Inside Prince Andrew and Ex-Wife Sarah Ferguson's Unusual Relationship
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson will no longer be known as the Duke and Duchess of York, but they still have each other.
Days after King Charles III's scandal-shrouded younger brother said he would relinquish his royal titles in the wake of a new wave of allegations regarding his past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his ex-wife dropped her corresponding title from her social media accounts.
While Sarah had been going by her maiden name in public life since she and Andrew finalized their divorce in 1996, she is still technically the Duchess of York—and it would take an act of parliament to formally strip her and Andrew of their titles. But as her former husband's foremost champion, she appeared to dutifully do what needed doing.
"I am deeply supportive and proud of this giant of a principled man, that dares to put his shoulder to the wind and stands firm with his sense of honour and truth," Sarah wrote on Instagram the day before BBC Newsnight aired a November 2019 interview with Andrew that delved into his Epstein ties.
The sit-down deemed a public relations disaster, Andrew stepped back from his royal duties days later.
Sarah's stance on Andrew seemingly never wavered, the author telling People in 2021, "Whatever challenges he has, I will stand firm to the co-parenters that we are together...I believe that he's a kind, good man, and he's been a fabulous father to the girls."
Andrew, 65, and Sarah, 66, are also now grandparents of four, to Princess Beatrice's daughters Sienna and Athena with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, as well as Princess Eugenie and husband Jack Brooksbank's sons August and Ernest.
And, since Sarah's attendance at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2018 wedding signaled a thawing of the ice between her and the royal family, she and Andrew have attended numerous events together, most recently the September funeral for the Duchess of Kent.
However, there are reports that the royal welcome mat is about to be rolled up amid the renewed scrutiny of Andrew's friendship with Epstein, who died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew starting when she was 17, took her own life in April at the age of 41. A posthumous memoir published this month reiterates her allegations of sexual abuse against the royal.
Andrew has denied wrongdoing and told Newsnight he never "witnessed or suspected any improper behavior" on Epstein's part. He also said in the interview that he had no recollection of meeting Giuffre, positing that a much-published photo of him standing with his arm around her was a doctored image.
In 2022, however, he settled a lawsuit Giuffre filed alleging sexual assault and battery, after which he stopped using his HRH honorific and returned all of his military titles and patronages to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
In announcing he was giving up the Duke of York title his mother bestowed on him when he married Sarah in 1986, Andrew said in his Oct. 17 statement, “I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life. With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me."
“As I have said previously," he continued, "I vigorously deny the accusations against me."
Meanwhile, Sarah has also been haunted by their association with Epstein.
She was dropped as patron or ambassador from seven charities in September after the Mail on Sunday and The Sun published a 2011 email from her to Epstein, in which she called him a "steadfast, generous and supreme friend"—three years after he was convicted of soliciting minors for prostitution and she had publicly denounced him.
In 2008, Sarah had accepted a roughly $17,000 loan from Epstein, a decision she called "a gigantic error of judgment" in 2011. "I am just so contrite I cannot say," she said. "Whenever I can I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again...I abhor pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf."
A spokesperson for Sarah told NBC News in a statement last month that she only wrote such encomiums to Epstein after he threatened her with a lawsuit.
"The duchess spoke of her regret about her association with Epstein many years ago, and as they have always been, her first thoughts are with his victims," the statement said."Like many people, she was taken in by his lies. As soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations against him, she not only cut off contact but condemned him publicly, to the extent that he then threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with pedophilia."
So, Andrew and Sarah continue to share the Epstein fallout along with a home at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, where they have resided together for more than 15 years.
Sarah's return to the fold in 2018 eventually prompted speculation that the exes were romantically involved again, prompting a clarification from her press office, which told Vanity Fair in April 2019, "The Duke and Duchess remain good friends as they have been for many years, and nothing has changed."
Once upon a time, however, Andrew and Sarah fell madly in love after her fourth cousin and his then-sister-in-law Princess Diana arranged for them to be seated next to each other at a Royal Ascot week luncheon in 1985.
Andrew proposed to Sarah with a ruby and diamond ring and their engagement was announced on March 19, 1986. They married at Westminster Abbey on July 23 in front of 2,000 guests and a reported 500 million watching on TV.
