Major Scandals That Will Always Haunt Prince Andrew And Sarah Ferguson

On October 17, 2025, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, would both lose their duchy of York titles. Two weeks later, King Charles III decided to initiate a process to strip Andrew of his prince titles. In practice, this means that the former couple will be referred to as Mr. Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Ms. Sarah Ferguson. In a statement, the king and queen hinted that the reason for this decision pertained to Andrew and Sarah Ferguson's ties to the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. "Their majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse," read the palace statement (via The Guardian).

While Mountbatten Windsor and Ferguson likely aren't thrilled with this decision, palace insiders know that it was a long time coming. According to royal expert Jennie Bond in an interview with Closer Weekly, Prince William has spearheaded the movement to boot Andrew and Ferguson from the firm. "William has been a strong voice in managing the Andrew problem — he is adamant that there is no way back for his uncle," she relayed. William's stance against the former Duke and Duchess of York did not originate with their most recent scandals. The pair has stirred up decades worth of royal controversies — making them a true liability to the crown.

The problems with the former Prince Andrew's reputation began early on in his career. In 1984, the then-prince traveled to Los Angeles in support of the British Olympic Association. However, on what was supposed to be a serious tour of Watts — where the historically significant Watts Rebellion had occurred almost two decades before — Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was anything but somber. At one point during the visit, he grabbed a paint gun and opened fire on the press. "I enjoyed that," Mountbatten Windsor said proudly as cameramen scrambled to inspect their damaged equipment. The event was largely understood to have reflected poorly on the crown. "[H]e showed the immature and arrogant personality behind the film-star looks," read a contemporary London Daily Mail report quoted in the UPI.

When Mountbatten Windsor returned to the City of Angels on a second royal tour four years later, he traveled with his then-wife, Sarah Ferguson. Ferguson was known for sharing Mountbatten Windsor's boisterous personality — and she sure showed it. During the trip, Ferguson broke serious protocol surrounding royal bathroom rules. While speaking to reporters, she divulged that beneath her fancy French clothes, she was sporting British underwear. As royal expert Kitty Kelley reported in her book "The Royals," Fergie dramatically declared, "'My knickers are from Marks and Sparks' ... using the nickname for Marks and Spencer, the budget department store where middle class British housewives shop" (via Express).

In June 1987, Queen Elizabeth II's youngest son, Prince Edward, organized a charitable game show called "It's a Royal Knockout." The idea was that high-ranking members of the royal family would perform a number of silly competitions with celebrities on national TV to raise money for important causes. Unfortunately, "It's a Royal Knockout" practically begged the royals to break protocol and behave in an overly casual manner. Reflecting on the incident years later in her tell-all, "My Story," Sarah Ferguson recalled, "My first high crime in the decorum department occurred in 1987, when everyone still adored me. It seemed just good family manners to participate, and Andrew and Anne agreed to go on as well. Everybody said it was okay" (via Daily Mail).

It was not.

The first sign that there was something amiss was Princess Diana and King Charles III's refusal to participate, but Ferguson didn't take the hint. "When Charles and Diana declined the invitation, I remember feeling miffed. I thought they were being most unsportsmanlike, not supporting the [royal] family as we should," she wrote in the same memoir. While filming the TV special, though, Sarah outshone everyone else — in a bad way. As royal expert Jennie Bond put it in the documentary, "Fergie vs. Diana: Royal Wives at War," "Sarah with her usual gusto entered into it ... with bells on" (via Mirror). Her enthusiastic performance, however, backfired. She embarrassed the royal family by shouting and screaming.

Sarah Ferguson's royal plummet began in 1992 — just six years after she joined the royal family and five months after she separated from the former Prince Andrew. At the time, she needed some space from her not-so-doting husband. As Andrew Mountbatten Windsor's former driver told Andrew Lownie for his book, "Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York," Mountbatten Windsor had cheated on Sarah with "more than a dozen women before their first anniversary." Another royal insider told Lownie, "Sarah discovered that Andrew wasn't coming home on some of his leave. He was going elsewhere — and this just drove her crazy." Andrew's absence also drove Ferguson into the arms of another man — a Texas millionaire by the name of John Bryan.

