Fresh Blow for Sarah Ferguson as City Revokes Prestigious Honor Amid Epstein Fallout
The council made it clear that the city’s top honor is reserved for those who represent York’s values.
Sarah Ferguson is facing a searing public reckoning as the fallout from her controversial past ties to Jeffrey Epstein continues to mount. In a move that feels quite similar to her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s fall from grace, the former Duchess of York has been officially stripped of the Freedom of the City of York — a decisive stance that highlights the city’s refusal to be linked to the disgraced financier’s scandal any longer.
The City of York Council didn’t hold back on March 26, voting unanimously to sever all ties with Ferguson. She had held the prestigious honor since 1987 — a title bestowed upon her just one year after her marriage to Mountbatten-Windsor. Following the US Department of Justice’s release of thousands of documents earlier this year, the revocation serves as a fresh blow for Fergie. The files, which detailed the inner workings of Epstein’s inner circle, featured the former Duchess’s name several times, including a correspondence in which she told the convicted offender to ‘just marry me.’
During the debate, local leaders made it clear that the city’s highest honor is reserved for those who uphold the community’s values. Proposing the motion, Liberal Democrat councillor Darryl Smalley addressed Ferguson’s past associations directly, noting that the files exposed a close bond between the former Duchess and the late financier that persisted long after his criminal conviction. “We now know, following the release of thousands of documents, that Sarah Ferguson too had a close friendship with Epstein, which continued well beyond his conviction,” he stated. Smalley argued that while the city doesn’t require ‘saints,’ it cannot have its highest honor held by someone who was “best friends of a convicted p----------.” He concluded his statement by extending his support for the survivors, noting, “We stand with victims. We stand for the rule of law. We stand for decency.”
This follows the 2022 decision to strip Mountbatten-Windsor of the same title, as the council worked to distance the city from the former Prince after the loss of his military roles and royal patronages. The City of York council’s Labour leader, Claire Douglas, emphasized that preserving the award’s integrity was paramount— and that means breaking ties with those who fall short of the city’s values. "Honorary Freedom is bestowed only on persons of distinction and those having given eminent services to the City of York…Those who continued to associate with Epstein after his crimes became widely known fall well short of these expectations,” she said. Douglas concluded that stripping the honor was the “right decision to take to maintain the integrity and standing of this important York honour.”
The reputation hit is undeniable, even if being named in the Epstein files doesn’t suggest legal wrongdoing. Following the document dump, Fergie has essentially vanished from the public eye, with her last appearance being at the funeral of Katharine, Duchess of Kent, in September 2025.
