Tina Brown’s explosive royal book The Palace Papers documents how Prince Andrew subjected Sarah Ferguson to cruel insults about her weight throughout their troubled relationship
Sarah’s weight has fluctuated wildly thoughout her life(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
By the time she reached her teenage years, Sarah Ferguson was already grappling with weight issues. At the age of 10, Sarah went on holiday to Switzerland with her mother, Susan, who was expecting at the time. During the trip, her mother suffered an accidental fall, which tragically resulted in a miscarriage.
Some commentators suggest the incident may have played a role in the eventual breakdown of the Fergusons’ marriage several years later.
Sarah held herself responsible for the tragedy, confiding in friends: “It was all because I had stayed out late.” She managed the emotional distress through over-eating: “I ate my feelings, which is why I had weight problems from the age of 12,” she later revealed. This began a lifelong battle, with numerous men in Sarah’s life making disparaging comments about her weight – including Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who allegedly called her a “fat cow.”
In 1980, aged 21, she entered into a relationship with motor racing businessman Paddy McNally. McNally, her senior by 22 years, was openly unfaithful throughout their time together and subjected Sarah to cruel jibes about her appearance.
Four years on, her friend Lady Diana Spencer, who was preparing to wed Charles, then Prince of Wales, set Sarah up with a prince of her own. Sarah was delighted to be in a relationship with Andrew, who enjoyed immense popularity across the UK at that point, but her happiness at joining the Royal Family proved to be short-lived.
Sarah has been quite open about her problems with her weight(Image: David McNew, Getty Images)
Within weeks of Andrew and Sarah’s 1986 wedding, the relationship had started to deteriorate. The temperamental Duke of York was frequently absent from home owing to Royal Navy duties and provided scant support when Sarah battled post-natal depression following the arrival of their first daughter, Princess Beatrice.
Before long, both Andrew and Sarah embarked on relationships beyond their marriage, though Sarah appeared trapped in a cyclical pattern. Shortly after Sarah started an affair with American millionaire Steve Wyatt, he allegedly told her she was “ugly and fat.”
Even following their divorce, Andrew and Sarah remained closely connected, residing in separate wings of the grand Royal Lodge. Tina Brown, former editor of The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, penned a penetrating examination of the Royal Family.
In her 2022 book, The Palace Papers, she characterised Andrew and Fergie’s relationship as “symbiotic.”
(Image: UK Press via Getty Images)
Describing Andrew as “sadistic,” Tina recalled an incident when he burst into Sarah’s dining room, disrupting a business lunch she was hosting with an American media executive. Gesturing towards his ex-wife, Andrew reportedly asked the guest, “What are you doing with this fat cow?”
According to Tina, Sarah’s guest was “stunned” at Andrew’s level of cruelty. He reportedly told her: “I thought, ‘What an a**hole.’ She has to sing for her supper. She’s afraid of him.”
Tina also observed that Sarah depended on loans to maintain herself financially amidst her extensive shopping habits. Despite Andrew’s consistently harsh treatment of her, Sarah has never publicly criticised him: “He is such a kind, great man,” she told Page Six.
“I feel very strongly that in this day and age that we must stand by our hearts, what we think is right with integrity and honour and loyalty.”
