While Sarah Ferguson may not have scored an invite to King Charles' Coronation this weekend, the Duchess of York is expected to be a VIP attendee at tonight's Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle.
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie's mum claimed she wasn't expecting an invite to the Westminster Abbey ceremony, but a recent poll of Mirror readers showed thousands thought she deserved to be there due to her continued 'support' of the Royal Family.
But while the 63-year-old is still close with her ex-husband Prince Andrew, and claims that the late Queen was like a 'mother' to her, it's no secret that she's had a troubled relationship with the royals over the years.
Fergie was famously banished from the fold in the 90s after photos of her and Texan millionaire John Bryan rocked the family and caused a major scandal.
The Duke and Duchess of York tied the knot in 1986 after nine months of dating, but cracks soon formed in their marriage with Andrew's naval career forcing them to spend months apart at a time.
Speaking to US TV host Ernie Manouse in 2010, she said: "My deal was that I was marrying my man, who happened to be a prince and a naval officer.
"But what I got was not the man, I got the palace and didn't get him.
"For our marriage, I saw him 40 days a year."
The couple separated in March 1992 after it was speculated that the Duchess was having an affair with Steve Wyatt who was there for her when she was "exceptionally low" according to David Leigh, co-author of The Duchess of York uncensored.
The Queen confirmed their parting in a tense statement, which read: "In view of the media speculation which the Queen finds especially undesirable during the general election campaign, Her Majesty is issuing the following statement...
"Last week, lawyers acting for the Duchess of York initiated discussions about a formal separation for the Duke and Duchess. These discussions are not yet completed and nothing will be said until they are."
However, Steve soon became engaged to another woman and five months after the separation announcement, compromising photographs of Fergie with his friend John Bryan emerged.
Taken at her villa in St Tropez, the images showed Mr Bryan, her 'financial advisor', kissing and sucking on her toes, while other pictures captured them frolicking in the pool.
In one image, two-year-old Princess Eugenie watched on as Mr Bryan kissed her mother on the lips.
Royal writer Richard Kay claimed in the Daily Mail that Mr Bryan was particularly annoyed with the media coverage as he insisted he "wasn't sucking her toes" he was "kissing them".
Fergie was driven out of the family as a result, and she and Andrew divorced in 1996.
Despite the scandal she retained her Duchess of York title but ceased being a Royal Highness and became persona non grata with the royals for years.
After living a glamorous life with her ex-husband, Fergie is said to have struggled to adapt to being out in the cold with limited funds to survive on.
The Duchess herself previously claimed when asked by the Queen what she wanted, she asked for her continued "friendship" instead of a large settlement.
However, she was still in need of money. Rumoured to be in debt, she quickly attempted to cash in on her royal connections, which upset the Royal Family considerably.
King Charles and Princess Anne are said to still hold a grudge over her behaviour, which they considered 'embarrassing' and Fergie also managed to fall out with her 'best friend' Princess Diana before her death.
Fergie has said she doesn't know why they hadn't spoken for a year before Diana was killed in a car crash, but it is commonly thought to be because she allegedly broke her promise not to talk about Diana in her book, My Story: by Sarah.
In it, the Duchess of York shared an unflattering anecdote about her former sister-in-law, claiming she got a verruca after wearing a pair of her shoes.
Diana was said to be 'livid' and never spoke to her again.
But one person who did continue to communicate with Fergie throug all this was her ex Andrew, and she even moved back into his Windsor home in 1998.
She continued to build up a career of her own merit after this, writing children's books, working as a Today correspondent and landing a Weight Waters deal.
However, her reputation took another hit in 2010 after she was scammed by an investigative journalist from News of the World, Mazher Mahmood.
Mahmood, who went undercover pretending to be a mega-rich Arab, secretly filmed Fergie offering him access to Prince Andrew in exchange for £500,000.
Following the sting Fergie apologised for a "serious lapse of judgement" and told Oprah Winfrey she had been drinking and was "in the gutter at the moment".
She later sought £25m in damages from News Group Newspapers over the whole thing.
Since then Fergie has managed to work her way back into the Royal Family's good books, being invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding back in 2018.
She also attended her two daughter's royal weddings along with her ex-husband and saw the late Queen before her death last September.
The Duchess recently revealed on ITV's Loose Women that she made a promise to her former mother-in-law that she would "help" Prince Andrew on his journey following the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
She said: "I said to her before she died, I will be there with him [Prince Andrew], I will help him on his journey.
"We've all got journeys. Just need to be there with kindness, no judgement and I will because he deserves it."
She added: "We get on because in the darkest time of my life, he was always there for me and in the darkest part of his life, I will be there for him and the Queen of England was there for him, his mum."
As well as this, Fergie attended the Queen's funeral at Westminster Abbey and she and Andrew, who still live together at Royal Lodge, have since adopted his mother's corgis, which she describes as "national treasures" and a "big honour" to have.
And things only seem to be on the up, as Eugenie and Beatrice's mum was also offered an olive branch from Queen Camilla in December and was invited to join the Royal Family for their traditional Christmas lunch and Boxing Day shoot at Sandringham for the first time since 1992.
Sources claimed that she and Andrew were offered the use of Wood Farm on the Estate for the festivities.
They said: "There was Fergie, in the thick of it, chatting away to the King and Queen Consort on the Boxing Day shoot. Philip would never have allowed that.
"There's a feeling that, no matter what Sarah's personal faults – and she can be like Marmite in that respect – she has been a good mother to the girls and loyal to Andrew."
Most recently Fergie has been promoting her new book, doing numerous interviews and taking part in TV appearances including on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where she claimed that she and Diana got arrested at her hen do for impersonating police officers.
