Sarah Ferguson Reveals the "Shut Up and Eat" Philosophy She Enforced When Her Kids Dined With Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie had "three sets of table manners."
Even though Sarah Ferguson divorced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in 1996, she retained a friendly relationship with Queen Elizabeth. The former Duchess of York once praised the late Queen to royal biographer Gyles Brandreth, calling her “the finest woman I know,” and Sarah revealed that she came up with some special rules for her daughters when visiting their grandmother.
In his book Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, Brandreth wrote that Ferguson “was—and is—the Queen’s greatest fan.” Sarah, who was stripped of her title alongside the former Duke of York in October 2025, told the biographer that her ex-mother-in-law was “very forgiving” and had “this wonderful compassion.”
When it came to her daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, Sarah ensured that they “were on their best behaviour when they went to see the Queen" as young girls, Brandreth wrote. “We have three sets of table manners,” Ferguson told him. “This is very important.”
Sarah Ferguson poses with Princess Eugenie (left) and Princess Beatrice in 1994.
The levels of manners were as such: “Table Manners C is for at home, when it’s just Andrew and me,” Ferguson said, explaining that meant an “anything goes” philosophy. “Table Manners B is for in a restaurant,” she continued. “You can have fun, but always remember people are looking at you.”
The former Duchess of York told Brandreth that she would “tell the girls always to smile—because sit costs so little and it means so much.” As for the most rigid of dining rules, that would be Table Manners A—used for “Granny—their granny—the Boss.”
When Brandreth asked what Beatrice and Eugenie’s royal table manners were, Ferguson explained how a typical tea-time would go. “We have our little napkin. We offer Granny the sandwiches first, before we take the whole lot onto our plate. We don’t take the raisins out of the scones half-way through a conversation—or flick them across the table.”
The late Queen attends the Cartier International Day Polo Coronation Cup 2004 with Sarah Ferguson and Princess Eugenie.
Eugenie and Beatrice’s other rules involved not making special requests or complaining about questionably out-of-date drinks.“We don’t ask for ketchup when the Duke of Edinburgh is sitting there,” Sarah continued. “We don’t say, ‘Oh, the Ribena tastes old,’ which it probably is. We don’t say, ‘We don’t eat paté sandwiches.’”
The bottom line? “We just shut up and eat what we’re given,” Ferguson said, admitting her girls could “have fish fingers when we get home.”
