Fergie & Andrew :The Duke & Duchess of Disaster - British Royal Documentary

sarah ferguson the outspoken and often outrageous duchess who can't stop putting a foot in it there's certainly a sense that fergie liked to have fun she liked to sort of play jokes but actually it began to wear rather thin she's like a sort of steamroller that just keeps going and her other half prince andrew the queen's second son and by all accounts her favorite he was the pin-up boy if you like of the royal family he's the one who got the looks and he was a good-looking young man together they make up the most controversial couple in the royal family high-profile problems have plagued them i can't think of a worse thing than coming down to breakfast and find photographs of having your toes sucked seen by your family prince philip was apoplectic and swore that she must never step across the threshold of balmoral again they've reeled from one disaster to the next they're in a bubble they've both had so much controversy it's them against the world so why has it gone so wrong for this royal couple is it about craving attention last i have the turn to talk all these men around here or are they just out of touch well i have to ask the question what is a reasonable lifestyle one of andrew's biggest biggest failings is his singular lack of judgment and that's bound up in a sort of a sense of entitlement and arrogance that he's always had frankly tonight this is the incredible story of how together andrew and fergie have lurched from one scandal to another this case with epstein is so serious this is so much more serious than randy andy air miles andy and how throughout it all they've managed to maintain the closest bond in a way she's his wife and everything but name we go behind the scenes to reveal just why they've made so many mistakes andy and fergie going a little bit head first and where you or i might think that's not a good idea it just doesn't occur to them in 1986 britain enjoyed a royal romance 26 year old commoner sarah ferguson got engaged to prince andrew the polished performance followed hard on the heels of the appearance of a palace official with the universally expected announcement of their engagement mid-morning it generated intense excitement are you jealous of sarah ferguson yes she's absolutely gorgeous only wish i was 60 years old inside the royal couple was showing off the ring could i ask you this ferguson do you remember what he said absolutely but i'm not telling you what went awry with that dashing young couple and what led to the downfall of the duke and duchess they may not have been royal but the ferguson family always had close links to the monarchy her father major ron was polo manager initially to the duke of edinburgh and later charles [Music] sarah and prince andrew were friends as youngsters young sarah was on the fringes of the royal family and as children she first came into contact with prince andrew this idyllic childhood was ruptured by the breakup of her parents marriage her mother susan a former society beauty caused the stir when she ran off to argentina with a dashing polo player fergie and her sister jane stayed with their father the last big conversation she had with her mother before she went was her mother didn't like her hair this is a girl of 12 and she really thought for many years her mother had left because her hair wasn't right [Music] if you think your mother doesn't love you i think you're always panicked by self-doubt sarah's father was terrific but obviously he wasn't a housewife and he wasn't great at cooking he did master scrambled eggs and they would just eat eggs out of a saucepan because he thought well what's the point of you know dirtying all the plates after her emotionally difficult teenage years fergie moved to london and shared with friends her flatmate her daughter sarah ferguson's flatmate caroline beckwith smith is on holiday in barbados just great fun really and um interested in lots of things fergie threw herself into london life she went on to have serious relationships she wasn't the sort of unspoiled young woman that diana was expected to be as mother of the future king as ron ferguson famously said of course she's got a pass she's 25 26 years old if she hadn't got her past then there would be some serious questions to ask about she dated a stockbroker then lived with a millionaire called paddy mcnally she enjoyed the jet set lifestyle in his chalet in switzerland she and mcnally who was a widower with two young sons fell in love and and they had a fairly lengthy romance but mcnally was much older you know almost 20 years older than sarah he was very rich fergie likes very rich men and was living a good lifestyle but i don't believe for a moment there was any uh question of nally proposing to fergie the romance and lifestyle came to an end but in 1985 she found her prince although fergie and andrew had crossed paths in childhood they'd had very different upbringings well andrew has a unique place in royal life because he was the first child born to a reigning monarch since the early days of queen victoria's reign she and andrew had a very close relationship he's constantly described as the queen's favorite son they are extremely close uh and in a way closer than charles and i never were he was spoiled and andrew was pretty assured of himself he knew what he wanted and he made sure that he got it [Music] he had the looks he had the physique and you either liked him or you didn't like him i think a lot of people didn't like him if some of his fellow pupils didn't like him the same couldn't be said of women prince andrew had already been christened with a number of nicknames regarding his love life randy andy is the best known the prince has a practiced eye for the ladies and his romantic adventures have been well publicized the gossip columns make no mention of a serious romance at the moment possibly because the list of temporary romances is so long andrew had served as a navy helicopter pilot during the falklands war then later moved to hms brazen his helicopter is a lynx which he's nicknamed the hussy as in the brazen hussy he was one of the country's most eligible bachelors here was our hero wartime prince who came back from the falklands dashing in the handsome with a rose clenched between his teeth he was incredibly good looking in his youth and he was very popular with women and he had an eye for women the organizers of the sports display hadn't forgotten the prince's reputation with the girls 12 of the most shapely dance before him