When Sarah and Bryan embarked on a romantic getaway at a mansion in France, they never imagined that the press would find them. However, photographers hid in the shrubbery behind the pool, resulting in an incriminating shot of Bryan kissing Fergie's toes. Because Ferguson and Mountbatten Windsor were still technically married at the time, this image was a disaster — portraying Fergie as utterly unroyal. The allegations around Mountbatten Windsor's infidelities, meanwhile, remained largely out of the press. According to Ferguson in her memoir "My Story," the palace may have had something to do with the photos. "My suspicions further told me that The Firm colluded with the press by leaking details of my whereabouts," she wrote (via Daily Mail).

Following his divorce from Sarah Ferguson, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was caught up in a photo scandal of his own. In 2001, photographers captured him dancing on a yacht in Thailand surrounded by topless women. At the time, the incident was viewed as an embarrassing instance of a royal exhibiting improper behavior. Since then, however, more information about Mountbatten Windsor's antics has emerged.

In conversation with Metro, Ian Proud, a high-ranking official at the U.K. Embassy in Thailand described Mountbatten Windsor's behavior as inappropriate by Thai standards. "[W]hen he wasn't working, he was entertaining himself in other, much more exotic ways, and this is where ... descriptions of conveyor belts of women comes in," Proud shared. The embassy employee later added, "For the prince, it was a very permissive environment, even though Thailand is actually a very socially conservative country despite the headlines."

It's important to note that most of Mountbatten Windsor's visits to Thailand were supposed to be professional in nature. In the same interview, Proud explained, "The prince would come out principally for royal engagements, such as for the Thai king's jubilee in 2006, but he also came out after the tsunami, to show support for the Thai government." But although the prince was supposed to be performing royal duties, his focus lay elsewhere. "When I was there he preferred a particular high end hotel because he liked the nightclub in the basement there with the floozies," Proud claimed.

The Thailand incident was not the last time that then-Prince Andrew was wrapped up in a lewd scandal. In 2025, it emerged that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor may have paid for sex back in the early 2000s. According to at least one source, Andrew's liaisons were organized by the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Speaking to Andrew Lownie for his book, "Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York," Epstein's then-housekeeper, Debra Gale, shared, "One night [Prince Andrew] took a Swedish girl to his bedroom. They spent the entire night together and most of the next day. When the girls would leave Andrew's bedroom, I'd give them an envelope Mr. Epstein left with anywhere from $1,000 to $25,000 in it."

Interestingly, Gale was not the only one of Epstein's associates who claimed to have seen Mountbatten Windsor in compromising circumstances. An anonymous couple who socialized with Epstein recall partying with Mountbatten Windsor at a particularly memorable event in the United States. When they spotted Mountbatten Windsor in a restaurant the following day, the duo felt caught off-guard. "I remember seeing him sitting at a table at the far end with these three young blond girls ... He immediately got up, I imagined to join us, but instead he said goodbye and left with them in tow. It was all very strange," they told Lownie for the same book. These claims certainly did not cast Mountbatten Windsor in the best light.

In 2010, Sarah Ferguson attended what she believed to be a business meeting. What she didn't know was that the so-called businessman whom she was set to meet was actually the famous undercover journalist Mazher Mahmood. During an intense financial conversation, Ferguson told Mahmood that she would sell him access to then-Prince Andrew for £500,000, or about $657,000 today. "That opens up everything you would ever wish for. I can open any door you want, and I will for you. Look after me and he'll look after you ... you'll get it back tenfold," Ferguson said in her pitch (via The Guardian).

Of course, when the scandal broke and Sarah's words were published in News of the World, the then-duchess was humiliated. "I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused. It is true that my financial situation is under stress; however, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment, and I am very sorry that this has happened," she said in a public apology. The then-duchess' fans were quick to claim that she had only acted out of desperation — she had reportedly accumulated £5 million ($6.5 million) in debt at the time. However, royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams, told the Daily Mail that this particular scandal just proved Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's desire to live in luxury, stating, "My feeling is that [they have remained united] because they are extremely greedy ... they desired a certain lifestyle."

