As the extent of the fallout from Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson‘s scandal involving their past ties to and correspondence with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein becomes clear, questions about the former couple’s next steps increase.
Both Andrew and Ferguson have been stripped of their royal titles and honors and the pair have been served notice of their eviction from Royal Lodge, the 30-room mansion in Windsor they’ve shared for more than 20 years, even following their divorce.
While the former prince is reportedly bound for one of King Charles‘ privately-owned residences on his Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, it’s still unclear where Ferguson will land.
One recent rumor predicts she could be planning a move into a granny annex on Princess Beatrice‘s estate and longtime royal reporter Richard Kay has pointed out that Ferguson’s love for spending time on the east coast of the United States once earned her the nickname “Duchess of New York,” suggesting that she could move across the pond for a fresh start after leaving Royal Lodge.
Regardless of where Ferguson lands after leaving Royal Lodge, the bigger question on many royal watchers’ minds is how she’ll pay for it. Not only will Ferguson presumably be solely responsible for funding her lifestyle going forward, amid the backlash she’s face, the former Duchess of York has suffered several recent professional setbacks, including the cancelation of a planned children’s book.
Ferguson is also said to have been fielding some financially lucrative offers in the wake of the scandal, including reported six-figure offers to do a televised tell-all interview.
According to Ailsa Anderson, who previously served as press secretary to the late Queen Elizabeth, a tell-all from Ferguson could be damaging for the royal family. During a recent appearance on the Sun‘s Royal podcast, Anderson was asked to share the advice she would offer if news broke that Ferguson was planning to do a tell-all interview—and she didn’t hold back.
“Firstly, doom and gloom,” Anderson said (per Express). “You’d have to see what she’s going to say. I think never do a knee jerk reaction, don’t be painted into a corner and then ask to do something immediately. You see what she says, analyze it.”
That more cautious approach is a very tactical one—Anderson explained that the wrong reaction can make a bad PR situation worse and that all of the chatter pulls focus from the things the royal family really wants to use their platform for.
“What you don’t want to do is add fuel to the flames of anything that she has said and prolong a story so I think it would very much be dependent on what she came up with, but it wouldn’t be good news,” Anderson added. “And it distracts from all the good work the Royal Family are doing, you know we’ve got a state visit next week, what you don’t want is her blowing that out of the water by giving an interview.”
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