"At 26-years-old, I was incredibly gullible and naive," Sarah reflected years later in her 1996 autobiography My Story.
She loved her husband but found herself in a fractured fairy tale. The queen gifted the couple acreage in Berkshire county, but they lived at Buckingham Palace until their Sunninghill Park estate was finished in 1990. Much of their lifestyle reportedly depended on her mother-in-law's generosity to supplement the £35,000 a year Andrew made in the Royal Navy.
According to Tina Brown's 2007 book The Diana Chronicles, Andrew only spent 42 nights at home in 1990 with his wife and daughters, Beatrice born in August 1988 and Eugenie in March 1990. So the Duchess of York started socializing more, sometimes with members of the opposite sex, and the British tabloids took notice.
Sarah and Diana—friends but painted by the press, not incorrectly, as rivals for attention— reconnected over their crumbling marriages, both of which publicly imploded in 1992, bookending the queen's self-described "annus horribilis."
Andrew and Sarah had told the queen over Christmas in 1991 that they planned to separate, but the Daily Mail got wind of it in March 1992, forcing their hand with regard to a public announcement (which the queen had urged them to wait six months to make).
Biographer Andrew Morton reportedly alleged that it was Diana who leaked the news, to once again take the onus off of her own troubles (which, later that year, would include the publishing of Morton's book Diana: Her True Story). The palace, however, suspected Sarah of tipping off the Mail herself.
"I had been tagged 'unsuitable' for royal life and the charge stuck," she wrote in My Story. "I was frozen out and not just in the Palace; the wind from all the doors slamming in my face might have knocked me over."
But as the mother of two of the queen's granddaughters, Sarah was still invited to the family holiday at Balmoral in August 1992.
And that's where Sarah was when the Mirror published photos of her taken at a villa in the South of France with American financial manager John Bryan. The snaps showed the duchess sunbathing topless and her companion nuzzling her foot—which forever after became the great toe-sucking scandal of the 1990s.
"I think it's an extraordinary tale," the duchess said in a 2001 CNN interview, "one which every day I work at, and every day I try and see how and why I did those things."
She said at a 60 Minutes With Sarah Ferguson event in 2016 that friends were worried at the time that she might take her own life.
"These two here are the reason I got out," she said, referring to Beatrice and Eugenie sitting next to her. "It was because of my two girls I decided that it was important to get on."
She and Andrew settled their divorce in 1996, Sarah receiving £600,000 from the queen to purchase a home, as well as support payments amounting to a reported £15,000 a year. Andrew paid for Beatrice and Eugenie's schooling and the queen set up a £1.4 million trust for the girls.
Still the Duchess of York but no longer Her Royal Highness, Sarah set about earning a living, and she didn't do it quietly.
And while that was considered scandalous in the U.K., Americans liked what she was bringing to the table, most notably a successful weight-loss story that resulted in her becoming a Weight Watchers spokeswoman for the next 10 years.
She also penned the Budgie children's book series, about a little helicopter, which was turned into an animated series, and wrote a history of Queen Victoria. In 2021 she released her first novel, Her Heart for a Compass.
All the while, Andrew remained close to his ex-wife and, though his father Prince Philip reportedly disapproved, she was re-invited to the family summer holiday at Balmoral in 2005, her first time there since 1992.
And in 2008, she moved into Royal Lodge, Andrew's official country residence since 2004.
Sarah quipped to the Daily Mail in November 2018 that she and Andrew were "the happiest divorced couple in the world. We're divorced to each other, not from each other."
To be continued.
Read on for more news that has moved the royal world in 2025:
King Charles III's youngest brother Prince Andrew confirmed October 17 that he will no longer be using his title Duke of York, due the the continued controversy over his friendship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family,” Andrew said in the statement released by Buckingham Palace. “I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.”
Andrew continued, "With His Majesty’s agreement, we feel I must now go a step further. I will therefore no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me. As I have said previously, I vigorously deny the accusations against me."
The monarch and his eldest son stepped out in October 2025 for the Countdown to COP30 event at London's Natural History Museum.
