THE Duchess of York has always had a unique talent for reinventing herself.
She has ridden a rollercoaster of Royal scandal for years with breathtaking sexual and financial indiscretions.
Somehow, she has always bounced back. But with the "cash for royal access"scandal, Sarah has plumbed new depths.
She has tried to use the good name of her ex-husband Prince Andrew— our country's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment—in return for a fistful of dollars.
I have known her well for 17 years. We first met when I joined her on a charity trip in the Himalayas in 1993. That's us in the picture above.
She undertook the mission—in aid of disabled climbers—off her own bat. She earned no money from it. It was typical Sarah—always keen, maybe too keen, to help those in need if she could.
She has raised millions, a lot of it commendably for needy children.
But the arrogance with which she tried to sell her links to Prince Andrew—and in doing so our royal family and country—in exchange for money is as astonishing as it is outrageous.
She is clearly desperate—without a "pot to p*ss in", she says. But that cannot excuse her behaviour, abusing her title and royal connections to feed her greater greed.
The last person to hold that title—Duchess of York—was Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. She was a woman who dedicated her long life to public service, loyally standing by King and country at our darkest hour in World War II, refusing to leave London in the Blitz.
Shame
The Queen Mother will be turning in her grave. Like a bad penny, Sarah keeps coming back to haunt the royals and embarrass her former mother-in-law the Queen, a woman she says she respects so much that she did not want to go to court to get a proper divorce settlement.
I am sure the Queen is rueing the day she did not dig a little deeper with a substantial clean break deal.
Sarah harks back to how Diana was paid off with £20million when she divorced Prince Charles. That is true. But given Sarah's track record, if she had received the same deal she would have probably blown the lot within the blink of an eye.
Sarah should hang her head in shame. Andrew has tried to support her, coming to her aid time and time again. She is even living in his country home, the Royal Lodge at Windsor, ironically once the Queen Mother's residence.
Andrew takes his trade ambassador's role seriously. When I interviewed him in his private office at Buckingham Palace this year he talked with passion about the need for ministers, businessmen and academics to pull together to enable British industry to be more successful.
He was proud of the work he does—and of his country. Now, through Sarah's greed, a decade's good work as super salesman for Great Britain PLC abroad has been put at risk.
Behind his back his desperate ex is trying to trade on his name, risking his and our country's reputation.
She has also exposed herself to possible blackmail and endangered royal security— including that of her own daughters Beatrice and Eugenie—all for "a lick of the spoon" to save her bacon, as she crudely put it.
It beggars belief. To many, especially the grey-suited royal courtiers who really run the Monarchy, Sarah has been a bad joke ever since the infamous toe-sucking pictures, ever since she threw bread rolls around the first-class cabin on a transatlantic aircraft. Perhaps, for many, ever since 'It's A Royal Knockout.'
But she has now plumbed new depths with grubby behaviour that might once have seemed beyond even her.
Her willingness to trade cachet for cash has drawn her to into the company of unsuitable characters. Even before we were tipped off about her behaviour, she boasted to a source that a "dangerous" contact had put her in touch with a businessman she claimed to have introduced to Andrew.
It's hard to believe today, but once upon a time Sarah Ferguson seemed like a good idea. When she married Prince Andrew in 1986, even the hard-to-please Duke of Edinburgh saw the daughter of Charles's risque polo manager Major Ronnie Ferguson as a breath of fresh air through a monarchy seen as out of touch.
She had a job, with a publishing firm. She had had at least two previous relationships, with a ski instructor, Kim Smith-Bingham, and a racing driver, Paddy McNally.
But the expectations were impossible. She has claimed that her royal marriage was doomed because she saw Andrew, a serving Naval officer then, an average of 40 days in each of the first five years. Without Andrew there to "protect" her, she was exposed. She was dubbed "The Duchess of Pork" after putting on weight. Her next nickname was "Freebie Fergie" after accepting gifts of clothes and holidays.
