Sarah Ferguson’s Mother Once Revealed What Andrew Lacked to Save His Marriage
Sarah Ferguson’s mother once delivered a brutal verdict on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, saying his lack of “character” ultimately doomed his marriage to Fergie.
Long before Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s name became inseparable from controversies, cracks in his marriage with Sarah Ferguson were already visible to those closest to her. The former Duke and Duchess of York’s 1986 wedding at Westminster Abbey was watched by nearly 500 million people globally, with Ferguson hailed as a lively new face inside the monarchy. Yet despite all the warmth and smiles, their marriage ended a decade later in 1996. Reports cited different reasons for the breakdown, ranging from affairs to the former Prince’s long naval absences. However, Ferguson’s mother, Susan Barrantes, believed the marriage was doomed by a deeper flaw in Mountbatten-Windsor himself.
Royal biographer Andrew Lownie, in his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, talked about Barrantes’s thoughts on the matter. In comments given to the Italian magazine Gente, she offered a strikingly blunt assessment of her former son-in-law. "He's a good-looking boy and has a heart of gold to the point where he would be without any money himself to help someone, but he just hasn't got any character...absolutely none,” she said. Barrantes went a step further, suggesting that the absence of that quality sealed the marriage’s fate. "If only he had character," she said, "perhaps his marriage wouldn't have broken up."
Mountbatten-Windsor and Ferguson separated in 1992 and divorced four years later in 1996 following what Lownie describes as an intervention by senior royals after both of them admitted to extramarital affairs. The former Duchess’s fall from public favor was swift, with the biographer noting that she went from being the most popular royal to the “most unpopular” in polls. "Having announced their separation, the Yorks perhaps understood that their royal lustre had been tarnished," Lownie wrote. On top of that, Barrantes’ comments, he adds, emerged amid what he calls "various leaks to discredit Sarah" during their separation.
Despite her take on Mountbatten-Windsor, Barrantes remained fiercely protective of her daughter during the split, particularly regarding the custody of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. She insisted that Ferguson was determined to keep her daughters close, a position that was quite ironical, given Barrantes’ own past. She had left her young family in the early 1970s to move to Argentina with a lover. Still, her verdict on her former son-in-law was unshaken. For her, his missing character was the main reason why his marriage with Ferguson came crashing down.
Decades later, that judgement feels newly resonant as the former Prince’s reputation continues to unravel. In the last few months, he was stripped of his remaining titles following renewed scrutiny of his friendship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Royal expert Ingrid Seward has since warned that the association will never fade. "I'm afraid every time Epstein's name is mentioned, Andrew is going to be mentioned alongside him, and that looks like a forever situation,” she told The Sun. For Seward, those ties have completely destroyed not only his life but also the life of his family.
