Sarah Ferguson's enduring royal status was a strategic move, new book claims

A forthcoming royal biography claims Sarah Ferguson’s continued presence within royal circles, despite her 1996 divorce from Prince Andrew, may have less to do with tradition and more with strategy.

In Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, author and historian Andrew Lownie delves into the enduring connection between Ferguson and the royal family, suggesting that her knowledge of family secrets helped maintain her place in the royal orbit.

The book, claims Ferguson's return to the royal holiday at Balmoral in 2002, her first since the divorce, was orchestrated to keep her “on side.”

“It was a long-term strategy,” Lownie writes in a serialisation published by the Daily Mail, “because Fergie possessed many secrets which would not benefit the House of Windsor by their retelling.” 

A source reportedly told the author: “It is better to keep Sarah close than let her loose to do even more damage. And at the end of the day, she is still Bea and Eugenie's mother—they can't just abandon her.”

Following the death of the Queen Mother in 2002, Ferguson moved into Royal Lodge with Prince Andrew, where the pair still reside together, despite no official romantic reconciliation. 

According to Lownie, their bond is “not romance but the deepest form of friendship… they’re utterly devoted and would defend each other to the death.”

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