and the prince's face said the rest prince andrew had had a rather checkered uh love life he'd uh been in a relationship for a long time with cousteau the american actress who was an absolutely beautiful young woman very much in love with andrew but she wasn't going to fit the bill for a royal bride although there had been rumors of marriage the couple split he was 26 he was at an age where the queen really wanted to see him start thinking about settling down and sarah came into his life at just the right time in 1985 fergie appeared on the dashing prince's horizon and the matchmaker was none other than princess diana diana and fergie had met when they were younger and diana actually wanted fergie to be her lady in waiting but she was turned down as she said by the men in grey so diana thought okay i will get my own back ascot was coming around diana suggested that fergie join the royal party and andrew met her and they they clicked right away um it was it was a fast match a pretty quick romance it was clear they would not be a traditional royal couple sarah and andrew uh fed each other profiteroles which were the dessert of the day i mean it begs the belief to think of what the queen and other members of the royal family made of it but it was something that they plainly both remembered because it was brought up in their uh engagement interview some nine nine months later we were made to sit next door to each other at lunch and ask it listen you made me eat chocolate profit rose which i didn't want to eat at all i then did in heaven so i got hit then it started from there i think that's probably where i was meant to be on a diet they were both keen to set the date for a royal wedding i would very much like it to be in the summer um and say with sarah and sarah moreso because i think that get on with it get on with this and get it out of the way she was often contrasted with diana and in those early days sarah came out of the contrast rather well because diana was seen as rather pale and wilting you know this delicate flower whereas fergie was robust like the wife of bath how did they look to you on tv oh smashing really relaxed i thought i think really well i thought because of what i did for giant charles sarah ferguson was going to be a navy white and as she was from a military family background it seemed a perfect match [Music] the queen approved of her favorite son's choice of bride [Music] westminster abbey the focus of attention tomorrow and where today the more intrepid spectators have already staked out their patches to get a good view on a hot july day in 1986 the country [Music] celebrated fergie's 17-foot train had the initials a and s intertwined and sewn in silver beads everybody thought it was stunningly beautiful and as she always said i walked in as a commoner and i walked out of subductions a bit of a fairy tale that wasn't it i mean it's cinderella you know at this precise moment sarah ferguson became duchess of york they come out of signing the registry and a royal bride and groom curtsy to her majesty the queen a lot of brides have been quite somber at that moment ferg is giving a big smile to the queen and the queen i think is smiling right back so there's that feeling this is going to be fun [Music] even on her big day it was clear that the new bride was going to create waves sarah later revealed that she'd been asked not to kiss andrew on the balcony at buckingham palace and i think perhaps in a hint of her rebellious nature sarah's attitude was well here i am hundreds of thousands of people in front of us here i've got my prince i'm going to kiss him and she did others were not as impressed by the displays of exuberance i was commentating at the time at the wedding and when they went behind the uh the altar screen to go and sign the registry they were knocking about a bit and i said to my co-commentator that's a marriage that's not going to last a certain amount of decorum wasn't there for the most part the press and public adored the new fun unfussy couple especially the all-action duchess i think that their brand and their image was really positive creating a positive impression enables you to kind of influence and effectively manage your reputation the newest arrival typifies the greater freedom of the young royals becoming the first royal duchess to get a pilot's license complete with very unbigger style hair grips i was absolutely in love with sarah ferguson as a wee girl i thought she was just so refreshing i think they had this amazing honeymoon period they really were the golden couple and she was really seen as a genuine breath of fresh air the yorks weren't just a hit at home the following year the couple embarked on a 25-day tour of canada their tour of canada went extremely well there were tens of thousands of people pouring out wherever they went they wanted to see the new bride they wanted to see the new bright group it was a terrific tour that tour to canada 1987. i was on it actually and it was a great privilege to be there um they were hugely popular they were enthusiastic i think that's what the public reacted to they weren't there just to cut the ribbons uh the opening of things and say how nice to meet you and have you come far but actually engage with people i could not go through a whole tour letting my darling husband of a year and a day do all the public speaking so we agreed for once that i should have the last word tonight the yorks were like no other royal couple before more relaxed and far less serious you make us feel say at home here and i'm just a little bit sad that number 99 of the edmonton oilers isn't here to meet me tonight but the fun times did not last long stormy waters soon appeared for the navy wife and the handsome prince she was a very passionate woman and you know within months weeks of marrying she found her husband was away all the time and fergie's desire for attention started to great with the public all that her natural charm that had been celebrated initially began suddenly to be seen as rather unsophisticated and inappropriate after marriage fergie embraced her new life with gusto a royal highness the fair duchess of york leading cause her heroes on behalf of the international year of shelter for the homeless in 1987 she took part in the now infamous it's a royal knockout it's a royal knockout what an absolute unmitigated disaster that was his royal highness the tantalizingly eligible prince edward it was younger members of the royal family actually making fools of themselves and it was it was bad television it was