Why Fergie Was Outcast From The British Royal Family

This is the story of a girl who had everything and threw it away. Sarah Ferguson, once Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York, is now in exile from the royal family, a single mother forced to exploit her name to wipe out a huge tax bill. Today, Fergie wishes she could return and talk to the young bride she once was. Ruefully, she looks back at the royal lifestyle that was hers, a world of first-class travel, green light traffic and five-star luxury. Gone Now is the background organisation that ensured her public duties ran with regal smoothness. Like her friend Diana, Fergie is a divorced outcast from the royal family. At the christening of her first baby Beatrice, Fergie seemed to have achieved all her ambitions. But within a year, she started the perilous descent into disgrace and removal from the royal fold. She rarely saw her husband, and while she and Diana relished much that royal life provided, they kicked against its restrictions. No one can marry into the royal family and have an easy, happy life. I mean, Fergie's not the only one. Diana, you know, even other people I could name and won't because they're still married and they're putting up with an awful existence. It's so incredibly difficult to adjust to that life, to become a prisoner in a golden cage. It's a life in which you make endless sacrifices. There's no freedom. And this is why, you know, Diana and Fergie both wanted to escape. It was a life they began to loathe. They just felt if you have only one life to live, it's impossible to live it happily inside a royal palace. By selling her book My Story in New York, Fergie is working to clear the mountain of debts accrued during the wild, reckless years that marked her passage from grandeur to downfall. It is a life far removed from the royal one which made her famous. Without the protection of bodyguards, she's open to casual autograph hunters like a fading film star. The architect of her final humiliation was John Bryan, an American businessman with an elevated opinion of his sexual and financial prowess. He followed his friend, the handsome Texan oil man, Steve Wyatt, in Fergie's affections during her husband's long absences at sea. I began her relationship with Steve Wyatt in 1989. She was then three years into her marriage, pregnant with her second child. She was seeing her husband on an average between 40 and 45 days a year, or at least that's how many evenings they were able to spend together. There was a huge void in her life. I think these men filled the void and yet didn't detract from her relationship with her husband because they were friendly enough when they saw each other. Following her disastrous affairs and her departure from the royal family, Sarah strives to maintain the style she knew in her ten years as the Duchess of York. Aware of her limitations, she admits in her book, I was never cut out for royalty. She adopts instead the pose of a show business celebrity in a Hollywood style unlike the staid traditions of the British royal family. It was those customs that she had tried so diligently to imitate in her eagerness to impress her in-laws. Although Andrew disliked horses, his family built much of their social life around them. Sarah gladly showed off the equestrian skills learned on ponies in her childhood. Despite early worries of Fergie's suitability, she and Andrew seemed an ideal couple. Fergie brought a fresh wave of popularity to the royal family. Behind the often bouncy exterior, Fergie was really an under-confident girl she herself calls the pleaser. Fergie's slimmer and prettier mother, Susie Berantes, had left her husband, Major Ronald Ferguson, when Sarah was 14. Susie set up home in Argentina with her second husband, Hector Berantes. Fergie had finished her growing up under her father's guidance. Major Ferguson, essentially, when his wife ran off to Argentina with Hector Berantes, really didn't pay his daughters very much attention. Jane ran off to Australia, Sarah went off to school, and really never had that strong father figure in her life. It's something that I think she suffers from even now. Sarah's father remarried and had a second family which brought additional responsibilities. While Sarah loved her easy-going stepmother, Sue, her father's new family meant that she had to stand on her own feet. Major Ron served as Prince Charles' unofficial polo manager and kept many royal secrets, despite temptations to tell all. But Major Ron's own weaknesses were exposed when a tabloid paper revealed a massage parlour scandal. His daughter and his colleagues showed their loyalty by standing by him the day he was forced to resign from the Guards Polo Club. I personally fear it's a tragedy that you are leaving the club. Yeah! But I have a lot to say. Major Ronny! Hello! Ah! You're rather interrupting us. That's it, that's right. Major Ron kept the support of Sarah and Andrew until he wrote his autobiography, which Sarah felt betrayed her. He said very revealing things about the royal family, things about the Duchess' relationship with Prince Andrew and speculation about how it