Fergie's Forgotten Scandal That Had Palace Aides Convinced She's the ‘Greatest Threat' to the Crown
Sarah Ferguson’s first children’s book sparked a storm that left Palace officials fearing damage to the monarchy.
Long before her recent Epstein scandal, Sarah Ferguson had found herself in the center of a storm over her first children’s book. In 1989, she released Budgie: The Little Helicopter, a lively story inspired by her flying lessons. What should have been a celebrated debut soon drew plagiarism rumors, with Queen Elizabeth’s press secretary, Robin Janvrin, stepping in to limit the fallout, but with a warning.
Ferguson’s book secured a publishing deal of about $111,700 and sold more than one hundred thousand copies. Royal expert Andrew Lownie wrote in his biography Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York that managing the 66-year-old was not an easy task. A publishing source reportedly told him that she had to be handled with ‘kid gloves’ throughout the project. The real challenge, however, appeared when comparisons surfaced between Budgie and another book, Hector the Helicopter, which also followed a similar theme and storyline.
As plagiarism rumors swirled, Random House, the publisher of Hector the Helicopter, reportedly considered taking legal action. As per Lownie, John Sargent, who handled children’s books for Simon and Schuster at the time, was forced to issue a clear statement defending her. He said the likeness between the two books was "a 100 percent coincidence." Despite this, the controversy grew, reaching Buckingham Palace. Senior aides reportedly grew concerned about the impact of the scandal on the royal family.
As per Lownie, to save the Firm from further damage, the late monarch’s press secretary, Janvrin, stepped in. The first thing he did was to forbid the former Duchess of York from traveling to the United States to promote the book, despite her contract requiring publicity. During a meeting with Sargent at the Palace to discuss the contract obligations, Janvrin told him why he believed the matter was more than a simple publishing issue. Sargent recalled the same in a 2023 interview with The Telegraph.
"He told me that the Duchess of York was the single greatest threat to the monarchy in the current era, and his job was to control that threat. He feared her lack of grace and popularity would stain them all,” Sargent said. The publishing veteran also noted that while Janvrin understood the commercial side of the book, he offered a quiet explanation of how the Palace worked. "Think of it this way, John. The Royal family is like a Fortune 500 company, but in this case, all of the management are relatives, and many of them are in-laws,” he allegedly said.
After much discussion, the two finally reached a compromise that allowed Ferguson to make a short visit to New York to meet her contract commitments. However, the trip itself added new problems. Lownie detailed that the former Duchess "was late for a Today Show interview because she was having trouble deciding which shoes to wear." Sargent later faced a hotel bill that was four times the cost of the room. Questions also arose when she claimed all book proceeds would go to charity, though only ten percent did. The missteps frustrated Palace aides, with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s private secretary asking "to be transferred to work for Prince Edward."