bad for the royal family a one-off charity event organized by prince edward it was hosted on the lakeside lawn at alton towers fergie and andrew had their own team basically we're the best we're the best blue bandits thereof and they were with i remember pamela stevenson who was the big big comedy actress at the time [Music] and it was just crazy they were rushing all over the place and these sort of medieval costumes and fergie was really over the top sort of shouting and yelling it was just very very undignified okay it's meatloaf's coming in that really was the beginning of the time i think when the public began to question fergie and what she was getting out of royalty rather than what she was putting into it as soon as possible like many others of the time she was mocked mercilessly on the satirical puppet show spitting image [Music] oh do get a move on lurgy world slag it's been well over an hour i know sausage but i'm putting on my makeup they very much heightened some of the tropes about her so you know they made her hair very very red and they really accentuated her her freckles and they also rather cruelly made a big issue about her wheat get your oil t-shirts here full sizes small medium large and fergie if you're sarah ferguson watching that you are going to feel a sting of pain come on come on the duchess was struggling to adjust to her new royal life she was vulnerable and it didn't help that there were cruel comparisons in the press to her elegant and beautiful sister-in-law diana sarah's always had a weight problem it goes up and down with monotonous regularity and the media always drawing comparisons between fergie and diana dying looking very sort of slim beautiful fergie not looking so slim not looking so beautiful very difficult and very unfair as the media coverage turned negative fergie found herself getting flack from all sides she came into some criticism for liking the product too much this barrel is for me the honeymoon was over we wish to welcome you to the port of long beach los angeles on behalf of the entire group here in 1988 the couple visited california hollywood loved him your royal highnesses welcome to the british academy show scan special presentation on the hollywood special effects but the uk press didn't the previous canadian tour had been a triumph but this trip was branded tacky and excessive they felt she was trying just a bit too hard the usa tour was really still the same sarah and still the same andrew but there was a slightly brash thing i mean i remember she was wearing an outfit one day and she said check the back of the hair on the tour of america she was too loud she was perceived as being not what a royal should be and i think the damage done on that tour to her reputation dogged her ever since cream cake tonight sausages the duke and duchess were 20 minutes late because when they left the yacht the duchess his hat blew off and on this day the hat was particularly important again fergie's confidence and lack of inhibition of protocol made headlines at last i have the turn to talk she confidently dealt with a heckler all these men around here there was one occasion at a dinner it was one particular senate and he probably had one too many drinks and he kept on calling up we love you fergie we love you fergie and she just sort of retorted i'll see you later the british media thought it was the wrong thing to do was the wrong sort of reaction i think she handled it particularly well if sarah ferguson's quip didn't win over the stuffy press then her over familiarity with them didn't help her cause either at a swish reception she divulged intimate details about her clothes for that tour she was head to toe in french couture um and joked to the press there that she was wearing marks and spencer's knickers this is not what you're expecting the duchess of york to say and remember the previous duchess of york had been the queen mother so you're talking about a changing view of the royal family talking about the country changes they want them to be up on a pedestal but then when they say something like that they think oh you've slipped down from the pedestal back home the continuing attention-seeking gaffes didn't go down well and the press began to worry fergie was somehow leading diana astray there's certainly a sense that fergie liked to have fun she liked to sort of play jokes but actually it began to wear rather thin and she was seen increasingly as a bad unsophisticated influence on diana and prince andrew and and something of a loose cannon the royal duchess and princess diana were caught larking around at the races there was an iconic picture of them at ascot and there's fergie and diana with these umbrellas you know poking somebody's behind it was a great shot but i think obviously that was another opportunity to say that you know she was a bad influence on diana which it actually really wasn't true [Music] fergie had a love of foreign holidays particularly skiing she's renowned as the finest skier in the royal family and today only the best amongst her party could keep close to her car in switzerland the two royal couples posed for the press again it looked like the duchess was a poor influence on diana [Music] they were on a slope of a mountain and i think and it was snowing and diana was slipping a bit and then diana and fergie slipped into each other sort of on purpose they were really laughing about and they were just wonderful pictures did you get that and then charles got annoyed because he thought it was undignified that came back to haunt fergie those photographs it wasn't all bad press so have you managed to name your baby yet no names was it quite an ordeal yesterday it was a long time wasn't it it was a long time but she came to it very very well you look very worried earlier in the day sir that's because i was on my way to the dentist two years after their marriage the york celebrated the birth of their daughter beatrice usually followed two years later [Music] both the baby to the father and the mother but the happy families didn't last long prince andrew was away at sea for many weeks of the year his posting follows three months of specialized training and the duke will now lead a flight team aboard the frigate for around 18 months in the early years of their marriage andrew was serving as a naval officer which meant that he was frequently sent away and for sarah that meant being at home at the palace on her own for long periods of time and in fact she later recalled that she got to see her husband for 40 days a year the rest of the time he was absent it's it's terrible i mean i mean you're going away and leaving what you love behind it's a fantastic job for a single man it's getting less and less so for a married man the new mother was lonely and lacking support in 1992 private photos surfaced a cleaner found a set of holiday snaps showing the duchess and her two children with a texan steve wyatt wyatt was handsome and attentive [Music] the pictures had been taken some two years previously there's a picture of steve white and then there's beatrice who's just got bathers on just and they're obviously somewhere hot and suddenly people think who is this man with little princess beatrice who looks about two or three and so then the stories start eve pollard a tabloid editor at the time was contacted by a mutual friend of the duchess very old friend of ours rang us up he said i wonder if you could come and give a friend of mine a bit of advice so we turned up in his lovely studio in mayfair and there she was we tried to say you know you've just got to be careful about any photographs if you go out with anybody while your husband's away it should be a crowd and she was at that time i have to say very very unhappy about the fact that she was alone gossip of affairs circulated in society circles for months he was also getting a lot of flack from the royal household for behaving as they saw it inappropriately so everything was mounting up against her and i don't think andrew was there to really back her up and then along comes steve wyatt it was the beginning of the end for fergie and andrew [Music] the announcement that the duchess of york had initiated discussions about a separation from her husband came as she arrived to pick up their daughter from school in march 1992 the couple split fergie was soon spotted with another american john bryan a friend of wyatt's and her financial advisor soon rumors of scandalous pictures of them together surfaced and the photos were being touted around fleet street the night before publication i went to see brian i saw laid down these pictures and there was a great intake of breath oh god and he immediately went off into the bathroom shut the door and even though the door was locked i could hear he was calling sarah in scotland and telling her that it was worse far worse than he thought he obviously was a little bit more than a financial advisor as we saw from those photographs taken in the south of france with him sucking her toes whether he was looking at the toes as a new form of abacus or calculator remains to be seen but it was the sort of nail in the coffin when it came to fergie and andrew's marriage it was a sellout scoop for the daily mirror three hundred thousand extra copies were printed and as the public snapped them up the newspaper was unrepentant unfortunately for sarah ferguson she was staying with her in-laws at balmoral the papers were all laid out for breakfast sarah took one look around the dining room and thought there but for the grace of god go the lot of you i'm i'm going so she went back upstairs and obviously she she had to see the queen and the queen remember these two fairly close and the queen was furious with her just furious speculation about the duchess of york increased when a card sped out of the royal estate full of suitcases she fled the castle and the press no longer the luxury or privilege of an aircraft of the queen's flight for the duchess just an ordinary scheduled flight to heathrow it spelled the end of fergie's life as a royal and that was absolutely devastating for her it was never how she had expected things to turn out the most important thing for me at the moment is to keep a low profile work hard and make sure that i continue to find cures and to help people as much as possible with no wealthy husband how was she going to live the debt soon racked up i wouldn't say she'd go anywhere for a hot meal but she was prepared to put her name to all sorts of things which royals hadn't done she needed money fast a bit of attention her solution for bringing in the cash cheers was a flashy one [Music] the duke and duchess of york announced their divorce in may 1996. by august that year sarah ferguson was no longer able to use the title her royal highness [Music] she found it awkward to adjust to a modest lifestyle living beyond her means quickly got her into financial difficulty you know she's cast out of the royal family and she she doesn't just divorce andrew she divorces the whole of the royal family i remember diana saying to me that you know fergie didn't get that much you know she really she really didn't and that's why she had to work so hard and she had to keep coming up with new ideas in typical fashion she made light of the negative press it really bugs me that every day every day i have to read i'm a millionaires three times over cool i'll tell you when her marriage broke down her overdraft was said to have been 200 000 pounds allegedly paid off under a separation settlement which also involved prince andrew taking financial responsibility for their children beatrice and eugenie [Music] the news reports varied at first she said the royals gave her no financial support at all then she admitted to receiving 15 000 pounds a year it was then reported that the divorce settlement from prince andrew was worth several million pounds later it seemed to emerge that actually she had a settlement around three million pounds so i think it's likely the divorce settlement was much more favorable than perhaps uh fergie initially uh suggested we've never known the full details but we think she was meant to get money to buy a home but i think probably she was so much in debt by then she just used the money to pay off her debt that's what i understand in 1996 it was thought sarah ferguson's death stood at around 1 million pounds just over a year later her debts were reported to be in the region of 4 million pounds she had no concept of money coming in as opposed to money going out about three hundred thousand pound went on on her staff costs 150 000 pounds she would spend in a year on on gift she traveled a lot those were expensive costs the simple fact was that she spent more than she had and she rapidly got into serious debt i think that's the story of her life really she just is a very free spender and very very generous um but if you're like that you know you you do get into financial trouble unless you're earning millions all the time sarah did have money problems that was well um advertised everywhere and she wasn't ashamed of that you know she