could evolve, that really surprised the Duchess and I think upset her a great, great deal. She was appalled when he wrote that book about his past and all the scandals that he'd been involved in. It didn't help her at all, but she's now forgiven him. Through polo, Fergie met up with Lady Diana Spencer. Sarah was already enjoying a freewheeling life in London and Europe. She was the older and wiser friend the innocent Diana needed. Diana wanted Sarah as her lady-in-waiting, but her wishes were denied by palace officials. There was already a palace connection. Major Ron's first cousin, Sir Robert Fellows, was assistant private secretary to the Queen as well as Diana's brother-in-law. At Diana's wedding, Fergie, on the right, wearing a dress given by the bride, enjoyed an honoured front row place beside the flatmates who had also supported Diana. As she saw her friend pass into royal life, Sarah had no idea that within five years she too would marry a prince. Although Fergie knew much about Diana's secret misery, she was attracted to the luxury and privilege which surrounded the princess. As her marriage was privately disintegrating, Diana manoeuvred Sarah into royal life by inviting her on various family occasions. Diana was very, very responsible for bringing together Andrew and Sarah. It was exactly what she needed, a pal at the palace. And so she went to work on Fergie, and the first chance she got, which was when the Queen asked her to suggest some people for the 1985 house party during Ascot week, that she suggested Sarah Ferguson, and the Queen thought it was a good idea. And of course they met at lunch, and they hadn't seen each other since they were children, Andrew and Sarah, and when they got together again, he realised what fun she was. He was on the loose, looking to settle down, and she fell for his charm. He is a good-looking chap, and he has a very sweet nature, Andrew. And so it didn't take much persuasion for her to fall in love with him. He read her with bouquets of red roses and quiet dinners, and they even went to an Elton John concert together, hoping that someone would spot them, and they'd have a bit of fun, you know, ducking and diving from the press. But it didn't happen. And all the while, Diana encouraged them. She allowed them to meet secretly at Kensington Palace, and she arranged little weekends and dinners for them, and she gave them every possible encouragement, because she was very lonely, and she didn't feel that there was anybody in the palace that she had much in common with. So Sarah Ferguson was exactly what she needed. Diana's matchmaking was a success. Sarah and Andrew married in Westminster Abbey in July 1986. Unlike Charles and Diana, the newlyweds were obviously a love match. But their surface happiness hid a deeper truth. They were marrying on the rebound. Andrew had ended a romance with Koo Stark, and Fergie's previous love, Paddy McNally, a self-made millionaire 22 years her senior, had refused to marry her. Probably she did marry Andrew on the rebound, when Paddy McNally made it clear that he wasn't going to marry her. But it seems to me she falls in love rather easily. And she'd always had a yen for that glamorous royal world that Diana had entered. And I think it was a lot of factors, not just Paddy McNally, that influenced her. When Sarah and Andrew married, Archbishop Runcie said the royal wedding was a precious gift to the nation. And on that sunny, happy day, who would have disagreed? The Queen's joy was unmistakable. She had seen her favourite son married to a lively, uncomplicated girl, who quickly became her favourite daughter-in-law. The royal family had an exciting new member, one who might deflect the growing estrangement between the Prince of Wales and his troubled wife by being the companion she badly needed. Diana had been a teenage friend of Prince Andrew, but had married his older, more complex brother. By the time of Andrew's wedding, Charles claimed his marriage had irretrievably broken down. But on this day, Diana hid her personal turmoil to share the happiness of her friend. The new Duchess threw herself wholeheartedly into the royal's public life. Ascot, where Sarah had first attracted Andrew in 1985, became an annual highlight until their separation seven years later, when she was banned from the Royal Carriage Parade. Her exuberance and over-familiar manner did not please everyone. Fashion critics slammed her varied taste in clothes. Behind the scenes, she was the recipient of carping criticism from palace officials, and from some of the royals themselves. I think within the royal family, the person who she seemed to be most afraid of was Prince Philip. Early on in the marriage, apparently he had told her, now that you're a member of the firm, you can do anything you want, but you'll always be caught out. And she was always frightened about that. One time she walked into a room where the Queen and Prince Philip were going to have dinner with her, and she greeted each one of the servants by their first name. And when they sat down, Prince Philip turned to her and he said, I thought you gave up flirting with the servants ages