The former Duchess of York is now homeless after her disgraced ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was booted out of their shared home in the middle of the nightEllie Fry Assistant Head of Features (Audience)
18:00, 08 Feb 2026Updated 19:21, 08 Feb 2026
Reports suggest that Sarah may have gone abroad after vacating Royal Lodge
Surrounded by Amazon packages and hiding in the backseat of a car, Sarah Ferguson’s secret exit from her ex-husband’s estate was far from regal, sources reveal. World’s away from the lavish life she has long been accustomed to, the former duchess is now homeless as a result of her links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Fergie has “gone to ground” in recent weeks following more humilating revelations about her relationship with the paedophile. Newly released emails in the long-awaited Epstein files have reportedly left the royals reeling – particularly Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who have been dragged in to their parents’ scandal in the most devastating of ways.
The King is said to have been so peturbed by the recent sight of his disgraced brother trotting around the Windsor estate, waving to the public as if nothing has happened, that he expedited Andrew and Fergie’s exit from Royal Lodge under the cover of darkness on Monday night. “Urgent” talks were allegedly held between Charles and Prince William, who were both at Sandringham the weekend prior.
READ MORE: Sarah Ferguson ‘slept with Jeffrey Epstein’ and was ‘madly in love,’ author claims
Moving vans have been spotted at Royal Lodge in recent weeks(Image: Getty)
Andrew reportedly hadn’t even finished packing his belongings when he was vacated from the property “at midnight” – meaning Fergie’s farewell was likely just as slap-dash. But the ex-duchess had seemingly been planning for the worst; sources told the Daily Mail that she has been slipping in and out of the 30-room mansion under-the-radar in recent weeks. Unlike her ex-husband who has still been parading around the grounds, Fergie reportedly snuck in secretly, and was “smuggled” in and out by car while “lying prone on the back seat”.
After Charles’ sudden order for Andrew to leave the property earlier than planned, staff at the crumbling mansion were left to pack up what was left of Andrew’s belongings, according to the publication. Dust sheets were reportedly left covering furniture with packing cases scattered everywhere. Sources say that walls now lay bare where stunning art from the Royal Collection was once in pride of place.
Ahead of the former couple’s eviction, a steady stream of Amazon deliveries were reportedly turning up to Royal Lodge on a regular basis, despite Andrew already having a huge amount of belongings to pack up. The mammoth move was said to be made more complicated by Andrew’s extensive collection of possessions, with much of it needing to go into long-term storage. A royal source described the move as a “months-long, room-by-room excavation,” due to the sheer volume of items. The ex-prince’s extensive teddy collection was said to be one of the first things that got packed up into storage – bar one stuffed monkey, which stayed with him.
Andrew has been pictured smiling and waving at the public in recent weeks(Image: Marcin Nowak/LNP)
Insiders also suggest that disgraced Andrew spent his last months at Royal Lodge “ranting to himself”, while Fergie confided in staff and friends at a hidden bar known as The Doghouse. “They are both spending a lot of time alone. Andrew rarely goes out and has been padding around the lodge and ranting and muttering,” a source said in November.
They added: “Andrew and Sarah are leading separate lives – at different ends and on different wings. But they come together quite often for lunch and dinner, and this is where they talk about their futures. They have been heard having some pretty intense conversations about what is going on. Sarah, in particular, is panicking about what comes next and she is not in a good place.”
Sarah’s current whereabouts remain a mystery, but there’s been plenty of whispers that she may have “fled” abroad. Royal author Andrew Lownie, who wrote a blistering biography on the Yorks, told the Mirror this week that Fergie makes a “habit” of catching a flight when the going gets tough. Suggested bolt holes include her favourite spa retreat in Thailand, the Caribbean island of Mustique (a royal favourite) or Switzerland. When speculation arose that Sarah may be staying at Richard Brason’s Necker Island, his team issued a firm denial.
Recent reports have suggested that she’d like to stay in Windsor long term. But with an estimated net worth of just £752,000 according to Yahoo! Finance, Sarah will struggle to afford even a terraced house in the historic town, which sell for in excess of £800,000, never mind the kind of mansion she is used to.
Sarah and Andrew lived together for decades after their divorce(Image: Getty Images)
One thing Fergie can’t hide away from is the crushing toll that the scandal is likely having on Beatrice and Eugenie. Previously unseen correspondance between Epstein and Andrew suggests the disgraced ex-duke sent photos of his daughters to the disgraced financer, while Fergie once made a crude joke about Eugenie’s sex life in an email to Epstein.
Emails also suggest that Fergie took her daughters to visit the convicted sex offender just days after he left prison in 2009, something a source close to her previously denied. In another email from March 2010, Esptein appears to ask Fergie about a possible trip to New York by writing: “ny?”. She writes back: “Not sure yet. Just waiting for Eugenie to come back from a sh*****g weekend.” The email was sent around the time of Eugenie’s 20th birthday, which she spent with then boyfriend, now husband, Jack Brooksbank.
