Sarah Ferguson has been MIA from her royal duties, and King Charles is reportedly the one keeping her from the spotlight.
In a recent interview with Sky News Australia, royal expert and author of A Voyage Around the Queen revealed that the Duchess of York is "not the king's kind of person," alluding to a potential reason why Ferguson has not been been with members of the royal family since Easter.
Others point to the ongoing dispute between the King and his embattled brother Prince Andrew involving the Duke of York's security detail and current residence at the impressive (and expensive) Royal Lodge.
According to recent reports from The Sun on Sunday and The Times, Prince Andrew's security detail at Royal Lodge is estimated to cost King Charles close to $4 million a year—a cost the monarch is said to be paying personally since 2022, when his younger brother lost his police protection after being forced to step back from his official royal duties amid allegations of sexual assault.
Tired of the personal cost, apparently, the King is reportedly no longer willing to foot the bill and is forcing his brother out of his current home.
Because King Charles has refused to line up any replacement security detail, it's unknown where Prince Andrew will take residence next or if he will have to start fitting the bill for his personal protection himself.
(For the uninitiated, Ferguson and Prince Andrew still live together despite having divorced back in 1996 after their 1992 separation.)
One possible location is Frogmore Cottage, prior home of Price Harry and Meghan Markle. The much more modest residence is, according to reports, more reasonable for the controversial royal and a home King Charles finds suitable.
According to the Daily Mail's Angela Mollard, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson should at least make the decision to move to Frogmore Cottage for the sake of their daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
"The 65-year-old Duke will never restore his reputation—he's old, soiled, damaged goods and no amount of charitable work or outings at church with more upright members of the family are going to change that," Mollard wrote in a recent column.
As InStyle reports, the ongoing tension between Prince Andrew and King Charles, and Ferguson's less-than-ideal standing with the monarchy, is one potential reason why she has not been standing in for Princess Kate as she continues to recover from her cancer treatments, which she announced she recently completed.
It's arguably the same reason why the Duke and Duchess of York have not stepped in for King Charles either, as the monarch continues his own course treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer.