ago. And, you know, she was riveted by these one-liners that he'd come up with periodically. Princess Anne, who had marriage problems of her own, was unsympathetic to Fergie. I once caught an outsider at a family lunch, and there was a furious row between Andrew and Anne. Fergie walked out the room in tears. Andrew demanded that Anne apologise, which she did. But after that, you know, there was a very, very frosty relationship between Fergie and Anne. The public viewed Sarah differently. On a tour of Canada in 1987, Sarah generated excitement with her enthusiasm and sense of fun. Her unique style made her popular, especially in the Commonwealth, where the young royal wife was on display, just as Diana had been before her. Every aspect of Sarah's performance, from her manner to her hairstyles and earrings, was monitored by the press and the palace, and not always favourably. But the Yorks made a good team, as Sarah had promised they would. Andrew was devoted to his good-natured, fun-loving wife, who had taken away his stuffiness. He shared her spirit of open friendliness, so different from the formality of his family. The commentator's delightful phrase, it's wild, it's woolly, it's western, and good-watching. Like my wife. Sorry. Others found her weak point, her weight and her clothes. She was cruelly nicknamed the Duchess of Pork and a style-free zone. Clothes are props to her. She has to wear them. She's not very interested in them. She'd rather go horse-riding or skiing. All I know of her is a warm, generous woman who's totally without any vanity whatsoever. That's why she's so often photographed looking not exactly her best. She doesn't think about putting on make-up. She just thinks, oh, what have I got to do? And she dashes off and does it. And I find that rather endearing. She's not like the Princess of Wales, who spends hours beautifying herself and is working out endlessly and, you know, going to aromatherapy sessions every second day. She's just not like that. And that's why she gets into difficulties with her weight sometimes. She is just not a vain woman. In that respect, she resembles the Queen. After the birth of Beatrice, the Queen gave Sarah and Andrew a belated wedding gift of a mansion to bring up their family. She tried to ensure their happiness. Sunninghill was based on an American house Fergie had seen in the rolling countryside of Connecticut. But squeezed into a smaller plot near Windsor and altered to suit Andrew's preferences, the new building was lacking in grace and charm. Dubbed Dallas Palace because of its vulgarity, it became a monument to bad taste. Naturally, it attracted the attention of the press. It was the Yorks' third home in as many years. Sunninghill became the setting for the dramas which ended their marriage. Here, Fergie's money problems started to become unmanageable. She and Andrew, I think their largest ever income was about £200,000 a year which went on staff salaries, pensions, medical benefits and endless other costs involved in running a royal household. They had a staff of at least 25 people. You may say they don't need so many, but that's the way you're expected to live. And after those salaries were paid, then she got money to buy frocks or Christmas presents or whatever. Now, it just simply wasn't enough money to live on, especially when she was endlessly compared with Diana. Andrew was a serving naval officer sent away for long periods at sea. Sarah was often alone. These absences were a crucial factor in dividing the couple. She says that he was home for only 47 days out of 365. Now, it was appalling. I mean, the way they treated them both, they were given something like a three-day honeymoon alone in the Azores on the Royal Yacht before the Royal Yacht had to steam home for the Queen to go on her Western Isles cruise and Andrew and Sarah had to go along with all their in-laws. I mean, it was just ridiculous to treat a young couple like that. They had no time to get to know each other before he was off and away again. Sarah tried to cope with the empty spaces in her life by taking flying lessons. Becoming Sarah the Action Woman helped her to deal with her problems and to understand her absent husband by emulating him. Skiing was another escape from palace protocol. She relished the freedom and thrill of the mountains. But as a royal duchess, Sarah believed she had to help others. So in her favourite sport, she tried to help publicise the achievements of handicapped skiers. I'm not going to sing a song. And I haven't prepared a speech, but I just am so pleased to be here today. I mean, it's just wonderful. I mean, it's not very much snow and I think you've done a fantastic job because seeing those conditions out there with that ice, I think you're all amazing, that we're all here in one piece anyway. Her mixed motives attracted the criticism of the grey men at the palace. They were unhappy about her tendency to be drawn into commercialisation. She would face the world bravely but go back to rebukes from the Queen's advisors at the palace. Beneath a tide of savagery over her clothes from fashion writers and sneering remarks from courtiers, Sarah's