Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's marriage had been strained from the get-go, and during the former Duke of York's time in the Royal Navy, Ferguson carried on several affairs. Andrew also committed adultery, with his former driver telling author Andrew Lownie that the ex-duke "had slept with 'more than a dozen women before their first anniversary." But when it came time for the couple to formally separate in March 1992, there was suspicion that someone in the Royal Family had let the news slip to the press.
In his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, Lownie writes that Ferguson went as far as to sneak one lover, John Bryan, "in the boot of a car" to get to her home with Andrew, Sunninghill Park. She'd been carrying on an affair with Texan Steve Wyatt previously, and per friends of the former Duke of York, he "accepted his marriage was over."
During Christmas 1991, Queen Elizabeth had suggested the couple take a few months to decide if they truly wanted to separate, and by March of the following year, Sarah and Andrew found themselves "under pressure from the Royal Family" to make a decision. Buckingham Palace planned to make a statement on March 19, but they were scooped a day ahead when the news broke in the papers.
Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana are seen at the 1987 Epsom Derby.
"How had the news gone public so quickly without any formal announcement?" Lownie writes in Entitled, adding that "suspicion fell immediately on Sarah" and her PR team. Queen Elizabeth's former press secretary, Charles Anson, is reported to have told a BBC correspondent that "the knives are out for Fergie in the palace."
But journalist Richard Kay, who was close to Princess Diana, tells a different story. Per Lownie, Kay says that "the separation had been leaked by Fergie's confidante, Diana, to distract press attention from her own troubles and test the reaction for her own intended divorce."
Diana was certainly watching to see how her brother-in-law and sister-in-law's separation and eventual divorce played out. As Tina Brown, author of The Palace Papers, writes in her own book, "Diana, who knew she would soon face divorce herself, regarded her sister-in-law's negotiations as the road map of how to mess it up."
After seeing Fergie hire a lawyer "from within royal circles," the late princess made sure to choose Anthony Julius, an outside lawyer that didn't work with the royals. Although one can argue that Diana was mother to the future King and in a different position, therefore getting a more significant payout, her settlement certainly played out better than Fergie's.
Per Lownie, Ferguson's "bank overdraft of £300,000 would be paid, a house would be found for her and £1.4 million placed in trust for her daughters." As for Diana, she fared much better, winning a £17 million ($22.4 million) lump sum, an annual stipend of £400,000 ($526,000) for her private office, and the right to continue living in her apartment at Kensington Palace.