Sources close to Eugenie and Beatrice say they have been left ‘aghast’ by the emails as well as the photos that show their father crouching over a mystery woman on the floor. They told the Daily Mail: “They are aghast at what they have read. They are mortified by the emails their mother has sent to Epstein. It is so embarrassing for them. We don’t believe the girls [Beatrice and Eugenie] were told much about what has just emerged [in the latest Epstein files release], and they will simply be aghast at just how close their parents were to this appalling man.”
Beatrice and Eugenie are said to be ‘mortified’ by the revelations(Image: Instagram)
Meanwhile, a friend has reportedly told Page Six that Eugenie feels she has been unfairly dragged into the furore. They said: “I know that Eugenie feels like she’s being tarnished with a brush that’s not hers, that’s her father’s. She’s very, very frustrated. Beatrice and Eugenie are in as good a spirits as they can be. But it’s a s**t show, a never-ending s**t show.”
And former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond, who has known Sarah for years, said this week: “Sarah has always been in many ways quite a likeable person, and I hesitate to criticise another mother’s parenting, but I do ask what kind of mother would take her daughters, then aged 19 and 20, to Miami to have lunch with a convicted paedophile.”
“A man who had come out of jail for that very crime only five days earlier. It is beyond comprehension to me, and then she wrote to Epstein and joked about her younger daughter’s love life. Why would you do that? I think that’s deeply, deeply insensitive. So I think Sarah is not only going to have to question her reputation and the damage done to that, but the damage done to the relationship with her daughters as well.”
Despite laying low, it’s claimed that Fergie remains shamelessly defiant in the shadows. The Mail reports that at the time the fresh batch of Epstein files were released, the ex-duchess was said to be in talks with an author about a new ghost-written memoir. And she has no plans to move back in with her ex-husband. “I think she still believes that without him weighing her down she can make some kind of comeback,” Lownie told the publication.
A photo of Sarah Ferguson that appeared in the Epstein files, which is not an indication of wrongdoing
More disturbing revelations about Andrew and Sarah’s respective relationships with Epstein have emerged in recent days, but both are said to be holding their resolve. A source told the Mail of the ex-duke: “He firmly believes he’s done nothing wrong and definitely feels hard done by and too harshly treated”.
Meanwhile, Fergie is said to have been insisting that she hardly knew Epstein – even as the new batch of files suggested otherwise. In some exchanges released in the latest tranche of files, Sarah comes across as somewhat desperate to keep Epstein on-side. Documents indicate that in September 2011, Sarah emailed the sex offender congratulating him on having a “baby boy” – it was not previously known he had fathered children – and then minutes later sent a seething follow-up message.
“Don’t know if you are still on this bbm [BlackBerry Messenger] but heard from The Duke that you have had a baby boy,” the initial email reads. “Even though you never kept in touch, I still am here with love, friendship and congratualtions [sic] on your baby boy. Sarah xx.”
Just eight minutes later, she wrote: “You have disappeared. I did not even know you were having a baby. It was sooooo crystal clear to me that you were only friends with me to get to Andrew. And that really hurt me deeeply. More than you will know.”
Epstein and Sarah appeared to have a close relationship, according to newly released documents(Image: AP)
In another exchange from 2009, Sarah said: “You are a legend. I really don’t have the words to describe, my love, gratitude for your generosity and kindness…Xx I am at your service . Just marry me.”
And now in a toe-curling twist, it’s been suggested by leading royal author Lownie that Sarah and Epstein “slept together”. Andrew and Epstein’s convicted sex offender girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, were also allegedly involved sexually.
This week, during a live appearance on his ‘Lownie Report’ podcast on Substack, Lownie claimed: “Andrew was sleeping with Ghislaine, Ghislaine was sleeping with Epstein … I’ve heard that Epstein and Sarah were sleeping together. It doesn’t surprise me.”
And now the writer, who penned an explosive biography on the Yorks and spoke to many sources in Andrew and Sarah’s orbit, has gone further with his claims, telling the Mirror: “Sarah Ferguson was madly in love with Epstein and apparently spent several nights with him.”
In July 2025, Maxwell herself commented that Fergie had tried it on with Epstein, in an interview with Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche she said Sarah “put the moves on Jeffrey”.
On his podcast, Lownie added: “There’s a complicated psychosexual network going on as well as a financial one. Certainly Ghislaine and Sarah were not friends. I think Ghislaine was rather jealous of Sarah and vice versa. She felt that Sarah was moving in on someone she saw as her boyfriend.”
Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor have been approached for comment. Neither have responded to the latest revelations, but Andrew has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing.