Now that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson have been evicted from Royal Lodge, they'll be living separate lives for the first time in nearly two decades. Andrew is set to move to the Sandringham estate in the coming weeks, while Ferguson is looking for her own new home. But as biographer Andrew Lownie tells Marie Claire, even if Sarah and Andrew's relationship will likely never be the same, their focus will always be on their daughters.
Ferguson and the former Duke of York have been divorced since 1996, but have lived together at Royal Lodge since 2008. Their unusual living situation has led numerous people to ask the former duke and duchess if they'd ever consider getting remarried, but Lownie says Sarah and Andrew "were always more business partners than married couple."
In his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, Lownie writes that Andrew wasn't keen on remarriage. "Given Sarah's weaknesses, she wouldn't make an appropriate royal any more," he reportedly told a friend. However, the two have always been united on their daughters.
Princess Beatrice, 37, and Princess Eugenie, 35, are both moms of two, and Andrew and Sarah are active grandparents to August, Ernest, Sienna and Athena. "Everything now is about the daughters," Lownie tells Marie Claire.
He says that Beatrice and Eugenie—who attended Christmas with The King and the rest of the Royal Family in December—"have been passed the baton" in terms of carrying on "their royal status." Although the sisters are not senior working royals, they occasionally carrying out engagements on behalf of The King, and he's said to want to keep his nieces close.
"The deal is parents will fall on their swords as long as the daughters are taken care of," Lownie adds.
Ferguson has always claimed that she and Andrew were "the happiest divorced couple in the world," telling the Daily Mail in 2018, "We’re divorced to each other, not from each other."
However, when speaking of the fallout from Sarah and Andrew's association with Jeffrey Epstein, Lownie says, "The 'happiest divorced couple' claim quickly ended once Fergie no longer had a title and [won't be] living at Royal Lodge."
"They are both toxic but Fergie may now feel she is better off on her own," he adds.
