Sarah, Duchess of York, has been snubbed by the Royal Family – again.
The ex-wife of Prince Andrew may have scored an invite to the wedding of her nephew, Prince Harry, and the afternoon reception, but Prince Charles has left her off the guest list for the exclusive evening reception.
Andrew is expected to be there, along with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, but Fergie is just going to have to find somewhere else to hang that night. She’s probably used to snubs by now, though.
She wasn’t invited to the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton either.
It’s believed that Harry insisted on his aunt being at his wedding, but she’s said to be “deeply unhappy” about not getting an invite to the reception.
“Prince Charles simply doesn’t have time for her,” an insider reportedly told Express.
The relationship between Fergie and Prince Philip is even frostier. According to royal correspondent James Whitaker, who died in 2012, the Prince once described his former daughter-in-law as having “no point”.
So what exactly did Fergie do to get herself on the royal blacklist? Well, there was that toe-sucking incident. But that’s not all…
The Out Loud crew go deep on everything that is happening in the world of Meghan Markle, from grey hairs to who she can’t have at her wedding. Post continues after audio…
THE TOE-SUCKING
It was August 1992, and Fergie and Andrew had separated after six years of marriage, but not formally divorced. Fergie had been on holidays in the south of France with her American “financial adviser”, John Bryan.
A paparazzi photographer snapped Bryan apparently sucking her toes, while she was sunbathing topless.
The photos were sold to the British tabloids. On the day they were published, Fergie was staying at Balmoral with the Royal Family. It must have made for rather awkward conversation over the dining table.
The Daily Star said the British people were fed up with the “frolics of Fergie”.
“It’s one thing to be a troubled wife with marriage problems,” the newspaper sniped.
“It’s another thing to be a trollop.”
Fergie has claimed on several occasions that Bryan wasn’t actually sucking her toes.
“He was pretending to try the slipper on my foot and I was Cinderella,” she said.
But the damage was done. Fergie was exiled from Balmoral. And her reputation with the Royals never quite recovered.
THE WEIGHT WATCHERS GIG
In need of an income after her divorce – and finding that writing children’s books wasn’t lucrative enough – the Duchess of York decided on a new way to bring in the bucks. She signed deals to spruik Wedgwood china and, more controversially, Weight Watchers.
The idea of a Royal – or even former Royal – appearing in ads was a shock to many.
Fergie had been cruelly mocked as “the Duchess of Pork” when she was married to Andrew, so the Weight Watchers deal actually made sense, and lasted for more than a decade. But she almost stuffed things up right at the beginning when said she’d explained the Weight Watchers regime to her daughter Beatrice and made changes to her diet.
“I mean, she is only eight, but she definitely can pack it on a bit,” she said. “When she put on her swimsuit, we noticed she was kind of appearing a bit chunky.”
A spokesperson for Weight Watchers quickly pointed out that they don’t encourage children to diet.
THE TABLOID STING
In 2010, News of the World released a video that showed Fergie promising a foreign businessman she would give him access to Prince Andrew in return for 500,000 pounds.
“That opens up everything you would ever wish for,” she told him. But it turned out that the “foreign businessman” was undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood, and it was all a sting set up by the tabloid.
Exposed, Fergie said she “deeply regretted” the situation.
“It is true that my financial situation is under stress,” she said.
“However, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgement and I am very sorry that this has happened.”
Later, she told Oprah Winfrey that she had been drinking and was not in her “right place”.
“I was in the gutter at that moment,” she said.
Top Comments
I'd say it was that final point that hurt Fergie's chances of being invited back into the fold - paid access to Prince Andrew would be "simply not on."
With the barrage of criticisms & security fears that family has to contend with - that must have been the line she crossed.
I don't entirely blame Fergie though - both she and Diana (former best pals ) were treated with disregard by some senior members of that family.
I think Harry's insistence that she be there with her daughters ( who see a lot of the Queen anyway ) is admirable.
Why do we care ?
Our focus on the lives of Britain's ( and Australia's ) Royal family says a lot about us I guess - we're social, tribal animals.
Regardless of whether or not the Royal Family is a bloody waste of time & money there's no doubt that the upcoming fuss over Harry & Mehan's wedding is making a lot of people happy & optimistic about our combined futures.
The broad spin-off from that alone is worth millions to someone's economy.
Don't know why she expected to be invited or why people think she should have been - many families don't invite ex partners to weddings - I certainly didn't invite my aunt's ex to my wedding. He's a nice man but I'm not close to him so aside from only having people I'm close to, I wanted my aunt (who is absolutely lovely) to have a fun night. I am sure he wouldn't have been offended. Fergie has been divorced from Prince Andrew for many many years - it's nice they include her in many family functions but she needs to recognise that's for her daughters' sake and not for her.