got up out of bed and thought right i've got to make some money here fergie tried to earn a living she knew she had cache as a former royal she also knew the best place to sell herself [Music] she attempted to rebrand herself in the united states i'm so unconventional that instead of serving tea i serve ocean spray carnival juice drink she made this series of cranberry juice commercials for american tv and is said to have pocketed half a million dollars it has a distinctive taste that gives you real zing and wonder you americans through that change the harbor the americans god bless them they love people with titles if you if you're a lord well yeah you're pretty good but if you're a duchess well you you sort of hit the jackpot she'd been married to the son of the queen and was prepared to endorse brands so for pr companies in the states this their christmases had come early they saw her as this really feisty pioneer woman you know she was really brave to carry on and go and make our own money they they love that sarah ferguson also teamed up with weight watchers which was publicized through another set of glamorous tv commercials it's the hardest thing in the world staying on a diet while no one knows what fergie earned during their 11-year association she lost 50 pounds in weight i think it probably connected with a lot of women because whether you're a princess or a commoner we know how how painful it is when people make cruel jives about our appearance fergie also signed endorsement deals with cosmetic companies and makers of fine tableware she was a spokesperson for waterford you know china and ceramics she was a spokesperson for avon makeup brands wanted access to sarah's royal connections and the kudos that that would bring to their brand so she you know she was hot ticket she was really in demand fergie was a success in america by february 1997 she was on the verge of paying off her creditors she was a duchess in debt but tomorrow sarah ferguson will announce she's close to paying off her overdraft with kutz bank around four million pounds of it [Music] then in 1998 fergie landed a plum guest role in one of america's most successful sitcoms friends [Music] the fourth season finale of the worldwide hit tv show was watched by 20 million viewers in america and nearly 7 million in the uk [Music] filming brought the friends cast to london for a major wedding storyline the character joey photographed chandler outside westminster abbey then who should turn up among the stars but the duchess of york they may call it a bit part in the business but she could have been paid as much as 900 pounds for an hour's performance joey says you don't really like his hat but i think it's kind of dashing the fact that sarah famously appeared as herself on an episode of ustv sitcom friends i think was a key positive moment for her appearing on the episode of friends for some people would be you know the ultimate kind of cult appearance and i'm sure her daughters thought it was amazing but you know this was not becoming of a former royal princess to appear on you know an american sitcom of course really if she'd had any kind of royal stage she certainly wouldn't have been allowed to have performed in france i think actually out of all the tv projects that she did the british public warmed to her for doing this one um you know this wasn't hugely embarrassing even so fergie had profited from her royal status royals put their names to organizations and charities sarah was using it to make money um which upset the royals terribly making money from her royal status was one thing but fergie went a step further and cashed in on the story of her royal private life the fact that she went out into the commercial world as long as she wasn't besmirching the royal family wasn't trading on secrets and telling stories out of school that they had to live with it but as soon as you start sort of saying things that patently aren't true then that is upsetting sarah ferguson published her autobiography my story in 1996. she told the world that she'd been made to feel unwelcome in buckingham palace and revealed secrets about the breakdown of her marriage to prince andrew the queen is said to have been particularly displeased as is princess margaret and and and prince philip so the real big guns in the royal family are are really really upset by all of this a new book meant a promotional tour and fergie was back off to america oprah winfrey was among the broadcasters who lent a sympathetic ear you're sitting in the palace and you felt a sense of hatred for yourself that doesn't compute in our prince's cinderella duchess mind do you understand okay that is the fairy tale it is the fairy tale but then comes the realism that you actually met you didn't marry to get the fairy tale you married a man you fell in love and you married the man and then you've got to come to terms with the fairy tale now there was a certain amount of sympathy for her in the in the united states poor fergie paul fergie whinging about how she was badly treated at buckingham palace which is a bit rich but buckingham palace weren't going to react to that so when you moved into the palace um were you surprised i mean the way you described your i'm sure as you describe it in the book i'm thinking it's a little dark room down the hall at buckingham palace um yes it's on the second floor it's all burgundy and very dark and the light bulbs are only 30 amps so they don't provide any light not only was she cashing in on her own royal status she was lifting the lid on on being inside the royal family letting the public in and that's a big no-no despite selling her royal secrets fergie remained on good terms with prince andrew his active service in the navy was coming to an end and a new controversial chapter in his life was about to start since 1997 he's worked in london for the navy's diplomacy unit now that he's on civvy street andrew is going to be a roving ambassador promoting british trade overseas [Music] [Applause] fergie's ongoing quest to make money played out in the media but there were more pr disasters on the horizon and this time a scandal of epic proportions she'd done something very very stupid i think she really had to lay her her soul bear in order to sort of exonerate herself from what she'd done [Music] though prince andrew and sarah ferguson were no longer married they maintained a close friendship after their divorce they always stayed friends with which is i know people don't get it and say how is this this is very unusual and it is rare but