Sarah Ferguson
Sarah Margaret Ferguson, formerly Sarah, Duchess of York, and commonly known by the nickname Fergie, is a British author and the former wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and younger brother of King Charles III.
Ferguson was raised in Dummer, Hampshire, and attended the Queen's Secretarial College. She later worked for public relations firms in London and for a publishing company. She began a relationship with Andrew in 1985, and they were married on 23 July 1986 at Westminster Abbey, upon which she became Duchess of York. They have two daughters: Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. Their marriage, separation in 1992, and divorce in 1996 attracted extensive media coverage.
Both during and after her marriage, Ferguson has been involved with several charities, primarily focused on supporting cancer patients and children. She was the patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust from 1990 to 2025 and founded Children in Crisis and Sarah's Trust. She has written several books for children and adults, and has worked on TV and film production.
In the years following her divorce, Ferguson was the subject of various scandals that affected her relationship with the royal family. Her friendship with the American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to the termination of her roles as patron and spokesperson for multiple charities. In October 2025, Ferguson ceased using the courtesy title Duchess of York following Andrew's announcement that he would no longer use his peerage titles.
Early life
Sarah Margaret Ferguson was born on 15 October 1959 at London Welbeck Hospital, London, the second daughter of Major Ronald Ferguson and Susan Barrantes. She has one older full sister, Jane. After her parents divorced in 1974, her mother married polo player Héctor Barrantes the following year and moved to Trenque Lauquen in the Argentine pampas. Ferguson remained at the Dummer Down Farm at Dummer, Hampshire, which had been her father's home since she was eight. Major Ferguson married Susan Deptford in 1976, and had three more children: Andrew, Alice, and Elizabeth. Ferguson later said that, at the age of 12, when her parents' marriage began to break down, she developed an eating disorder and "turned to overeating for comfort".Ferguson, known informally as "Fergie", once described her family as "country gentry with a bit of old money". She is a descendant of King Charles II of England through three of his illegitimate children: Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond; James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth; and Anne Lennard, Countess of Sussex. Her wider ancestry is aristocratic, she is the great-great-granddaughter of the 6th Duke of Buccleuch, a great-granddaughter of the 8th Viscount Powerscourt, and a descendant of the 1st Duke of Abercorn and the 4th Duke of Devonshire. She is distantly related to her former husband, Andrew, as both are descended from the 4th Duke of Devonshire and from King James VI and I.
Ferguson attended Daneshill preparatory school in Stratfield Turgis, Hampshire. Staff at the school described her as a "courageous, bubbly and outgoing little girl". She later attended Hurst Lodge School in Ascot. Although she did not shine academically, she showed talent in swimming and tennis. From a young age, Ferguson developed an interest in skiing and later worked briefly as a chalet girl. During her teenage years, she worked as both a cleaner and a waitress. After completing a course at Queen's Secretarial College at the age of 18, she took a job at an art gallery. She subsequently worked in two public relations firms in London, followed by a position at a publishing company. Before her marriage, Ferguson dated Kim Smith-Bingham, a stockbroker, and Paddy McNally, a motor racing manager more than 20 years her senior.
Marriage to Andrew
On 19 March 1986, Prince Andrew and Ferguson announced their engagement. The pair had known each other since childhood, meeting occasionally at polo matches, and were reacquainted at Royal Ascot in 1985. Before the engagement, Ferguson had accompanied Diana, Princess of Wales, during her official tour of Andrew's ship. Andrew designed the engagement ring himself: ten diamonds set around a Burmese ruby, chosen to complement Ferguson's red hair. Her friendly manner and lively spirit made her a welcomed addition to the royal family.After securing the Queen's consent, which was then required under the Royal Marriages Act 1772 for all descendants of King George II, Andrew and Ferguson were married at Westminster Abbey on 23 July 1986. The Queen bestowed the title Duke of York upon Andrew, and, as his wife, Ferguson automatically his royal and ducal status, becoming Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York. In her new role, she joined the Duke in undertaking royal engagements, including overseas visits.
In 1987, Andrew and Ferguson undertook a 25-day tour of Canada. In February that year, Ferguson passed her private pilot's licence after completing a 40-hour training course paid for by Lord Hanson as a wedding gift, and she was presented with her wings at RAF Benson in December.
On 22 January 1988, during a visit to New York to attend a fundraising event, Ferguson was attacked by a young man at the entrance of her hotel. The man, who shouted "murderers 3/8" and carried an Irish Republican Army flag as he rushed towards her, was charged with "attempted assault on the Duchess and assault on a federal agent". A State Department press officer later confirmed that "she was unharmed in the incident".
In March 1988, the couple visited California. Two British newspapers described the trip as a "brash, vulgar, excessive, weak-humored exhibition by two royals". City officials in Los Angeles defended the couple, calling the criticism "awful" and offensive, while observers described the Duke and Duchess as friendly and said they had fulfilled their duties.
In May 1989, Ferguson undertook an official solo visit to Berlin.
