Resurfaced Clip Shows Fergie Defending Andrew While Calling Out Virginia Giuffre’s 'Lies'
There was a time when the former Duchess went to great lengths to defend her ex-husband even amid serious controversies.
As the dust settles from the shocking February 19 arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, a pointed interview from the royal archives resurfaces,r revealing the lengths Sarah Ferguson went to discredit his accusers. In a 2015 appearance on The Meredith Vieira Show – recorded just days after Virginia Giuffre first filed court documents alleging she was trafficked to the ex-Duke by Jeffrey Epstein – the former Duchess of York launched a scathing attack on Giuffre’s credibility, even going as far as to label the allegations ‘salacious lies.’
Unsurprisingly, Ferguson has been a staunch ally of Mountbatten-Windsor, once even labelling themselves as the world's ‘happiest divorced couple.’ While their current rapport is uncertain, there was a time when the former Duchess went to great lengths to defend her ex-husband even amid serious controversies. That same level of dedication was on full display when the world reacted with shock to Giuffre’s testimony. Ferguson told NBC’s Meredith Vieira that her own reaction was one of ‘total fury.’ “I don't understand how people can make salacious lies up,” the former Duchess said during the sit-down. Despite legally ending their marriage in 1996, she championed the ex-Duke as “one of the greatest men I've ever met in my life.”
Ferguson’s support for the former Prince remained absolute for years. She echoed Buckingham Palace’s formal denials at every turn, adamant that the public was being misled by a false narrative. “They stand by that denial,” the former Duchess insisted at the time, noting, “There's nothing more to be said. It is shockingly accusatory lies that I won't stand by and let anybody believe. I have to shut it down right now.” When pressed by Vieira on how she could be so certain of Mountbatten-Windsor’s innocence in the face of Giuffre’s testimony, Ferguson cited her intimate knowledge of the former Prince’s character as the father of her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
She highlighted, “Knowing him as I know him — and he's one of the greatest men I've ever met in my life and my best friend and great father to my children — I thought, 'I don't understand in this day and age how people can make salacious lies up and how the media then write about it and follow on with it.” Ferguson then went on to characterize the allegations as a “defamation of character of a person that is the opposite of how he has been portrayed.” She also offered a rare glimpse into the private conversations held within the York family home as the scandal broke. “That we will not be defeated, that we are impenetrable, and that we will show by success,” the former Duchess told Vieira.
At the time, she also attempted to garner sympathy for her daughters, asking the audience, “Can you imagine what they've been through?” This question has taken a drastic turn in the last few months, with the ‘impenetrable’ wall Ferguson built around her ex-husband suffering a series of brutal blows.
The former Prince’s 2022 out-of-court settlement with Giuffre – estimated at $12 million – arguably has also long served as a silent admission that the ‘lies’ the former Duchess once decried were far more serious than she admitted.
