'I worked for the Royal Family – Sarah Ferguson had savage nickname for men in Palace'

As relative outsiders within the Royal Family, Sarah Ferguson and Diana, Princess of Wales, formed a close alliance in the early 1980s, according to Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell.

They shared resentment towards the faceless Palace officials who placed limits on what they could and couldn’t do, even coming up with a wry nickname for them.

Burrell, writing in his latest book Royal Insider, claims: “They would discuss the dour men in grey suits within the Royal Household, nicknamed ‘the enemy within.’”

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He added: “Diana, having been in the Royal Family for five years, was able to offer Sarah some sage advice on the dos and don’ts, whom she could trust, and a rather lengthy list of those with whom she should be cautious. It was tragic that the relationship between them disintegrated after the publication of Sarah's autobiography, My Story, in 1996.”

The always cash-strapped Ferguson had signed with publishers Simon & Schuster for a hefty advance—variously reported as between £800,000 and £1.5 million.

At the time, company boss Michael Korda proudly stated: “We are delighted to have this unique opportunity of publishing a book in which the Duchess of York describes herself and her experiences as they were, rather than as they have been portrayed.”

It later emerged that Ferguson had promised the publishers: “See me right, and I'll get you Di as well.”

Author Andrew Lownie claims in his 2025 book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York that the publisher offered her an additional £1 million if she could persuade Diana to write a book of her own.

A Simon & Schuster executive said: “The Di idea just grew out of the discussion. We explained we would expect Fergie to deliver an account of her close friendship with Diana. She then said maybe she could get Diana to write her own story for us.”

Ferguson was increasingly keen to find new sources of income, as her reliance on wealthy friends to bail her out became more difficult with each one who abandoned her.

Even Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who had reportedly settled Sarah's debts on a number of occasions, declined to continue underwriting Ferguson’s endless shopping sprees.

A statement released from Buckingham Palace at the time read: “The Duchess's financial affairs are no longer Her Majesty's concern. These are matters which the Duchess of York must discuss and resolve with her bankers and other financial advisers… The Duchess's business ventures are conducted quite separately from any Royal duties.”

Lily Mahtani, wife of John Spencer-Churchill, the 11th Duke of Marlborough, took legal action in February 1996 after Ferguson repaid her just £5,000 of a £100,000 loan, claiming that she had assumed the remaining sum had been a gift.

Shortly after this, reported the New York Times, the Duchess of York stuck a memo to the wall of her £6,000-a-month rented mansion, setting out a new money-saving regime. From then on, the staff had to tighten their belts, and the Duchess set herself a new spending limit of just £24,000 a month.

At the time, Ferguson was the most-travelled member of the Royal Family, reportedly covering almost 205,000 miles—the equivalent of eight round-the-world trips—between July 1994 and July 1995.

Lownie states that her assistant, Christine Gallagher, had once been sent on a transatlantic flight on Concorde, at a cost of £5,000, to bring her some paperwork.

Ferguson’s lavish spending was not all on herself. She also gave extravagant gifts to friends, employees, and hangers-on. She reportedly commissioned dozens of custom-made key rings adorned with her personal crest from a top London jeweller to hand out to people who worked on her Children in Crisis charity.

But today, the charities that were once proud to have the 65-year-old duchess as a patron are deserting her in droves following renewed claims of her association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Children’s hospice Julia’s House has cut all ties with her. The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, British Heart Foundation, The Children’s Literacy Charity, Prevent Breast Cancer, and National Foundation for Retired Service Animals have also dropped the Duchess from her role as patron. The Teenage Cancer Trust, which she first supported when it opened its first unit in 1990, confirmed she had been removed from their list of patrons.