The pair posed outside of the museum, before heading inside to meet with government leaders and advocates working to combat climate change. The event preceded the COP30 World Leaders Summit in Belém, Brazil, in November, which Prince William is set to attend on his father's behalf.
In September 2025, the Duchess of York was dropped as a patron to Julia's House for a resurfaced 2011 email to Jeffrey Epstein in which she called him a friend.
“Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York’s correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia’s House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity,” the charity wrote in a statement per The Guardian. “We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support.”
A spokesperson for Ferguson said the virtual correspondence was written after a threat made to her by Epstein.
For the first time in 19 months, the Duke of Sussex was seen arriving by car to Clarence House—the King’s London residence—to seemingly meet with his father before heading to another engagement in the city.
While Harry pulled into the residence around 5:20 p.m. local time on Sept. 10, Charles returned to the home just hours before.
The son of Princess Anne and her ex-husband Mark Phillips shared that he was engaged to his girlfriend Harriet Sperling on Aug. 1 after more than a year of dating.
"Both families were informed jointly of the announcement," the couple's spokesperson said in a statement to Hello! at the time, "and were delighted with the wonderful news of their engagement."
One day before her 78th birthday, the royal received the title of Vice Admiral of the United Kingdom from the Royal Navy.
Camilla is the first woman to hold the honorary title, which can only be appointed by the sovereignin this case, her husband King Charles III—on the nomination of the First Sea Lord, who is currently Sir Gwyn Jenkins.
The Princess of Wales pulled out of a planned appearance at the Royal Ascot hours before she was set to return to the annual horse race alongside, Kensington Palace confirmed to NBC News.
According to the palace, Kate was disappointed to have to miss the event but is still figuring out the right balance for herself when it comes to completing public engagements following her cancer battle.
Over one year after the High Court denied additional security protection through the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, Prince Harry’s legal fight ended when the courts dismissed the case May 2.
His and Meghan Markle’s security was lessened after they stepped back as working members of the royal family in 2021 and moved to the United States. However, in the years that followed, Harry had requested security while visiting the U.K.
The Duke of Sussex told the BBC May 2 that he was “devastated” about losing his legal battle. He emphasized, “I can’t see a world in which I would bring my wife and children back to the UK at this point.”
Harry told the BBC May 2 that his father King Charles III won’t speak to him “because of this security stuff,” but added that “it would be nice to reconcile.”
The Duke of Sussex, who shares kids Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet with Meghan, said that he would love to reconnect with his family. But the ball is in his dad’s court.
“I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the U.K. at this point,” he said. “It’s really quite sad that I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.”
“There is a lot of control and ability in my father’s hands, ultimately this whole thing could be resolved through him,” Harry added. “Not necessarily by intervening but by stepping aside and allowing the experts to do what is necessary and to carry on.”
Despite the years of conflict, he’s waving the white flag in hopes of reconciliation. He added, “Life is precious, I don’t know how much longer my father has.”
Over one year after King Charles shared his cancer diagnosis, he wrote April 29 that his health journey and cancer treatment are experiences that bring “into sharp focus the very best of humanity."
"Each diagnosis, each new case, will be a daunting and at times frightening experience for those individuals and their loved ones," Charles wrote in the booklet for the reception to provide resources for those with cancer. “But as one among those statistics myself, I can vouch for the fact that it can also be an experience that brings into sharp focus the very best of humanity."
He also thanked healthcare workers who helped him amid his journey, adding, “It has certainly given me an even deeper appreciation of the extraordinary work undertaken by the remarkable organisations and individuals gathered here this evening, many of whom I have known, visited and supported over the years.”
Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis did not attend the royal family’s annual Easter service at St George's Chapel in Windsor April 20.
While King Charles III and Queen Camilla celebrated with the rest of the royal family, William and Kate decided to spend the weekend at their Norfolk country home with their kids, multiple outlets reported.
Their absence marked the second Easter they skipped, with the 2024 holiday taking place a week after the Princess of Wales announced her cancer diagnosis.