Sarah spoke publicly of how she "worshipped" her husband, was derided for leaving behind firstborn Beatrice when she joined him in Australia and was criticised for her many foreign trips. The 50-room house she had built in Sunninghill Park was dubbed "South York" after the glitzy mansion in TV's Dallas and branded vulgar.
She has always loved the jetset lifestyle. In 1990 she flew to Morocco in the private plane of American millionaire, Steve Wyatt, who was soon calling her "Mah woman"in his Texan drawl.
She was brazen about the relationship. In March 1992, photographs of the pair on holiday with Beatrice and Eugenie were discovered at a flat previously rented by Wyatt in Eaton Square.
It was the final straw. Within weeks, Andrew and Sarah's separation was announced.
Within months, that "scandal" was overshadowed by publication of photographs of the bare-breasted duchess having her toes sucked by her financial adviser, Wyatt's pal Johnny Bryan.
She later complained that the Palace "Old Guard" ganged up on her, later confirmed when the the Queen's former private secretary, the late Lord Charteris, described Fergie as "vulgar, vulgar, vulgar".
After a briefing at the Palace with two senior courtiers, a veteran BBC correspondent famously emerged to report: "The knives are out for Fergie at the Palace." They were, and it was the end of the marriage. She was stripped of her HRH title and hung out to dry. She was also in serious debt. After her divorce in 1996, she was said to have owed as much as £3 million to Coutts Bank. Sarah was forced to cash in on her royal name and reinvent herself in America.
She did so with aplomb—clearing her bank debt with a successful career in the US where she earned millions as the face of WeightWatchers until last year.
More recently, she produced the successful film "Young Victoria". She has also made TV films, documentaries, and touted herself on the lecture circuit.
But Brand Fergie finally came unstuck in the US, and last year she had to come home and seek refuge with loyal Andrew.
Last October we revealed how the debt-ridden duchess was forced to close her US business after losing at least £1.35 million.
She had to pull the plug on her lifestyle-and-promotions outfit Hartmoor LLC, based in New York, after failing to land any major endorsement deals despite bids to promote herself.
Then she fell out with her majority business partner, swanky US multimillionaire investment banker Todd Morley.
The once-close friends invested hundreds of thousands of pounds launching Hartmoor in a blaze of publicity in 2006. They were pictured at several US functions together as they pumped in more money and encouraged others to invest too.
Desperate
Sarah and Morley were forced to pay back creditors after taking out a loan understood to be as much as £667,000.
She has no home of her own, but has a trust fund, intellectual property such as her book character Budgie the Little Helicopter, antique art and furniture that could be used as surety.
The Duchess and Morley—who covered his losses out of his own pocket— were forced to pay thousands of dollars of unpaid US tax bills. Both refused to file for bankruptcy, as they feared that move would cause them "embarrassment". Instead they vowed to settle their huge debts.
Once again Sarah tried to bounce back. She announced that rights to her Little Red children's books had been sold to a Hollywood studio, and she flagged up that she was about to secure a deal to make a TV documentary series.
Now she is clearly desperate. She says she is close to bankruptcy.
One of the reasons—apart from her compulsive spending—is the fact that the British royal family hung her out to dry when she and Prince Andrew divorced in 1996.
She secured an absurdly paltry divorce deal—£15,000 a year, which was half his Royal Navy salary at the time. She was left with no house, no car, not even that pot.
The settlement was more about ensuring the couple's two daughters were cared for and permitting Fergie to stay friends with the royal family, the Queen in particular.
Now she has come back to haunt them once again, despite being excluded from royal family gatherings for years.
She is not on the guestlist for official events. Even at Christmas, her children go off to Sandringham without her.
Some have felt sorry for her. But she has exhausted any remaining sympathy today.
Clearly Prince Philip, who is the head of family matters for the Windsors, knows his ex-daughter—warts and all—better than anyone.
Now we know why he has been so determined to set her adrift. She is nothing more than a liability.
I agree. Sarah is a complete liability. She behaves like a spoiled child and shame on those who encourage it.
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