confidence was slowly eroded. Her high-volume contribution to the TV programme It's a Royal Knockout earned her more hostility. Sarah was expected to turn out, get on the Royal Roadshow, roll around the country and go abroad as if she'd been doing it all her life, without any preparation or any training or any support whatsoever. And I just think it's too much to expect. And when you run into difficulties, they have a policy, never complain, never explain in a royal family. Just get on with it and don't go to anybody else. Don't seek support or help. You've got to be self-reliant and solve your own problems. And of course, when you turn to your spouse, as she did to Andrew, you say, well, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't find that. It's not like that for me. Because they're born royal, so they get all the encouragement, support, advice. Everything they need is just laid on for them and it just isn't for the people who are their partners. In August 1989, Sarah, Andrew and their daughter Beatrice joined the Royal Yacht Britannia en route for Balmoral. The Queen was happy to be seen with her favourite son and her favourite daughter-in-law. Fergie was already pregnant with her second child. Within months, her journey would take her on a new and dangerous route. In November, she met handsome Texan playboy Steve Wyatt. Their affair involved secret trysts at home and abroad. Steve Wyatt was the main reason for the breakdown of her marriage. Fergie fell head over heels in love with him. She met him at a time of her life when she was exceptionally low, felt Andrew wasn't supporting her. She went to Texas and she met a very handsome and rich Texan who was very attentive, very loving, and they very quickly fell in love. And Steve Wyatt was the real love of Fergie's life. Andrew may have been her best friend and probably still is now, probably always will be, but Steve Wyatt was the love of her life. And she was devastated when the affair ended. It left her totally broken. She dreamt that one day they'd be together, hopefully living in America. She was forever making dreams in her head. When Steve Wyatt was living in England throughout 1991, he was trying very hard to establish a fortune for himself. He's the stepson of a very rich man, Oscar Wyatt, who has refused to give him money during his own lifetime. And so Steve simply is not as rich as people believe, although the Duchess found that out the hard way. And when she realized that he wasn't rich, he said, I'm going to go back to America, to Washington, and make my fortune. The Duchess actually helped outfit his apartment in Washington, filled out his Christmas list, and had every intention of waiting for him until he made the adequate amount of money, and then they were going to get married. The relationship ended because Steve distanced himself from her. He started getting just really, really lax. One time I was with her, and she said, you know, I called Steve up, and you know what he told me? He's in the middle of watching a football game that I should call him back after halftime is over. And, you know, this kind of stuff pushed it too far, and she just got the feeling she wasn't wanted anymore. And then he got involved with another woman. When Princess Eugenie was born in March 1990, Fergie was still hopelessly in love with Wyatt, and hoping to marry him. She played a charade with her husband, who refused to listen to gossip, treating Wyatt as a friend. Taken in by pictures of family togetherness, the public had no idea of the truth behind her facade. Wyatt returned to America, but he left Fergie a parting gift, his friend and relative by marriage, John Bryan. She probably might have stayed married if John Bryan hadn't come along. But he was such a persuasive, forceful character, quite frighteningly so. I mean, I can understand why she got involved with him. He was great fun, and I'm sure initially he lightened her load. He provided her with a lot of happiness and a bit of relief from the grind and the ordeal of facing people inside Buckingham Palace, which she had to do at that stage. And he also said, Look, I can do everything. I'm going to take all your problems away. I can do, you know, work miracles. And he convinced her of that. I mean, he convinced me for a while that he was going to do what he said he could do. It was all a farce. He was just a con man, really. John Bryan's hold over the Duchess was primarily because she perceived him as being a very wealthy, powerful, influential man that could aid her in the transition from her royal life to a successful commercial life. He kind of advertised himself as a very wealthy, successful businessman, which he was not. And it's quite funny, too, because he kind of enlisted me to help him with this illusion. And I told him once, John, what if she finds out? He said, Well, I just have to make the money before she finds out I don't have it. Both Fergie and Diana consulted astrologers and psychics in attempts to foretell the future. Fergie turned to Greek-born Madame Basso to discuss her men. Both were trapped in unhappy marriages, desperate to see what the future had in store