Sarah Ferguson, widely known as Fergie, once remarked that she found herself emulating her late sister-in-law Princess Diana, especially admiring Diana’s remarkable talent for effortlessly engaging with people in social settings.

But the similarities between the two Royal women could now also extend towards the high-profile demise of their respective relationships.

It is said that Fergie’s marriage to Prince Andrew began to fall apart following the birth of their second child. During her pregnancy with Eugenie, she was reportedly involved in a clandestine relationship with American businessman Steve Wyatt.

These revelations are detailed in Andrew Lownie’s explosive biography titled “Entitled,” which draws notable parallels to Princess Diana’s own tumultuous marriage to the now King Charles, a relationship that similarly deteriorated after Prince Harry was born.

The late Princess Diana, tragically passing away in Paris in 1997, had also engaged in a long-term extramarital relationship with former cavalry officer James Hewitt, beginning in 1986, a couple of years after Prince Harry’s birth.

In a groundbreaking 1995 BBC Panorama interview, Diana openly acknowledged the affair. Her marriage to Charles commenced in 1981, with their separation in 1992 leading to a formal divorce in 1996.

But unlike Diana, known as the beloved ‘People’s Princess’, Fergie was dubbed ‘Her Royal Excess’ due to her frivolous and impulsive spending habits.

During her marriage, she is said to have spent wildly on staff, holidays, parties and flowers – with no regard for settling bills.

The Duchess reportedly had debts in excess of £3.7million by 1994 and became well-known for running up huge bills in stores such as Harrods without paying.

Last week, the Duchess found herself involved in what could be her most damaging scandal to date after a newly uncovered email from 2011 revealed that she had apologised to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein less than two months after telling journalists: ‘I will never have anything to do with (Epstein) again.’

Since the revelation, exposed by the Mail on Sunday, was made public, seven charities have dropped the duchess as a patron. 

Other charities are reportedly reviewing their positions following the publication of her grovelling messages to the notorious sex predator whom she referred to her as a ‘supreme friend’.

But Fergie, who wed Prince Andrew at Westminster Abbey in 1986, is no stranger to a scandal, with Lownie describing the Duchess as being ‘receptive to falling in love’ during her marriage.

She was first introduced to Steven Wyatt, son of socialite Lynn Wyatt, at a British festival in Houston in November 1989.

Revealing the details of their first meeting, Mr Lownie states: ‘Sarah, bored and lonely, was attracted to Wyatt, then in his late thirties, with his thatch of brown hair, soft blue eyes and rich hypnotic voice, and shared interest in alternative medicine.’

Meanwhile, one individual who was present for the meeting between the two, recalled: ‘It was obvious she was enormously attracted to him… There was a clear chemistry between them.’

Lownie claims that the next day the Duchess, clearly infatuated by Mr Wyatt, flew 200 miles to his 16,000-acre ranch near the Rio Grande. 

And, when she contacted her friend for advice on the extramarital affair, the friend said that while they advised Fergie against it, they knew they were bound to be ignored. 

The friend, who has remained anonymous, said: ‘I think that was the moment I first understood how little control she has over her impulses, her blind instincts. She holds nothing back’. 

David Leigh, co-author of Duchess of York: Uncensored has even alleged that Mr Wyatt, rather than Andrew, was the ‘love of her life’ and that she became ‘head over heels’ infatuated with the businessman. 

He added: ‘Steve Wyatt was the main reason for the breakdown of her marriage. She met him at a time of her life when she was exceptionally low and felt Andrew wasn’t supporting her.’

On her return back to New York, travelling via one of Wyatt’s private jets to promote her book Budgie: The Little Helicopter, she was said to have been carrying 51 pieces of excess baggage at a cost of around £33,000.

While the Duchess insisted they were Christmas presents, Fergie was increasingly struggling to shake her infamous ‘Royal Excess’ title.

Concerns were increasingly raised regarding the excessive amount of police protection both her and Prince Andrew were using – at an annual cost of £1million, Lownie adds.