it's very special relationship and they get on extraordinarily well they have the same sense of humor in 2008 fergie moved in to share andrew's home the royal lodge in windsor their friendship has intrigued royal watchers they're the couple who you know they might not have the label of being husband and wife but they're definitely kind of soul mates i think [Music] soul mates whose friendship brought its own problems the next disaster to hit would rock not only andrew and fergie but the whole royal family fake sheikh was called mazia mahmoud who worked for the news of the world he kept saying he wanted to meet prince andrew and he would pay her half a million if she could fix that posing as an arab businessman mahmoud had played out hundreds of undercover stings on high-profile personalities since the early 90s victims were cajoled into making embarrassing confessions or trading illegal substances the fake shake operations were often criticized as entrapment you would do these meetings at the savoy the dorchester all these glitzy places um and you know so many celebrities and other royals got stung by him fergie was likely targeted because of her well publicized money problems and her friendship with her ex-husband by 2010 prince andrew had retired from his successful naval career and had a new role as a special trade envoy for britain okay of course 500 000 yeah but that's in wire transfer the news of the world set up a sting to secretly record fergie despite the grainy and low quality footage she can be heard offering access to prince andrew 500 000 pounds when you can to me open doors yeah is that a deal yeah what she was proposing and what she was saying she could do um and using prince andrew basically to to shake down some money from a man who she thought was a very rich uh foreign investor but in fact was an undercover journalist it's one thing to be um you know trading off the fact or or the fact that you had once been a member of the royal family but what is not really appropriate is the fact that you're no longer a member of the the royal family the your ex-husband has a sort of governmental um ambassadorial rule and you're offering access for huge amounts of of cash prince andrew knew absolutely nothing about what was going on this is something that fergie had arranged all by herself and was going to present it as a fate accompli but you know we don't sell a member of the royal family for cash but the fake shake had caught far worse on camera after agreeing she would be paid her half a million pound fee by wire transfer fergie was seen accepting a cash deposit of just under 30 000 pounds she left the ill-fated rendezvous with the suitcase containing the cash she'll give it back but her reputation is in tatters when you looked at it she was obviously distressed she was smoking she was drinking and he was there with this suitcase of money i think out of all of the embarrassing deals this was the most serious andrew had no option but to completely distance himself from this it was it was very embarrassing for the royal family in 2016 the fake shake was himself exposed as a law breaker he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice after tampering with police evidence did you lie to get a front page headline what do you say what's your reaction mahmoud was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison but his sting on fergie had done its damage she apologized to the queen she apologized to prince andrew and she's got this extraordinary ability to bounce back and she did bounce back prince andrew you know stood by her and it was andrew who sort of came to the rescue and set up a program whereby fergie could repay some of the debt and that's how fergie got through that episode fergie made a public apology fergie had to try and defend herself and uh you know in typical fergie fashion she went on to the networks to do it she went on to the oprah winfrey show and reflected with oprah on what has happened they watched a playback of the entire fake shake video before fergie made dramatic revelations about her state of mind because i was in the gutter at that moment so i know i know exactly i'm very aware of the fact that i'd been drinking you know that i was not in my right right place you know people love oprah and and i believe that by speaking to oprah sarah felt that it could have a positive impact on her she really had to lay her her soul bare in order to sort of exonerate herself from what she'd done and i it was extraordinary that she did it it was it was a very very brave thing to do but then she'd done something very very stupid it was kind of like the ultimate collision of a royal and reality television so of course you know people loved it in america you have to respect her for that because that really takes guts to be able to do that i think i'm authentically myself sitting here right now and i'm gonna give it a good shot somehow or other she managed to turn the tables i don't think she meant it to be but it turned out to be an absolute masterstroke in the years following the fake shake scandal sarah ferguson claimed she'd lost around 40 million pounds worth of earnings from cancelled celebrity engagements because her reputation was so damaged she started legal proceedings against the owners of the news of the world but it's reported that after three years she abandoned her case in 2019. it's unfortunate that she was caught in a sting but not the first one to be caught in a sting and certainly probably won't be the last one she realized very quickly that she was up against some serious uh legal opposition and if it went against her i mean the cost could have run higher and higher so sensibly she she dropped the case despite the constant gaffes and disasters sarah ferguson was still close to prince andrew each still supportive of the other they were so close that some royal watchers believe a reunion could be on the cards i think sarah and andrew are together as a couple i i just don't think they could be apart from each other and i do see them getting married again i really do [Music] disaster after disaster but remarkably andrew and fergie remained close it has to be the most extraordinary relationship that there's ever been of a member of the royal family andrew and sarah married in 1986 split up in 1992 were divorced in 1996 and yet have remained together happily ever after sarah refers to andrew as her bestest friend a knight in shining armor andrew and i speak every day and it's very important that we do keep you know keep that huge friendship they may