for them. And they believed by, you know, speaking, consulting to people who, you know, with psychic abilities, that they would know how it would turn out and whether there was a sort of light at the end of the tunnel. The husbands were very different, different problems with both their husbands. But both were unhappy and wondered whether things were going to work out for the best. Although Fergie trusted Basso like a substitute mother, she didn't always follow her advice, particularly over John Bryan. Basso told Fergie a thousand times that man will bring you nothing but bad news. Get rid of him. I don't like him. I don't trust him. And Fergie didn't listen to Basso. Perhaps if she did, she wouldn't have been in the mess that she was in. But Basso met John Bryan on a number of occasions and even went to his flat on a number of occasions when he asked her for readings. Didn't trust him. Believed he was only out for what he could get for himself. Fergie even ignored clear evidence of Bryan's double dealing. Dara was ill, and Basso used to frequently send Fergie flowers. And she rang up John Bryan and said, ''Look, I've got a nice bouquet of flowers to cheer Fergie up. ''Will you take them over for me?'' So he picked them up and delivered them. And the next day Basso rang to ask what she thought of the flowers, and Fergie said, ''What? The flowers were from you? I can't believe it!'' And Bryan had just delivered them as his own. I mean, you know, it's only a small point, but it shows what sort of a man he is. Fergie's adventures with her American lovers had not gone unnoticed by the Queen's top advisers, the grey men behind palace walls. Her two embarrassing affairs convinced her enemies that she should be removed from the royal family. But the knives were out for Fergie. While Sarah was in private discussions with lawyers, news of her impending separation was leaked to the Daily Mail, much to Sarah's horror. The palace had seized the initiative to remove the Queen's daughter-in-law from her royal duties. Sarah firmly believes that there was some kind of plot against her because she was not ready to leave Andrew when she did. She was forced to because the story was leaked to the Daily Mail, and she believes that she now knows who leaked it and that they had some Machiavellian plan to get rid of her. Perhaps she wouldn't have left Andrew if that story hadn't emerged the way it did. Certainly she was blamed by the palace for leaking it, and she was totally innocent of that because she wanted to make a lot of plans and to be sure she was doing the right thing, and she was totally unprepared when the story came out. The separation was quickly announced. She was put in a terrible position. Fergie found hostility within the royal family. Prince Philip and Princess Anne were already critical. Now Princess Margaret took their side. The Duchess of York had sent flowers to Princess Margaret with a little note, no doubt trying to renew their once good friendship. And the flowers had been sent straight back with a note from Princess Margaret saying, How dare you send me flowers? Have you ever considered what damage you've done to the royal family? And I thought that was the worst example of a pot calling a kettle black in history because it was perhaps in the 50s and 60s, but Princess Margaret was notorious for her behaviour. It was totally out of keeping with her position. So I think that Princess Margaret was cruelly unfair to do such a thing when it was a kind gesture from Sarah, very well intentioned. And I think that indicates exactly how the royal family treats somebody who steps out of line, except if they're born royal. Aware of her sister's antipathy, the Queen still continued to offer her troubled daughter-in-law her personal support, encouraging her to attend various family events. Over the years, the Duchess was quite convinced that the Queen was hoping that the Duchess's fight against this bureaucracy that had taken over the monarchy was going to be a successful one. And the times that I thought it was most drastic, the Duchess used to go over and see the Queen on Sundays with her children very often, and she'd come back with varying degrees of enthusiasm of the support that she was being promised by the Queen. But at one point, the Queen invited the Duchess to come for the Christmas holidays but to stay in a farmhouse. She wanted to see her grandchildren. She told the Duchess, If you come, you know, maybe we can meet secretly and at least I can see my grandchildren for Christmas. And so from all of this, the Duchess began to get the feeling that perhaps the Queen was almost a prisoner in her own family, secretly rooting for Fergie to be this new light that kind of cleared up all of this darkness. The two marriages which had created so much renewed popularity for the Queen's family were all but over. Still playing their individual parts, Diana and Sarah decided to leave the family together. Early in 1992, I went on a trip to Dartmoor with John Bryan. This is very early into his involvement with the Duchess. And on the way back on the train, he told me that Princess Diana and the Duchess had formed