Sarah Ferguson was so nervous about meeting her future in-laws that she tripped over one of the queen’s beloved Corgis and spilled her drink, says a real biographer in a new documentary.
Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, reveals the Duchess’s faux-pas series in When Fergie Met The Monarchy on Channel 5 tonight.
She told how Fergie, then about 24, traveled to the Sandringham estate to meet the family of her boyfriend, Prince Andrew – an encounter that could make or break their union.
Not sure who to bow to, Seward told how Fergie knelt before everyone to avoid offense.
A documentary airing tonight on Channel 5 looks at Sarah Ferguson’s relationship with the royal family before and after her marriage to Prince Andrew on July 23, 1986 (photographed at Westminster Abbey on the day)
In the documentary, the royal commentator and editor of Majesty magazine Ingrid Seward reveals that “nervous” Fergie made several mistakes when meeting the Queen at Sandringham Estate (pictured with the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Andrew on the porch of the Palace of Buckingham on the Queen’s 60th birthday in April 1980)
Fergie’s parents, Major Ronald Ferguson and Susan Ferguson, had previously been invited to a photo shoot at the royal estate and are believed to have informed their daughter about what to do and not to stay with the Firm.
However, Seward said the young redhead fell into nervousness as she tried to impress her boyfriend’s parents – the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh – along with other royals.
“Her own mother and father had been in Sandringham to take pictures on the weekends and obviously they told her what to do, so she was not completely ignorant of how it was going to work, but she was nervous,” explains Seward.
When she entered the living room at Sandringham, she tripped over one of the Queen’s Corgis and spilled her drink.
‘And in her confusion, she thought,’ Who are all these people? ‘so she just bowed to everyone – but in that way, she knew she wasn’t making a mistake. ‘
Sarah Ferguson still lives with Prince Andrew at the Royal Lodge in Windsor (photo recently)
Relationship psychologist Anjula Mutanda tells how meeting your parents and wanting to make a good impression under pressure can lead some people to make nervous mistakes.
“You know everyone’s eyes are on you,” she says.
‘So I think she found herself in that feeling situation,’ I don’t know if they are going to like me, I also want them to adore me totally ‘. And all of this at once can be a pressure cooker for things to get monumentally wrong and I think in Sarah’s case it kind of worked.
However, after this strange introduction, Fergie worked to win over all the oldest members of the Firm, learning to drive carriages with Philip and riding with His Majesty.
“She learned to ride from a very young age and the Queen loves horses, and the fact that Fergie could accompany her on horseback was a big plus,” notes the editor of the Daily Mail at Large Richard Kay.
Prince Andrew and Fergie, who grew up in the same circles but reconnected in 1985, were married on July 23, 1986.
Fergie, depicted in green, on the occasion of Princess Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank in 2018
Unfortunately, the couple, who share two daughters, Princess Beatrice, 32, and Princess Eugenie, 30, broke up, with their relationship starting to disintegrate in the 1990s, leading to separation in 1992 and subsequent divorce in 1996.
The duke and duchess remained the “best friends” of their two daughters; they still live together at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, where they both passed the blockade.
However, their departure has led to a series of indiscretions that have caused Fergie to fall out of favor with royalty, especially the queen.
The documentary also recalls an incident that became known as ‘toegate’, where photos of a topless Fergie having her toes kissed by Texas millionaire John Bryan were published in the press.
Fergie’s relationship with the royal family suffered from the separation of Andrew in 1992 and the subsequent divorce in 1996. Center depicted (short hair) with Princess Diana, left, princes William and Harry as children, the queen, the queen mother, Princess Margaret and the Duke of Edinburgh on December 25, 1991 in Sandringham
The photos, which were released when Eugenie and Beatrice were with their father in Balmoral visiting the Queen, are believed to be the reason why Fergie was rejected by the Royal Family.
It also addresses the 2010 “cash for access scandal”, where Fergie allegedly promised a businessman that he would set up a £ 500,000 meeting with Prince Andrew.
Unbeknownst to the Duchess of York at the time, it was being recorded by reporters from the now extinct New of the World tabloid. The Duchess later filed a lawsuit to clear her name.
When Fergie Met Royalty airs on Saturday [February 6] at 9 pm on Channel 5.