Historic footage of Sarah Ferguson storming out of interview on Australian TV is shared on-line as journalist calls it ‘the largest trainwreck of his profession’

She’s become a beloved – if not slightly eccentric – member of the royal family, often sharing insights into the Firm on her social media.

And while she’s now seen as a doting granny – a resurfaced clip of  Sarah Ferguson storming out of a TV interview 13 years ago has gone viral – shocking royal fans.

The Duchess of York, who was married to Prince Andrew from 1986 to 1996,  stormed out of a TV interview after being quizzed about the ‘cash-for-access’ scandal.

Princess Beatrice and Eugenie’s mother sat down for a trainwreck interview with 60 Minutes Australia host Michael Usher in 2011.

During the car crash interview, the Duchess walked off mid-interview, because she didn’t like the line of questioning, before returning to speak to Michael. 

It appeared the interview started to go south when the Duchess was forced to watch recorded footage of her offering ‘cash-for-access’ services to her former husband Prince Andrew. 

In May 2010, Sarah was filmed by the now-closed News of the World newspaper, offering access to Prince Andrew for £500,000 to an undercover reporter posing as an Indian businessman.

She is clearly heard on the footage saying: ‘£500,000 when you can, to me, open doors.’

In the clip Michael asked Sarah: ‘Did you take the money? At one point you had $4,000 cash sitting in front of you, did you take that.’

Sarah replied: ‘Absolutely yes, it was given to me and I got it in the car and then returned it straight away.’

Michael added: ‘Once the scandal broke?’ Looking frustrated Sarah added: ‘As soon as I knew it was a scandal not once it broke Michael.

‘Don’t try and trick me now because I am not going to play this game. Delete that bit. I don’t to go down this route.’ 

The duchess then turned around to her Australian agent John, who was off screen, and she expressed she didn’t want to continue with that line of questioning. 

After being pressed by Michael to continue the interview, Sarah said ‘ok thanks moving onto the next question.’

After being asked if the scandal helped her ‘review her life’ Sarah said: ‘I was very grateful for being in that position in a way, because when I hit rock bottom it woke me up.’

Sarah then looked off camera again at her agent and said ‘remember, remember, Cindy, yeah.. I am going to take five minutes.’ 

The duchess then stood up and walked out of the interview, before returning later but she still appeared frosty with the interviewer. 

During a radio interview Michael opened up about his awkward interaction with Sarah.

The Channel Seven reporter joined Nova 96.9’s Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie on Thursday to talk through the big news stories of 2024.

During the chat, Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli recalled Michael’s interview with 2011 Sarah.

‘Wasn’t that a hot mess!’ said Wippa, before co-host Kate Ritchie added: ‘I’ve never seen it, I want to hear you guys chat about it.’

‘I had to call her Duchess. She wouldn’t let me call her Sarah, lots and lots of airs and graces,’ said the veteran journalist.

‘But she was fine, and she was relatively sweet. But then there was just this moment…she turned and getting her back into the chair, was crazy.

‘She came back and she continued the interview, and then it was like a different personality again,’ he added.

The reporter then said that after the awkward interview, him and his crew walked outside when the Duchess of York came running after them.

‘We walked outside, and the Duchess came running up behind me. She chucked her heels off and she’s in her stockings on the lawn. Going “Michael, how was that?”‘ he related.

‘By that stage, I just said, “Sarah, if I were you, I’d be asking to go back into the room and do that interview all over again, because I don’t know what happened.”

‘Then she goes, “Oh, well, anyway, who wants to sign some books? I’ll sign your book for you. And now, what are your kids names?” And off she went from there. 

The Duchess’s representation in Australia, John Scott, claimed at the time that the footage was cynically taken out of context and demanded that the network withdraw its advertising of the programme and delete scenes from the interview.

He told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper: ‘We had gone through all the questions and subject matter beforehand and filmed all the walking in the park footage before we sat down. 

‘She did walk out when she was ambushed – no, it was entrapment – but after cooling down she said to me, “F*** them, let’s do this”, and she did, but it was a banal interview and her demeanour reflected that.’ 

John said the Duchess was shocked when asked to watch the News of the World footage again during the 60 Minutes interview.

He said making the Duchess sit through the footage again was unnecessary, because she had obviously already seen it and had agreed to answer questions about it.

But 60 Minutes producer Mr Thomson said: ‘She agreed to talk about the issue, as she has already extensively done, so it certainly wasn’t entrapment.’