have divorced 24 years ago but the pair still live together they have their holidays together they have a home they bought together in switzerland a skiing lodge and in fact they now spend most of their time together it is interesting that neither of them have really found anyone else since their devotion i think even though they're not formally married i think they kind of are together like in an emotional sense their intertwined lives have raised many questions about their relationship there are constant rumors and endless speculation about the possibility of them one day remarrying and i think largely fueled by the pair of them speaking so openly and fondly about each other no we're not married and you know we're very happy with the way things are there's nothing going on there carl i don't know [Music] really i think sarah and andrew are together as a couple but i do see them getting married again i really do but fergie has repeatedly embarrassed the royal family so could she ever be accepted back fergie did upset a lot of people i mean chiefly among them i would say prince philip you know nothing would ever happen while the duke of edinburgh is still alive such is the grudge that he still bears against sarah fergie may never be able to win over her former father-in-law but it does appear that the queen is slowly welcoming fergie back into the royal fold queen still has a soft spot for fergie and very occasionally fergie's invited up to balmoral after the duchess was excluded from william and kate's wedding a sign of acceptance was the invitation to harry and meghan's [Music] she was so excited to be there as well and be part of the family again she was ousted for a long time and i think she found that very sad regardless of their marital status the yorks continue to present themselves as a family unit the prince fergie and the two princesses and all four attract ridicule how do i look like a puppet of the bourgeois oppressors perfect see you later i mean beatrice's hat which was unusual was compared from everything from a loose seat to a pretzel just like her mother beatrice shrugged off the ridicule and put the hat up for auction raising 81 000 pounds for charity it's also been noted that the princesses have inherited their parents love of the highlight beatrice and usually uh seem to spend an awful lot of time traveling at someone else's expense usually it often involves private planes or luxury boats but they do both now have full-time jobs beatrice is a vice president for a software company in the states and usually has a senior position at a art gallery in mayfair they want to work they don't want to be accused of being lazy or leeching off the taxpayer fergie and her daughters sought the attention prince andrew on the other hand had grown up to simply expect it he was a prince and wanted to be treated like one on leaving the navy in 2001 prince andrew took on a new role he was given a pretty plum role he was made a special representative for trade and investment which essentially saw him traveling around the world representing britain at the beginning it was all going very very well and people were quite interested all over the world meeting the queen's son [Music] where he fell down is that at the end of the day when work was over he went off to play but you don't play at the taxpayers expense it was noted that his trips abroad supposedly on government business seemed to go via ski slopes top golf courses and other exotic locations he wasn't called air miles andy for nothing you know this is the man who saw fit take a helicopter ride from windsor to kent to play golf at a cost of 5 000 pounds to the taxpayers duke's travel expenses were four million pounds during his decade in the role and his security costs another 10 million [Music] what is an extravagant lifestyle traveling by private jet using helicopters when you could take a train but it is it is again it is the maximization of my time for the uh best value for money and that's the way that that and i'm not the one that makes those decisions [Music] yet more terrible publicity for the yorks once again they appeared to shame the royal family he can't sort of like his wife he can't step outside himself and say how does this look it did seem to become a little convoluted between what was for britain and what was for andrew prince andrew was plagued with controversy in 2007 the duke and duchess of york's marital home sunning hill park was sold it had been a gift from the queen and the unusual circumstances surrounding the sale prompted further criticism about andrew's business dealings when their marriage broke down and it came to selling the house i mean it took a long long time and andrew was desperate to sell it because he needed the money i think it had been on the market for several years quite remarkably he managed to sell it to a kazakh billionaire who not only bought it but bought it for three million pounds over the asking price the buyer was the son-in-law of the former kazakh president he paid 15 million pounds for the property despite then apparently leaving it empty for eight years not a brick of it remains to this day it was bulldozed to the ground it was later reported that andrew had tried to help the kazakh oligarch become a client of couts the bank used by the royal family and the controversy kept on coming it appeared that the prince simply didn't care what people thought from his meetings with colonel gadhafi's son to holidays with the convicted libyan gun smuggler he seems to delight in these relationships and it is said it's because he's drawn very much drawn to power and wealth but one of andrew's friendships would prove more damaging than them all i mean this is so much more serious than randy andy air miles andy and this is a criminal case [Music] for over a decade prince andrew has been engulfed in the biggest controversy of his royal life a life that's been beset with scandals he met jeffrey epstein around about 1999 through um gilead maxwell whom he'd known for years elaine was a girlfriend of jeffrey epstein epstein was very very anxious to have somebody like andrew as his friend because you know he's got a real live prince and it gave him so much kudos i think around about 2000 he went to saint james's the british virgin islands um on epson's private jet and had made several trips as a guest of jeffrey epstein his love of the high life was what attracted him to gillane maxwell and he invited her to parties at the palace he invited her shooting at sandringham always with epstein in tow [Music] two