Dubbed the ‘Duchess of Excess’, Sarah Ferguson‘s insatiable quest for cash was made abundantly clear when she accepted a loan of £15,000 from paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2011.
It was later revealed by The Mail on Sunday that she had been secretly bankrolled by the sex offender for up to 15 years; while a string of new revelations from the Epstein files have shown how Sarah, now 66, was eager to enjoy the perks of her friendship with the billionaire.
The paedophile repeatedly organised accommodation for the former Duchess in the US, and was asked to pay almost $15,000 for flights for Fergie, Beatrice and Eugenie to visit him just 48 hours after his prison release.
The disgraced ex-Duchess racked up debts in excess of £3.7million by 1994 and continually relied on Epstein for financial support, but it’s perhaps no surprise given her penchant for living lavishly.
Writing in their book, Sarah’s Story: The Duchess who Defied the Royal House of Windsor, Chris Hutchins and Peter Thompson laid bare the true extent of her excesses.
The co-authors spoke to staff members at the royal’s sprawling 50,000-acre Sunninghill Estate to gain a real insight into Fergie’s numerous ‘foibles’, including a requirement to have all of her knickers, bras and tights meticulously ironed by staff.
If any of her laundry did not smell of her preferred fabric conditioner ‘she would order everything to be washed again’.
Sarah Ferguson, often dubbed the ‘Duchess of Excess’, was also known for her extremely lavish lifestyle and extravagant spending that saw her rack up debts in excess of £3.7million by 1994 and strike up a close friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein
Writing in his book, Mr Lownie described how Fergie’s excessive spending extended towards her travels abroad. In the summer of 1994, Fergie rented the lavish villa Domaine La Fontaine near Cannes in the South of France at an eye-watering cost of £20,000
The former Duchess was also insistent that ‘two hot water bottles be placed on the side of her king-sized bed each night, ordering staff to measure the temperature of the water so it was exactly to her liking’.
Fergie was also adamant that she should receive freshly squeezed orange juice every morning, with the oranges squeezed ‘just as she sat down’.
‘She could tell the difference if the juice had been prepared earlier and refused to touch it,’ added Mr Hutchins and Mr Thompson.
Sarah and Andrew, since stripped of their royal titles, were said to have spent £300-a-week on vegetables at Waitrose, while their freezer was also filled with numerous ice creams that were hardly touched.
Even the royal couple’s Jack Russel, Bendicks, enjoyed a life of utter luxury – with one friend recalling how staff were made to cook the dog ‘proper dinners, liver or sausages with gravy’.
And while Andrew became increasingly concerned about the rising costs of their energy bills, Fergie was said to have ‘defiantly’ turned the lights and heating back on, according to royal author Andrew Lownie.
Indicative of Fergie’s bizarre habits, the former Duchess revealed during an interview with American comedian Ruby Wax that she labelled all of her clothes with unsightly Post-It stickers.
The interaction was captured during an episode of Ms Wax’s BBC One show When Ruby Wax Meets… and left Ms Wax in stitches after she discovered that the makeshift labels indicated that Fergie colour-coded her t-shirts as ‘smart pink’ and ‘smart white’ ones.
Young Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were joined by two Scotland Yard protection officers, while Fergie’s assistants also flew in and then out to provide assistance
All of her knickers, bras and tights were to be meticulously ironed by staff and if any of her clothes did not have the correct conditioner scent ‘she would order everything to be washed again’, according to Chris Hutchins and Peter Thompson
Even the royal couple’s Jack Russel, Bendicks (pictured), enjoyed a life of utter luxury – with one friend recalling how staff were made to cook the dog ‘proper dinners, liver or sausages with gravy’
When Ruby asked Fergie whether she was ‘too lazy’ to check what was in each drawer, the mother of two said the labels helped her save time while getting her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, ready for school.
Writing in his book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, Mr Lownie described how Fergie’s excessive spending also extended towards her travels abroad.
