work with over the years. She is alleged in Lownie’s book to veer between “confiding far too much when she treated them as friends and compensating far too angrily when she remembered they were servants”.

Many of her staff were made redundant when Andrew and the late Queen are said to have stepped in to try and manage Sarah’s financial crises. Another former staffer was quoted by The Sun as saying, “Fergie can make you feel a million dollars one minute then trample you into the dirt the next. Even if you have your own family to look after, they take second place when it comes to the Duchess.”

They added, “It is all about power, dominance and the manipulation of people. She knows she does it and that is literally how she gets her kicks. When you are in favour there is nothing she won’t do for you – send you presents on your birthday, flowers, say nice things about you. But suddenly it will all change.”