Queen Elizabeth II 'Always Liked' Fergie: Late Monarch Reunited With Ex-Duchess After Prince Philip's Death
The late Queen Elizabeth II always had a soft spot for Sarah Ferguson despite Prince Philip's fervent dislike of ex-duchess.
Queen Elizabeth II started to lift the ban on Sarah Ferguson in the final 1.5 years of her life.
"I think a lot of it is since Prince Philip passed away, who couldn’t bear her and didn’t allow her to come to Sandringham in 20-something years," royal author Angela Levin shared.
Sarah married Prince Andrew in July 1986, in what many billed as "the second fairy-tale wedding" after the extravaganza of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's nuptials five years prior. The union was "disastrous," in the words of one royal historian, and ended in scandal in 1992 when the Duchess of York was photographed in a compromising position with a romantic partner. The "toe-sucking" controversy is said to have shocked the Queen and "repulsed" Prince Philip.
"So when he died, The Queen started getting much more friendly with her. She always liked her because she made her laugh, and she’s so bubbly and alive. I think the big change is the cancer she had," Levin added. "You can keep separate, and you want to go your own way, but if you are a loving couple and they still love each other, you start re-thinking."
"She was obviously very ill. Her operation was 10 hours long, and she came back to live in The Lodge to have nursing help. I think you feel how much you want that person," the bestselling scribe shared when pointing out the former Duchess' mastectomy surgery in June 2023.
"I think that’s changed things. I think another thing is that both her children have got their own children, and she has been a very good mother. She has never said a bad word about the monarchy, and she’s never said a bad word about Prince Andrew, she always said 'he's a wonderful father' and she’s stuck to being very moral," Levin observed when describing Fergie's years-long image "rehabilitation."
The author continued: "They had rather a strange relationship when they were married, for the first five years, she only saw him for 40 days a year. He was off with the Navy, and she got restless. He got restless, and she said we both realized we had open marriages."
In addition to a mismatched romantic pairing, the Duchess of York was also ridiculed regularly in the British press who compared her to the Princess of Wales and made fun of her weight. "The Duchess of Pork" became her nickname in the media, which sent the Duchess into a deep depression throughout the six years of her union with the Duke of York.
Levin also discussed Sarah's overall image now, which is proactive and "bubbly," but not something the monarchy needs.
"I don’t think she necessarily is a good friend for the royal family, but she does lots of charity work, and most of her charity work is for children. A lot of that is for children with cancer. That’s very helpful because there are very few people doing that," she concluded.
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GBN interviewed Levin.