months before epstein attended princess beatrice's 18th birthday party a warrant was issued for him over the sexual assault of a minor the fact that he invited epstein to sandringham he invited epstein to windsor castle as a guest of the queen says a lot for the man's judgment [Music] epstein served 13 months in prison for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution two years later in 2010 prince andrew was photographed walking with him in central park during a four night stay at his new york mansion he claimed that he went over there to say that they could no longer be friends what's wrong with email what's wrong with the telephone call [Music] it was also revealed that sarah ferguson had accepted a loan from epstein duchess quickly admitted her mistake stating i have made another huge error in my life in order to get debt free the story exploded prince andrew was accused of sexual misconduct it was a wicked time in my life it was a really scary time in my life i had just been abused by a member of a royal family she alleges that she was forced to sleep with with prince andrew when she was underage very serious allegation it's one which prince andrew denies epstein committed suicide in jail in 2019 prince andrew has strongly denied the accusations made against him and he made a rare and very controversial interview from inside buckingham palace do you regret the whole friendship with epstein now i still not and the reason being is that the the people that i met um and the opportunities that i was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful the fact that it as reported that he said to the queen that had gone well gives a very clear indication of the man's poor lack of judgment prince andrews interview was widely criticized this was one disaster too many days after the interview andrew stepped down from royal duties there have been many ups and downs for sarah and for andrew but you know for the duke of york to essentially be forced into an early retirement to to step down as a senior royal is a sign of just how serious this is he can't do any charities virtually everyone who had anything to do with him has now dropped him [Music] following the interview prince andrews team released a statement saying the duke of york expressed regret for his ill-judged association with jeffrey epstein but the story just won't go away this week former epstein associate gilain maxwell was arrested she denies the charges against her and any wrongdoing american authorities have made a formal request for prince andrew to speak to them as part of their inquiries they claim previous requests for help have been repeatedly declined whilst andrew's lawyers say his offers of help were effectively rejected there are clearly questions that need to be answered and you know we we have yet to see whether whether the gp is going to cooperate there are precious few people standing by him i have to say as as time goes on uh more and more of andrew's support has sort of melted away but there is one solid support and it's sarah sarah ferguson has defended her ex-husband in television interviews newspaper articles and on her social media it is just shockingly accusatory lies which i won't stand by and let anybody believe or or or i just have to shut it down right now she knows she's going to get a lot of criticism but standing by andrew at the moment but that's what she does she's so loyal and she'll do anything to protect her family andrew stood by sarah when she was in trouble he was remarkably patient and she is now standing by him i think they're in a bubble i think they've both had so much uh controversy it's them against the world when you grow up in the royal family especially andrew who was spoiled by his mother charles is much more sensitive much more aware and worried about how he appears to the public andrew was cosseted he was the favorite son and the queen brought him up to think he could do no wrong surrounded by controversy the future of the couple is uncertain one of the side effects of andrew's standing down from royal life is that he instantly lost a means of earning a living and all the indications are he will never come back as a working royal [Music] but if anyone can bounce back it's surely fergie again and again she's experienced humiliation the one thing that sarah won't lose is that capacity to surprise all of us she has done some really impressive charity work and you know her children's books have done well she's trying to forge out a new career in the film industry i would say never say never with sarah every day i'm going to do story time with fergie and friends fergie now has another project she's been reading stories for children online during the coronavirus lockdown let's get a bit of magic going here shall we she's being really personable and she's really showing her human side i think it's such a positive initiative for andrew his future might rest more on his ex-wife than he could ever have imagined only recently there was a picture put up on social media of himself and fergie packing together lunches to deliver to local nurses and stuff so he's trying to do some good but again whatever you put up in this situation is ridiculed will it ever be possible for fergie and andrew to shake off the mistakes of their past the scandal from prince andrew and jeffrey epstein is so toxic and i do feel that that that is going to kind of tarnish her and the fact that she's still so close to prince andrew i think that is going to have um quite a limiting effect on big future sort of commercial project [Music] the story of andrew and fergie is a sequence of disasters she sought out attention and indulgence she just couldn't afford he mistook deference for friendship his judgment clouded by his status throughout there has been one constant the duke and duchess of disaster have stayed side by side the next chapter of their lives are going to be very very different to what's gone before i think they're going to have to maybe try and enjoy the simpler things in life and to be honest they may not have a huge amount of choice [Music] it wouldn't surprise me at all if we get an announcement that they're getting married again nothing really would surprise me with fergie and andrew [Music] [Music] [Music] me

Channel: British Documentary

Views: 1,635,995

Keywords: Prince Andrew, Princess Fergie, Duke Of York, British Royal, Royal Family, British Royal Family Documentary, Documentary

Id: QhrD_Zo-5H8

Length: 67min 43sec (4063 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 22 2021