Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson knew each other long before they married into the Royal Family—it was Diana who set Ferguson up with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, after all. Although they were close friends at one time, their relationship fell apart for one major reason, as royal biographer Andrew Lownie shared in a new video.
Lownie, who recently released an updated version of his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, told the Daily Mail that Sarah and Diana’s relationship was “a very complex one.” The women were friends from growing up in aristocratic circles, and once they were both married, Diana “would go to Sarah Ferguson every Sunday and they would moan about the Royal Family,” per Lownie.
As royal wives, they experienced similar struggles, with the author noting that they “felt very restricted within the confines of the Royal Family.” Sarah, for one, was often called a breath of fresh air by the press during the earlier days of her relationship with Andrew, but they soon turned on her, writing headlines like “the Duchess of Pork.”
Lownie said that although Diana related to her sister-in-law’s problems, she also had “concerns” about Fergie’s behavior. He noted that the late royal wondered whether “perhaps Fergie was too boisterous” and “that she was kind of undermining Diana’s own reputation,” which caused her to “distance herself” from the former Duchess of York.
The author also claimed that Diana "played a tough trick" on Ferguson. Instead of getting divorced at the same time, as she'd promised her sister-in-law, Diana waited to see how Sarah and Andrew's split played out and "learned from how the Royal Family treated" Fergie.
It’s long been claimed that the former friends stopped speaking over a shoe incident that was detailed in Fergie’s memoir, My Story. Ferguson claimed that she got plantar warts (also known as verrucas) from borrowing a pair of Diana’s shoes, but Lownie said that wasn’t the reason for their fallout.
“In fact, the reality was that Diana was very concerned that Sarah Ferguson might well be selling stories about her, and that relationship was never repaired,” he said in the Daily Mail’s video, adding that Fergie “pretended it had.”
Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, also backed up the wart story in his book The Royal Insider.
“When the book was published, Diana was furious that throughout its pages, there were references to her, William and Harry,” Burrell said. “Many thought that the fallout was caused by Sarah suggesting that she had contracted verrucas from shoes given to her by Diana, but that was not the case,” he added. “Diana felt used and refused to speak to Sarah.”