a divorce pact some time before where they were going to divorce their respective spouses simultaneously, but that the palace convinced them that it would be too destructive to do that and it was going to be staged. Fergie's departure was the dress rehearsal for the more controversial and calculating exit of Diana, who waited for her friends to reveal the truth about her marriage. A lot of people, including myself at one time, I did believe that perhaps somebody sympathetic to Diana had leaked the story of Fergie's wish to leave Andrew because they thought that it would help Diana to find out what would happen to Sarah if she left. It would be a kind of a rehearsal for Diana and it certainly looked as if it was certainly beneficial to Diana because she quickly changed her mind and put off her separation for some time. At one stage, Sarah and Diana were determined to leave together, but that didn't happen and obviously Diana saw that Fergie quickly was victimised by the palace. Diana broke the pact, letting Fergie face the consequences alone. Fergie continued her public duties without palace support. Under Brian's influence, Fergie let her guard slip. The result was catastrophic. While on holiday with Johnny Brian at a villa in the south of France, the couple were photographed together while her young children looked on. The true nature of their relationship was exposed. Brian had posed as her financial advisor but was revealed as her lover. Fergie believes she was set up. She stepped off the plane, that private plane that John rented, the Jet Air. She was photographed walking down the steps of the airplane with a scarf and sunglasses on. That photograph appeared in the local newspaper the next morning. She was followed in the car by a motorcyclist all the way to the villa that they rented. I mean, and then there was a van parked on the side of the road with one-way mirrors photographing her as she drove along. I mean, three tip-offs. How much more information did she need? I told her many, many times, years afterward, I said, at least on a subconscious level, admit to me you both wanted to get caught. You made too many mistakes. Fergie believed the confident Brian could prevent publication of the pictures. But his attempt to gain an injunction failed. John Brian rang Fergie to say, we've lost, the pictures are going to appear. Fergie was absolutely devastated and shell-shocked because Brian had convinced her he'd sort it all out, as he always did. He said, don't worry, I'll sort it all out. He couldn't. And she sat down, had a large brandy, probably another large brandy, sat there all night, not being able to sleep, and, you know, had to face the royal family. Although separated, Fergie had been invited by the Queen to Balmoral to join the royal family on their summer break. They were all there when the topless, toe-sucking pictures were published. There are two versions of that, what happened. One is Sarah's version in her own autobiography, where she says she didn't go down to breakfast. And there is another version told by former friends of hers that she did go down to breakfast and she found that the Queen had left all the tabloid newspapers on her plate. She told me that she went down to breakfast and the Queen was sitting there with all of the newspapers all lined in front of her, and that it was a very awkward moment for her. What she says in her book is that she stayed upstairs having taken a Valium pill, and that Andrew confronted the family, looking nonplussed as they all looked through the newspapers and he flicked through them too. After apologising to the Queen, Fergie left Balmoral in disgrace. She boarded a flight at Aberdeen Airport with her children and their nanny, Alison Waterley, who had comforted her during her worst moments. My lasting memory of that day is when she came back to London, how she held her head up. She must have been through the worst experience, the most humiliating ordeal anybody could possibly have happened to them, and yet she still held her head up, and it takes guts to do that. Fergie returned to her new home, Remander Lodge, the house she rented after leaving Sunninghill. She arrived back at Remander Lodge and the world's media were waiting for her there. There was a terrible scene at the gates when she was driven in with the children on her... looking very bewildered, the children on her knee. Went inside, tried to get everything sorted out and then went into her bedroom and I think she just sat down and cried for the first time since it actually... the story about the pictures broke. At Balmoral, the royal family continued their holiday, Andrew oblivious to the reality of his wife's conduct. Andrew's attitude is quite remarkable in that Andrew doesn't believe, genuinely doesn't believe that his wife has had these affairs. Despite the pictures, I know it sounds, you know, cancerful, but he genuinely believes his wife's been letting down other people. He doesn't read the papers and he doesn't believe his wife has been unfaithful to him. By contrast, Brian loved publicity, particularly that surrounding his affair with Sarah. He even placed stories