Prince Andrew’s removal from the last vestiges of royal life has not only reshaped his future – it’s sending ripples through his family too.
His ex-wife has now lost her duchess title and will simply be known as Sarah Ferguson.
Their daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, will continue to have the title of princess as scandal surrounds their parents.
Prince Andrew lost use of his Duke of York title over his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
So, what does life after the royal shake up look like for the women of the York Family?
For Ferguson, 66, the change will be the most visible.
For all these years, she has kept the courtesy royal divorcee title Sarah, Duchess of York. Now, she reverts to her maiden name of Ferguson.
And while arguably we’ve always referred to her as “Fergie”, royal commentator Richard Palmer said that will “no doubt” have an impact.
“She will have lost a bit of cachet over this,” he said. “She certainly does use the title – even her Twitter bio is @SarahTheDuchess.”
But the loss of her title may impact her much less than the scandal she’s facing separately about her own links with Epstein.
Last month, several charities dropped her as patron or ambassador after an email from 2011 revealed that she called Epstein her “supreme friend” and seemed to apologise for her public criticism of him.
“I think as far as Sarah is concerned, her own recent controversy involving the email she is said to have sent Epstein is what has had the biggest impact for her of late,” said royal commentator Victoria Murphy.
“Prior to that, she had sidestepped the firing line of the controversy around Epstein and I think may have continued to do so, albeit without calling herself Duchess of York, had that not happened.”
Away from her philanthropy, Ferguson also has various business ventures.
And these, too, are more likely to be affected by the Epstein controversy than any change in title, says Murphy.
“I would say it’s likely they will be impacted by the revaluations of her own contact with Epstein, in the same way her charity work was and the fact that charities didn’t want to be associated with her.”
But Ferguson has been a great survivor in royal circles. She’s kept bouncing back.
Even though she split from Prince Andrew more than three decades ago, she has remained his strong supporter and still lives in his Windsor estate.
The Christmas before last, she was back in the royal fold, joining a royal Christmas gathering in Sandringham for the first time in decades, despite the fact that she and her ex-husband were not working royals or allowed to be part of official royal events.
That ability to bounce back may help her this time too.
“She’s the ultimate survivor and master of reinvention,” said royal author Katie Nicholls.
“Not only has she been reaccepted by the public, but the late Queen Elizabeth II brought her back into the fold, and Charles is also very fond of her.”
Nicholls argues that over the years Ferguson has been through “much worse” and won’t be too impacted by the loss of her title.
“Having been a royal outcast for all these decades, she’s learnt not to attach too much weight to things like that.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bbc.co.uk ’
