Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's marriage was on the rocks by the early 1990s, with both the former Duke and Duchess of York carrying on extramarital affairs. But even though her relationship with the Royal Family was already tenuous, it was Fergie's infamous 1992 toe-sucking photo scandal that served as the nail in her coffin. As author Andrew Lownie writes in his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, the embarrassing incident caused Princess Anne to speak her mind about the then-duchess.
Ferguson was carrying on a relationship with American businessman John Bryan before she separated from Andrew in March 1992, and that summer, the couple brought Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie on a vacation to the south of France. They rented a private villa, but unbeknownst to Sarah and John, "a large trench had been dug within a hundred yards of the villa and pool," per Lownie.