about her and Andrew in the press. She was very much under his spell. She likes Americans, she likes their free and easy ways and their glamour, I suppose, and he was a lot of fun. And when you've got a miserable existence, somebody like that can be very captivating. So it was understandable, but inevitably she found out what he was really like and it broke her heart. Fergie suspected that both her love affairs were deliberately exposed by her enemies. Pictures of her with Steve Wyatt were surprisingly found in his old flat. Again, this is January 1992 period, second week of January when those things were found, that, you know, the palace put them there, perhaps MI5. The apartment had certainly been cleaned. Steve had no access to those photos and a million different things, just like all of the talk after the South of France pictures that that had been leaked also by the palace. There's a great deal of paranoia and searches for fall guys in the form of the gray men or palace Machiavellian schemes, and the pictures of Steve Wyatt fell into the same category that the pictures with John Bryan ultimately were kept, in the category of a plot. And knowing Steve Wyatt and John Bryan, these are two chaotic guys that, no, there's no plot involved here at all. They were just two careless guys that were relishing the fact that they were with a member of the royal family and to a great deal both profited by being caught. But for Fergie, the exposure only brought further humiliation and disgrace. She carried on with her everyday routine, taking her children to school, but her depression was evident, particularly in her neglected personal appearance. Sarah's affairs with Wyatt and Bryan cost her a royal title and her generosity to them only added to her escalating debts. She had sought happiness but found misery, expected a fortune but found creditors awaiting payment. She liked being seen as, you know, a duchess who had very deep pockets. She liked buying gifts for people. She spent a fortune that she didn't have. And, you know, I'm amazed that the bank, I think the bank must take an awful lot of the blame for letting someone get three, four million pounds in debt. It's, you know, she went on extravagant spending sprees, money she didn't have, and then all of a sudden she'd get a statement and realise how bad things were and she'd sort of lock herself away and get depressed and then say, well, the only way to cheer myself up is go and spend some more money and off she'd go again. Life at Remander Lodge was chaotic and expensive. Fergie's lifestyle didn't go unnoticed. She spent thousands on staff, but often answered the door herself or sorted out servants' personal problems. Madame Basso was a frequent visitor, sometimes smuggled in for tarot card readings of Fergie's fate. Told her at one stage that she needed to... She was three million pounds in debt and said, I need to win the lottery. She was very open about her debts and she was frequently asking her readings, where are the potatoes, where are the chips, which was their code word for money. And she'd say, look, when are these chips coming, Basso? I've been waiting for so many years now. I must have the chips. The bank manager's on my back, the accountants are on my back. What am I going to do? And sometimes she'd break down and cry and say, I feel like I've got a ten-ton truck on my head. Sometimes she'd laugh about it and say, well, I can't even laugh. It's just, you know, I'm so deeply in debt. Sarah was still a royal duchess. Brian realised that she could exploit her name. She planned enterprises with her business advisers. We had these meetings for a four-year period each month and each month we'd come up with a new list of ideas. The first month, however, we created a list of criteria by which she could weed through all of the things. I mean, a second-rate designer blue jean company offered her a million dollars to be their model for the blue jeans. A developer in New York offered her a free apartment in a Central Park South location just to say that she lived there. We were given all kinds of money-making opportunities all the time. Inspired by flying helicopters, Fergie had created the character Budgie for a series of children's stories. Pocketing most of the profits had bought her severe criticism. She wrote these books. Immediately there was a big stink caused because she didn't turn over all the royalties to charity. Well, she said, well, why should I? It's all very well for Prince Charles to donate money from his books because he has this vast income from the Duchy of Cornwall. So I think she was quite justified in what she did, but it did get her in a very bad odour with everybody, from the media to the public, and it was totally unfair. Fergie still tried to help raise funds for others. She continued her work in Britain and in missions to Eastern Europe after she set up her own charity. It's for £18,816.56. That's incredible! This little person had the shirt on upside down and no love, and we need to really help them now. Look at this. Look at the lovely eyes. You know exactly what I'm talking about. However well-intentioned, Fergie's