The royal author revealed how in the summer of 1994, Fergie rented the lavish villa Domaine La Fontaine near Cannes in the South of France at an eye-watering cost of £20,000.
Despite the villa being considered self-catering, the former Duchess was joined by a butler, two housekeepers, a personal dresser, general assistant, nanny and sherpa friend Yeltsin.
Young Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were also joined by two Scotland Yard protection officers, while Fergie’s assistants also appeared on the trip to provide assistance.
Never one to be frugal, a truck was driven from England to provide sun loungers and swimming pool toys for the children, while an additional five telephone lines were installed in the property.
‘There was a daily delivery of wine, including Laurent-Perrier rose champagne and her favourite Puligny-Montrachet at £50 a bottle, often opened and then not drunk,’ added Mr Lownie.
The Duchess was also said to have partied with the likes of Pamela Stephenson and musician Billy Connolly, alongside Sir David Frost, Roger Moore and pop star Belinda Carlisle at a cost of over £100,000.
The former Duchess was also insistent that ‘two hot water bottles be placed on the side of her king-sized bed each night, ordering staff to measure the temperature of the water so it was exactly to her liking’
The 12-bedroom mansion (pictured) which became known as SouthYork, was eventually sold in 2007 to Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of the former president of Kazakhstan, for £15million.
Perhaps one of Fergie’s most lavish expenses is her 12-bedroom Sunninghill Park mansion, the former marital home she shared with Andrew in Ascot, Berkshire.
The 12-bedroom mansion which, in a twist on JR’s Dallas ranch Southfork became known as SouthYork, was eventually sold in 2007 to Timur Kulibayev, son-in-law of the former president of Kazakhstan, at a cost of £15million.
Inside, the Duchess had a marble bathtub dubbed ‘HMS Fergie’ by builders due to its incredibly vast size, while the lavish mansion also contained ‘its own helicopter landing pad, a cinema, pool room and swimming pool, and 20 rooms of staff quarters’, according to Mr Lownie.
After walking up the mansion’s ‘curved staircase’, the couple’s master bedroom boasted an expansive four-poster bed and mint-green canopy, alongside ‘one of the world’s largest walk-in wardrobes’, measuring 100ft by 50ft.
A spare room was decorated with ape-covered wallpaper and dubbed the ‘Money Room’, while the downstairs toilet contained a musical loo-roll holder that was believed to have played ‘God Save the Queen’.
Other unique features that highlighted the Duke and Duchess’s unparalleled expensive taste included 12 installed phone lines, blast-proof plastic walls, bedrooms containing panic buttons, and even a bomb shelter.
Towels, flannels, hand soaps and even toilet paper were said to have been ’embossed with the initials A & S’ while, according to Lownie, the annual cost of guarding the house alone came to a whopping £300,000.
And, in what was described as ‘Aladdin’s Cave’, one room was ‘piled from floor to ceiling with cardboard boxes’ that held gifts from the royal couple’s numerous trips, alongside some of their two-thousand wedding presents.
The boxes contained 24 antique silver serving dishes costing between £1,500 and £8,000 each, 36 silver condiment sets, 1,000 crystal glasses and even 300 vases costing up to £600 each.
After Prince Andrew and Fergie’s high-profile divorce in 1996, the Prince eventually moved out of the purpose-built mansion, while the Duchess, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie remained living at Sunninghill until 2006.
Now, the former Duchess is said to be in the midst of a ‘housing crisis’ after King Charles stripped Andrew of his royal titles and demanded that he vacate Windsor’s 30-room Royal Lodge due to their friendship with Epstein.
While Andrew is begrudgingly off to Marsh Farm in Sandringham, Fergie is understood to be making her own living arrangements.
A friend previously told the Daily Mail: ‘The honest truth is that she has nowhere to go and no one to go with. Her future is hanging in the balance,’ while another source said: ‘People don’t want to be associated with her any more.’