Jason Knauf was announced as the new CEO of Prince William’s organization, The Earthshot Prize, April 15. He shared a statement on the website that he was looking forward to “working with our exceptional team and incredible Earthshot community to advance our mission of urgent optimism for our planet.”
His promotion came nearly seven years after he made a complaint against Meghan Markle, accusing her of bullying two personal assistants and seeking “to undermine” a third staff member. A spokesperson for the Sussexes denied the allegations and told The Times that the rumors were part of a “calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation.”
Buckingham Palace investigated the allegations and the case was wrapped up in 2022 without any findings made public.
William and Kate’s eldest son George attended a soccer match in Paris alongside his dad April 7.
The father-son duo were all smiles at the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final game as the Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa FC faced off at the Parc des Princes stadium.
Graham Craker—who acted as a bodyguard for the royal family, including Prince Harry and Prince William—died at the age of 77 in April.
Craker was notably with the boys when they learned their mother, Princess Diana, had died and he participated in her funeral services.
On the latter, Craker told The New York Post in 2017, "I was standing at the rear of the hearse and William looked up and acknowledged me. I looked toward him and nodded. William was comforted that I was with his mum on her final journey.”
Hugh Grosvenor, who is King Charles III’s godson, and his wife Olivia Grosvenor announced March 12 that she is pregnant with their first baby.
“The duchess is expecting a baby in the summer,” a spokesperson told The Telegraph. “The couple are delighted with the news and are very much looking forward to starting a family together.”
Prince Frederik—the son of Prince Robert and his wife Princess Julie—died March 1 at 22 years old after a battle with PolG mitochondrial disease, a rare genetic disorder.
"Frederik knows that he is my Superhero, as he is to all of our family, and to so very many good friends and now in great part thanks to his PolG Foundation, to so very many people the world over," Robert said in a statement. "Part of his superpower was his ability to inspire and to lead by example."
The Duke of Sussex reached a settlement with News Group Newspapers—which is responsible for The Sun as well as the now defunct News of the World—on Jan. 22 after suing the organization in 2019 over alleged unlawful actions on the part of journalists and private investigators working for the newspapers to obtain information on the royal family.
The deal included the company paying "substantial damages," as well as issuing a "full and unequivocal apology" to Harry and public acknowledgement of "the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales,” per NBC News.
The Princess of Wales announced on Jan. 14 that she's in remission after complete cancer treatments.
"It is a relief to now be in remission and I remain focused on recovery," she wrote in a message on X, formerly Twitter, Jan. 14. "As anyone who has experienced a cancer diagnosis will know, it takes time to adjust to a new normal."
"I am however looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead," she continued. "There is much to look forward to."
The Duchess of Sussex mourned the death of her beloved rescue beagle, who she adopted in 2015 before meeting husband Prince Harry.
She wrote on Instagram Jan. 7, "I have cried too many tears to count - the type of tears that make you get in the shower with the absurd hope that the running water on your face will somehow make you not feel them, or pretend they’re not there. But they are. And that’s okay too."
"Thank you for so many years of unconditional love, my sweet Guy," Meghan added. "You filled my life in ways you’ll never know."
Edward "Ed" Pettifer—stepson of Prince William and Prince Harry's former nanny Alexandra Pettifer, also known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke—was one of the victims of the New Year's Day terrorist attack in New Orleans.
"Catherine and I have been shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Ed Pettifer," William said in a message posted on Kate Middleton's Instagram Stories Jan. 4. "Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Pettifer family and all those innocent people who have been tragically impacted by this horrific attack."
The Suits alum—who shut down her personal social media accounts shortly before her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry—debuted a solo Instagram page on Jan. 1.
A day later, she announced a new Netflix series titled With Love, Meghan, which "reimagines the genre of lifestyle programming, blending practical how-to’s and candid conversation with friends, new and old," according to a press release.
Kate and William stepped out for a rare outing with kids Prince George and Princess Charlotte in honor of Wimbledon in June 2025.
"A pleasure to be back in SW19 for the finals of this year’s @wimbledon Championships this weekend," the family wrote in an Instagram post at the time. "Congratulations again to @iga.swiatek and @janniksin on your wins! And a huge thank you to everybody involved in making the tournament so special."
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