motives were questioned. She was accused of mixing charitable and commercial schemes, arising from her well-publicised support of charities in Eastern Europe. I don't really look at it that way. The Duchess's budget was in such a confusion that very often she'd pay personally for charity trips that could have been reimbursed, and she'd take money from revenues generated from press events associated with the charity trips as expense money to pay legitimate expenses, albeit too over-the-top expenses for travelling with this royal entourage, which wasn't really needed. But she didn't milk the charities directly for money. No, she didn't do that at all. What she did do is she used the charities, in my opinion, as an alibi to win love and acceptance, as sort of a mask of legitimacy for ventures that she doesn't want to take responsibility for having done for more selfish reasons. It is serving the role of an alibi. It's complex, like everything that she does. Sarah's relationships with the Queen and the royal family remain complex. Neither she nor Diana are invited to royal events. Their relationship, too, has a downside. Diana's relationship with the Duchess fluctuated quite a bit during the four and a half years that I was involved with the Duchess, but for the majority of the time, the relationship was highly competitive. They were fighting an ongoing battle through use of their charities and using the press as a weapon. They would look like actresses on opening night at the reviews of their latest charity trips and compare them and whine if the other one got better reviews. It was a highly competitive relationship. They fell out once over some charity work, which Sarah promoted, an AIDS charity, and Diana rang her up and said, what on earth do you think you're doing, trying to hijack a charity that I've done, a cause that I've done so much for, and slammed the phone down. And Fergie tried to get through. She wouldn't take the call, so she faxed her, you know, faxed her saying, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. And because of that silly little incident, they didn't speak for weeks. They've had their ups and downs. Somebody in the family once compared it to being just like sisters. Sisters occasionally have rows and fall out, and that's what's happened to them. In 1996, Sarah and Diana were divorced from their royal husbands and stripped of the title Her Royal Highness. Their settlements reflected their unequal status. Fergie received several hundred thousand pounds, immediately swallowed up by her massive debts. Diana, as mother of a future king, gained 15 million pounds. Holidaying together in the south of France, they considered their uncertain futures. Diana would tell, you know, Fergie what was wrong with her life, and vice versa. They're in a unique position, being married to, you know, princes, members of the royal family. And perhaps with anyone who were capable of understanding what the other's problems were. Fergie loves her daughters, but they are undoubtedly passports to royal connections. Children were always paramount in her thoughts, and the thing that terrified her more than anything whatsoever was losing the girls. I think she looked back and realised that she did some things which she shouldn't have done. She and Andrew have stayed friends. Their children still feel part of her family. What she got out of the marriage, which was two beautiful little girls who are her total joy, her greatest comfort in life, and she would never turn the clock back and be without them because she adores them and they adore her. Early in October of 92, she and I were talking about families and children, and I was at that point thinking of starting up a family. She said, Alan, if you're not 100% sure, don't have children. They are such pests. However, New York publishers were quick to see the commercial potential of Fergie as the royal mother. We can market her as a mother. She is, after all, a mother. We need to redefine her as an expert on motherhood. Simon & Schuster, along with Rubenstein, her PR firm, has marketed her as a mother. And so we believe now, because we've been fed this, that she's a good mother. Is she, though, or is she sort of a distant mother who spends a great deal of time travelling and a great deal of time involved with her own problems? I don't know. I think the jury's out on that one. Sarah Ferguson assumed an almost other identity called Fergie, Duchess of York. At times, an irresponsible person who lived and grew before the public eye and whose immaturity was at times overwhelming. She left her rented home and moved back temporarily to the marital home, Sunning Hill Park House, in an effort to downscale her expensive lifestyle. She may be divorced, but Fergie is nevertheless jealous of Andrew's friendship with attractive Henriette Peace. She has warned her not to get too close to her ex-husband, whom she says she still loves. Fergie could still find a wealthy new husband. Meanwhile, she's obliged to take every money-making opportunity to chip away at her huge tax bill. I don't want to be commercial, she claims, but I have to be. Whatever will Fergie do next?