It’s time to hit pause on the resurgence of 2016 nostalgia.
Instead, let’s journey back to 2015 and revisit an episode of The Meredith Vieira Show featuring Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York. During this broadcast, she controversially labeled Virginia Giuffre, a key accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, as a ‘salacious liar.’
At that time, Ferguson still held a royal title and her comments reflected a tone-deaf loyalty to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew. Her remarks came in response to Giuffre’s allegations that she was coerced into engaging in sexual activities with Andrew, who was then still recognized as the Duke of York. These allegations had recently been brought to light in a Florida court.
Ferguson expressed her disbelief on the show, stating, ‘I don’t understand how people can fabricate such salacious lies,’ describing her reaction as one of ‘total fury.’
She further insisted, ‘These shockingly accusatory lies… I won’t stand by and let anyone believe them. I have to shut it down immediately.’
Fast forward to today, with Andrew now facing arrest on charges related to misconduct in public office, one might wonder where Ferguson stands. Perhaps she’s contemplating the implications this saga holds for her, as her primary concern has often been herself.
That much was clear from that clip which, as they say, hasn’t aged well. More than that it shows this mother of two girls committing the most egregious breach of what might in a lighter moment be known as ‘girl-code’, but in this instance falls firmly into the territory of victim shaming and blaming.
She went on to describe her ex-husband, since stripped of his titles, as her ‘best friend’ and praise him as ‘one of the greatest men I’ve ever met in my life’ – which only makes one question yet further the company she keeps.
Well, there’s nothing like standing by your (ex) man. At the time of the chat show Fergie and Andrew had been divorced for close to two decades.
‘I don’t understand how people can make salacious lies up,’ she told the host
She went on to describe her ex-husband, since stripped of his titles, as her ‘best friend’ and praise him as ‘one of the greatest men I’ve ever met in my life’
But then, in Fergie’s case her unswerving devotion has always gone hand-in-hand with both a limpet-like grip on royal status and greed that has seen her lurch from one scandal to another.
And now over a decade on and the Yorks’ ‘truth’ seems as loose as Andrew’s turkey neck.
This week an unredacted email from 2015, released as part of the Epstein files, stated that Andrew had consensual sex with Giuffre, who had been allegedly sex-trafficked by the pedophile financier in the early 2000s.
Epstein did not correct the journalist who stated as a fact that the former prince slept with the trafficking victim, who took her own life last year.
Andrew for his part has always strenuously denied any impropriety with Giuffre, who he has repeatedly stated he has no recollection of even meeting.
Fergie’s indignant display on American TV in 2015 – ostensibly to plug her role as WeightWatchers ambassador – came seven years after Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in a Florida jail for pedophilia in 2011.
She maintained contact with him until after his release in 2011 and after she had publicly described her association with him as a ‘gigantic error of judgment.’
Clearly, two very different versions of the Fergie/Epstein relationship ran in parallel; one was the Duchess’s skin-saving PR spiel full of regret and condemnations. The other was her behind-the-scenes groveling to maintain a relationship and keep the financier’s handouts including $27,521 for rent.
I’m not sure what’s worse, her desperation to be bankrolled by the convicted pedophile – or her ‘marry me’ pleas which were probably far from a joke.
Not to mention the particularly unsavory email exchange in which she told Epstein her then-teenage daughter Eugenie was on a ‘shagging weekend’ – odd, misfiring humor or targeted titillation? Who knows.
The former prince photographed with Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor pictured in December 2025
In truth, by 2015, Fergie was a gaffe-prone grifter who had already clocked up decades of clangers and indignities. Yet her sanctimonious and dismissive response towards the accusations on US TV that year was a familiar approach.
Like many prominent women associated with tawdry scandals and cushioned by power and privilege they just never seem to see judgment day coming.
Instead, they brazen it out in a bid to maintain their gilded lives, defending their other halves while condemning younger, vulnerable women easy to deride as being ‘on the make’ or unhinged fantasists.
What about Hillary Clinton in the aftermath of husband Bill’s affair with 22-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky that dominated headlines throughout 1998 and led to his eventual impeachment?
She may have been a woman scorned but her priority was to fight against his impeachment and appear on NBC’s Today show, denying that her husband had an inappropriate affair and instead arguing that he was the victim of a politically motivated attack by his opponents.
Her husband famously said: ‘I did not have sexual relations with THAT woman’ and reduced Lewinsky – 27 years his junior – to little more than a distraction from the pressures of the office work life.
It was an ungallant but useful narrative and one which, it could be argued, Hillary supported reportedly calling the younger woman a ‘narcissistic loony tune’ according to private notes taken by her friend and aide, Diane Blair, at the time of the scandal and released many years later.
When asked about it in an interview with People magazine Hillary wouldn’t be drawn, saying simply: ‘I’m not going to comment on what did or didn’t happen.’
Yes, for all the brains and pantsuits, is it any surprise that Hillary never really did convince as a potential president?
Inevitably, the much-vaunted female empowerment rhetoric always sat uneasily with her actions when it came to her cheat husband. Was her dogged mission to be America’s first female president ultimately undone in part because of her wifely loyalty?
As for Fergie, how she must be hankering for the good old days when she was just a laughable mess of fashion faux pas and weight struggles. When the least of her worries was being photographed having her toes sucked by her ‘financial adviser’ and lover, Texan millionaire John Bryan, in 1992 or being embroiled in tabloid sting trying to sell access to Andrew.
Desperate for a proper return to public royal life, Sarah Ferguson played a very long game convinced dogged loyalty to Andrew would ultimately pay off.
It almost did. But, for now at least, it seems her undoing.