The couple's first child, Princess Beatrice, was born on 8 August 1988. Ferguson experienced high blood pressure and excessive water retention during the pregnancy. In September, she joined Andrew in Australia for an official visit, a decision that drew criticism from the press for leaving her newborn daughter in the United Kingdom. Their second daughter, Princess Eugenie, was born by caesarean section on 23 March 1990. During her marriage, the tabloid press frequently mocked the Duchess's weight — which reached during her first pregnancy — and labelled her "Duchess of Pork" and "Fat Fergie". She vowed to lose weight after Beatrice's birth. In 1989, Ferguson was credited with helping to popularise the Callanetics exercise regime in the United Kingdom after reports that founder Callan Pinckney had given her private tuition. She received praise for her weight loss, as well as some criticism for not gaining enough weight during her second pregnancy. Ferguson later said that the press coverage of her weight damaged her self‑esteem and worsened her eating disorder.
Separation and divorce
Biographer Sarah Bradford wrote that Andrew's duties as a naval officer required long periods away from home. According to Ferguson, the couple saw each other for only 40 days a year during the first five years of their marriage. By 1991, the relationship was under strain, with Ferguson finding life within the royal family increasingly difficult. Her friendship with Texan multimillionaire Steve Wyatt, son of Lynn Wyatt, attracted considerable publicity when photographs — including one showing Wyatt with Ferguson's infant daughter — appeared in newspapers in January 1992. The Duke and Duchess of York announced their separation on 19 March 1992. After the announcement, the palace stated that Ferguson would no longer undertake public engagements on behalf of the Queen, and the Queen later confirmed that she would not assume responsibility for Ferguson's debts. Ferguson established a separate residence from her husband in 1992, moving to Romenda Lodge on the Wentworth Estate in Surrey.In August 1992, the Daily Mirror published surreptitiously taken photographs of John Bryan, an American financial manager, kissing Ferguson's toes while she sunbathed topless. The incident led to widespread public ridicule and contributed to her further estrangement from the royal family. The French magazine Paris Match was later ordered to pay £84,000 in damages for printing the photographs, although the original claim had been for £1.32 million. On 28 March 1993, it was announced that a formal separation agreement between the Duke and Duchess had been finalised, following months of speculation that they might reconcile. In 1995, Andrew's aunt Princess Margaret, who had received a bouquet of flowers from Ferguson, reportedly wrote to her: "You have done more to bring shame on the family than could ever have been imagined".
Reports and speculation about a possible reconciliation continued into late 1995, ending when the Duke and Duchess announced their mutual decision to divorce in April 1996. In the years following the divorce, Ferguson said she had received £15,000 a year as a divorce settlement and described her role as a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers as her main "source of income". However, senior officials later told The Sunday Telegraph that the settlement had included £350,000 in cash, £500,000 from the Queen to purchase a house for Ferguson and the children, and a monthly allowance that was estimated to have totalled £500,000 by 2010. The pair shared custody of their children. The decree nisi was granted on 17 April 1996 and the divorce was finalised on 30 May 1996, after which Ferguson legally retained the style Her Royal Highness in the same manner as other divorced peeresses. However, it was announced in April that she had chosen not to use the style and would relinquish it under the terms of the divorce. In accordance with letters patent issued in August 1996 regulating post-divorce royal titles, she formally ceased to be a Royal Highness.
In November 1996, Ferguson published her autobiography Sarah: My Story and undertook a promotional tour. During an appearance on a US chat show, she implied that she and Andrew had had an open relationship, saying "He always knew exactly what was going on", and "It's not a one-way street. We respect each other's space." In a 2007 interview, reflecting on why they finalised their divorce she said, "I wanted to work; it's not right for a princess of the royal house to be commercial, so Andrew and I decided to make the divorce official so I could go off and get a job."
Since the divorce, Ferguson has attended a number of events with her daughters, including Andrew's investitures into the Royal Victorian Order and the Order of the Garter, as well asRoyal Ascot. On such occasions, she is afforded the courtesy of treatment as a member of the royal family. She hinted at the possibility of remarrying Andrew in several interviews. In August 2013, she was invited to stay at Balmoral Castle with Andrew and their daughters as guests of the Queen, and in September 2013, when asked about the prospect of remarriage, Ferguson said: "He's still my handsome prince, he'll always be my handsome prince."
She was not invited to the 1999 wedding of Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones nor the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, but she did attend the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. However, she did not receive an invitation to the evening reception at Frogmore House hosted by Prince Charles, and was reportedly "deeply upset" by her exclusion.
The Lord Chamberlain's Office continued to list Ferguson as a member of the royal family until November 2025, alongside other extended family members such as Daniel Chatto and Mike Tindall., however, she did not appear on the section of the royal family's website titled "Members of the Royal Family". She attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, and was seated beside her daughters, but she was not invited to the coronation of King Charles III in May 2023.
On 25 December 2023, Ferguson joined the royal family for the Christmas service at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, marking her first attendance at the event since 1992.