When it came time to settle her debts, Sarah Ferguson didn't just attempt to sell access to then-Prince Andrew for half a million pounds. She also reached out to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein asking for a loan. In January 2011, it was revealed that Ferguson had accepted £15,000$20,000) from Epstein — although rumors surrounding Sarah Ferguson indicate the number may have been greater. Exact numbers aside, however, the fact remains that by the time Sarah reached out, Epstein had already been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. When the story broke, Ferguson claimed that she would disassociate from Epstein. As she told the Evening Standard in a grand apology, "Whenever I can I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again."

New documents released in 2025, however, show that Ferguson lied about her association with Epstein. According to leaked emails published by the Daily Mail, Sarah continued to exchange emails with Epstein after publicly disavowing him. One email sent from the convicted sex trafficker to the ex-duchess in August 2011 read, "When you first got in trouble you said to me, 'Jeffrey, I know that as I told everyone, you're either on the team or off. I knew you were always on my team.' That was right." Ferguson's response was even more telling: "I am on yours and you on mine. With great love and strength."

Sarah Ferguson was not the only royal accused of associating with Jeffrey Epstein. Evidence indicated that her ex-husband also maintained close ties to the convicted sex trafficker — a fact that has generated serious rumors and accusations about Prince Andrew. The late Virginia Giuffre — who was trafficked by Epstein — alleged that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor sexually assaulted her in 2001 when she was a minor. Writing in her posthumous memoir, "Nobody's Girl," Giuffre recalled that Andrew was "still entitled — as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright" (via The Guardian). Mountbatten Windsor has fiercely denied these allegations.

In 2021, Giuffre filed a civil suit against Andrew in hopes of holding him responsible for sexual assault. In 2022, the ex-prince agreed to pay her a whopping £12 million settlement — or about $16 million at the time. The settlement stipulated zero admission of guilt from Mountbatten Windsor but did recognize Giuffre's status as a survivor of sexual violence.  Naturally, this agreement also had an enormous impact on Mountbatten Windsor's reputation. As legal expert Caleb Wheeler told The Conversation, "It is likely that some people will construe this settlement as an admission of guilt. The reasoning goes, who would pay £12 million if they didn't do it?" Wheeler, however, noted that the court case was a civil one that didn't seek to prove Mountbatten Windsor's guilt. "From a legal standpoint, innocence and guilt are criminal law terms and not really applicable in the civil context," Wheeler shared.

Because of their ties to Jeffrey Epstein, some royal experts say that ex-Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson could bring down the monarchy. The reality is that neither one of the former Yorks really seemed worried about the future of the royal family when they were rubbing shoulders with a convicted sex trafficker. Even after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor seemed keen on maintaining a friendship with the New Yorker. 

Emails between Mountbatten Windsor show that the two communicated in February 2011 after a photograph of Mountbatten Windsor and Virginia Giuffre hit the press. "I'm just as concerned for you! Don't worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it," the ex-prince wrote to Epstein, according to the Daily Mail. "Otherwise keep in close touch and we'll play some more soon!!!!"

These emails not only hint at Mountbatten Windsor's potential involvement in Epstein's sordid universe but also pose real questions about Mountbatten Windsor's value to the British monarchy. Over the years, it seems, Mountbatten Windsor has embarrassed Great Britain more than he has uplifted it. As the historian A.N. Wilson told the Daily Mail, "His very existence as an official royal is a scandal. So they must cast him out, for if they show him mercy, they are themselves implicated, and we are only a hair's breadth away from a republic."

The former Prince Andrew did not only disgrace himself by rubbing shoulders with Jeffrey Epstein. He also may have forged ties with a potential Chinese spy. A High Court investigation into accused spy Yang Tengbo revealed that Tengbo had been in contact with Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. The two men were said to have socialized at events like birthday parties. It was also discovered that Mountbatten Windsor gave Tengbo the green light to act as his representative for business dealings in China. 

The strangest thing about then-Prince Andrew and Tengbo's dealings, however, was a message to Tengbo from one of the former's staffers. "[W]e have wisely navigated our way around former private secretaries and we have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don't completely trust ... we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor," the letter read, according to The Guardian. In light of the scandal, Mountbatten Windsor's office released a statement distancing the then-duke from Tengbo. "The Duke of York followed advice from His Majesty's government and ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised," read the document (via The Guardian). This scandal only intensified public scrutiny surrounding Mountbatten Windsor and his activities. It's no wonder the former Prince Andrew won't be invited to Prince William's coronation.