Sarah Ferguson and ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten Windsor announced their separation two months after the scandal broke
Andrew and Sarah share two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie(Image: PA)
Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor were once the “happiest divorced couple in the world” but it seems the once-unbreakable bond between the former married couple has finally shattered. The former Duke and Duchess of York have found their lives in tatters as fresh revelations regarding their ties to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein surfaced.
Andrew and Fergie are now set to go their separate ways following their eviction from Royal Lodge, where they have lived together since 2008. Their very public fall from grace appears to have finally broken Fergie’s unwavering loyalty to Andrew.
There was a time when it seemed Sarah was the great survivor among royal circles. However, she is certainly no stranger to scandal with the former royal previously caught up in a shocking affair while pregnant with her second daughter, Princess Eugenie.
Andrew and Sarah have known each other since they were young kids but it wasn’t until they were seated together at Royal Ascot in 1985, that they struck up a relationship, the Mirror reports.
Andrew and Sarah divorced in 1996(Image: Getty)
The pair got engaged nine months later on Andrew’s 26th birthday, on February 19, 1986. He presented his wife-to-be at the time with a ruby engagement ring.
They went on to tie the knot at Westminster Abbey on July 23, 1986, and two years later, they welcomed their first child, Princess Beatrice.
Their second daughter, Princess Eugenie, followed in 1990.
However, cracks had begun to form in their relationship as Andrew’s naval career saw him away from the family for long periods of time.
Fergie later claimed that she spent eight months of her first pregnancy by herself, previously telling Rosie magazine that the late Prince Philip forbade her from living with her naval husband wherever he was stationed.
Speaking to US TV host Ernie Manouse in 2010, she said: “My deal was that I was marrying my man, who happened to be a prince and a naval officer. But what I got was not the man, I got the palace and didn’t get him. For our marriage, I saw him 40 days a year.”
It was loneliness that seemingly saw Sarah fall into the arms of another man.
Fergie, then in her third year of marriage and pregnant with Eugenie, met American Steve Wyatt. They are believed to have first crossed paths in 1989 at Houston Grand Opera’s British Opera Festival, and quickly fell for each other.
It was later claimed that Steve, not Andrew, was the ‘love of her life’ and that she fell ‘head over heels’ in love with him.
Co-author of The Duchess of York uncensored, David Leigh, claimed: “Steve Wyatt was the main reason for the breakdown of her marriage.
Andrew and Sarah split just after six years of marriage(Image: Getty)
“She met him at a time of her life when she was exceptionally low and felt Andrew wasn’t supporting her. She went to Texas and she met a very handsome and rich Texan who was very attentive and loving and they very quickly fell in love.
“Andrew may have been her best friend, and he probably still is now and probably always will be, but Steve Wyatt was the love life of her life.”
Their romance gained a lot of publicity when snaps, including one of Steve with Sarah’s then-toddler daughter Beatrice, appeared in newspapers in January 1992.
Sarah and Andrew announced their separation two months later.
However, her fling with Steve was not meant to be and Sarah was apparently left heartbroken when he got engaged to Cate Magennis.
After finding out the news, Sarah is said to have confided to a friend: “I can’t have the man I love because he’s getting married. What’s the matter with me? Why didn’t he marry me?”
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All hell broke loose just months later in August of 1992 when Ferguson was snapped having her toes sucked by her American financial advisor and close friend of Steve’s, John Bryan, as they soaked up the sun in the South of France.
She was mocked by the general public and privately blacklisted by the majority of the Royal Family, most notably, Prince Philip and Princess Margaret, the late Queen Elizabeth’s husband and younger sister.
The pair reportedly told her in a letter: “You have done more to bring shame on the family than could ever have been imagined.”
On March 29 1993, it was announced that the formal separation agreement between Sarah and Andrew had been settled, after months of speculation that the couple might be getting back together. Their divorce was finalised in May 1996.
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