Sarah Ferguson’s £4m spending on ‘coat hangers and watercress’ leaves her ‘homeless’
Sarah Ferguson has found herself homeless after being barred from Royal Lodge by King Charles, and her financial woes are believed to be due to her excessive spending during her marriage
Sarah Ferguson, with her down-to-earth charm, won the hearts of the nation, but it seems her spending habits were far from modest.
Known as ‘Fabulous Fergie’ in the press and cheered on by Royal enthusiasts outside Clarence House on the eve of her Royal wedding, Sarah proclaimed herself the “luckiest girl in the world” to be marrying a “handsome” prince. However, now, as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor loses his Royal titles and faces exile in obscurity, Sarah finds herself without a home, a stark contrast to the opulent lifestyle she held onto for years.
King Charles dealt the final blow to his younger brother, evicting him from Royal Lodge, the dilapidated 30-room mansion where the former couple have resided since 2008. Andrew was stripped of his Royal honours last week, as confirmed in a scathing statement from the Palace – which emphasised that Charles and Queen Camilla stand with victims and survivors of all forms of abuse.
Virginia Guiffre, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein who tragically took her own life earlier this year, accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her three times when she was a teenager, allegations he strongly denies.
While Andrew is anticipated to relocate to a property within the vast Sandringham estate, Fergie has allegedly been instructed by the Palace to sort out her own accommodation arrangements, effectively severing her ties with the Royal establishment entirely.
Her former husband will apparently pocket a six-figure sum for vacating the Lodge, but Fergie, who notoriously struggled with mounting debts for years, lacks any such financial cushion, reports the Mirror.
The former duchess has openly confessed she is “terrible with money” and has previously faced bankruptcy. With her net worth reportedly standing at £745,000, she seemingly couldn’t even stretch to purchasing a terraced house in Windsor – the town she’s considered home for decades.
Sarah has battled back from financial difficulties through various means, from fronting Weight Watchers advertising campaigns and hawking products on QVC to making appearances on Loose Women and penning steamy romance novels. However, her extravagant spending patterns and apparent appetite for luxury clash with her current situation, locked out from the grandeur and ceremony of palace life.
Fergie, as she is commonly known, was reportedly bailed out by the late Queen “several times” after accumulating substantial debts. Andrew Lownie’s new biography, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, reveals that this included a payment of £500,000 in April 1994 when Coutts bank “demanded £500,000 within 14 days”.
Lownie, who dedicated four years to researching Sarah and Andrew for his book, alleges that the former duchess lived lavishly during her marriage, splashing on staff, holidays, parties and flowers, leading a life of “opulent excess”. Most concerning, he claims, was the apparent lack of consideration for how these bills would be paid.
The author details extravagances such as spending £65,000 to keep a personal trainer on permanent standby, despite only using their services twice in a year. Meanwhile, the big spender also allegedly racked up a bill of £51,000 at the luxury department store Selfridges, making purchases through the company’s personal shopper and her old school friend, Pandora Delevigne.
Inevitably, Fergie’s extravagant spending came back to haunt her. After failing to settle a £500 debt, a local newsagent reportedly cut off supplies to the Duchess, whilst a neighbourhood butcher, dry cleaning service and vehicle rental company also featured amongst her outstanding creditors.
Even her BP petrol card was allegedly seized owing to unpaid debts. Fergie racked up a staggering £6,500 bill by utilising Queen Elizabeth’s exclusive postal service “on an almost daily basis”.
A previous employee informed Lownie that “greed and wastefulness that contributed to the duchess’s financial downfall”, asserting: “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.”
Another insider revealed that Fergie “thought nothing of arriving at an airport with 25 cases and paying between £800 and £4,000 in excess baggage. At least five of those cases were packed with toiletries and make-up. Another would be used solely for clothes hangers.”
Moreover, “personal trainers, hairdressers and Pilates instructors were paid hundreds of pounds an hour to wait for her to emerge for the day in the late afternoon. Her butler had to get in at 4.30am to put watercress on ice”.
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