But while it was hoped that the birth of the young princess may have helped to repair her relationship with Andrew, such aspiration failed to come to fruition. 

Lownie added: ‘It was the moment the sexual side of their marriage ended. Their mutual attraction had always been physical and without it the relationship crumbled.

‘She was now deeply involved with Wyatt who provided the emotional security she had been missing’.

Indeed, just six weeks after giving birth, Fergie was pictured on a five-day holiday with Mr Wyatt in Morocco. According to Lownie, the pair, alongside several others, stayed at the luxurious resort of Gazelle d’Or, which enjoyed views of the picturesque Atlas Mountains. 

Meanwhile, Fergie’s unwavering commitment to her lover extended towards hosting a dinner at Buckingham Palace for Dr Ramzi Salman, head of the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organisation and confidant of Sadam Hussein.

The exclusive dinner was, Lownie notes, held in August 1990, the same month Iraq invaded Kuwait. 

Shortly after, at a dinner party hosted by Lord McAlpine at upmarket Mayfair restaurant Le Gavroche, a diner recalled witnessing both Fergie and Mr Wyatt engaging in ‘a display of mutual fondling I have never seen before in a three-star restaurant’. 

But the striking similarities between both Fergie and the late Diana can also be extended further – specifically, towards their respective use of mediums and spiritual advice.

Indeed, while being enthralled in a passionate love affair, the Duchess was understood, in the early nineties, to have consulted Greek clairvoyant Madame Vasso and sat under a giant blue pyramid to become ‘cleansed’.

Vasso later betrayed the Duchess of York with a book which aired the secrets of her extramarital affairs, the squalid state of her finances and her views on her in-laws.

Written with David Leigh, Duchess of York: Uncensored was based on tapes of confidential conversations over the six years that the Duchess sought her advice and counsel.

It presented her as an unhappy and foolish woman obsessed with sex, money and crystal balls.

Already obsessed with the paranormal, she was portrayed as dependent on her ‘little Greek friend’ – ringing at all hours of the day and night, begging her to get out the tarot cards and predict her future.

After this, in 2010, the Duchess put her faith in the predictions of Isle of Sheppey soothsayer Mia Dolan who won the paranormal edition of Celebrity Weakest Link, and promised the Duchess her financial problems would soon end.

Fergie was so certain of Dolan’s powers that she stuck a notice in her Windsor home saying: ‘I will rise like the phoenix from the ashes.’

An ex-aide said: ‘The Duchess told us in a call from America she was devastated to lay us off, but she would soon be in a position to give us our jobs back.’

When Dolan, who charged £150 for every session, heard the news had got out that she had a royal client, she was horrified.

She said: ‘I have a lot of A-list clients but I have never said a word in public about any of them.’

Most recently it was reported that the Duchess said she believed the late Queen has been communicating to her through her dogs’ barking.

Sarah adopted the late Queen’s corgis, Muick and Sandy, with ex-husband Prince Andrew in 2022, housing them at the Royal Lodge in Windsor.

‘I have her dogs, I have her corgis. Every morning they come in and go, “woof woof” and all that and I’m sure it’s her talking to me’, she said.

‘I’m sure it’s her, reminding me she’s still around.’

The late Princess Diana was first encouraged to speak with a spiritual advisor by her in-laws, Andrew and Sarah.

In 1986, the couple referred the Princess of Wales, tortured over her failing marriage to Prince Charles and the pressures of royal life, to astrologer Penny Thornton.

‘I just wanted to see,’ she told Thornton, ‘if there is light at the end of the tunnel.’

At the inquest into Diana’s death it was noted that Diana’s reliance on spiritual advisors offered companionship and a sense of comfort during a difficult time – but also fueled her paranoia.

The inquest heard Diana was obsessed with clairvoyants – including one she dubbed ‘Fergie’s witch woman’.

The identity of the ‘witch woman’ was not revealed in court.

But it is likely to be either psychic Rita Rogers, who also met Diana through the Duchess and told her the brake cables of her car would be cut, or Madame Vasso, the Greek mystic who later betrayed the Duchess of York.