Long before her association with the notorious Jeffrey Epstein led to her departure from the royal milieu, Sarah Ferguson faced another significant scandal that nearly derailed her position and public image 33 years ago.

Known affectionately as ‘Fergie’, Sarah became part of the royal family when she married Andrew Mountbatten Windsor in a grand ceremony at Westminster Abbey, London, in July 1986. This royal spectacle captivated an audience of 500 million viewers globally.

Their union, however, was soon marred by controversy when, in January 1992, photographs surfaced revealing Sarah with Texan oil magnate Steve Wyatt.

A collection of 120 pictures quickly found their way to the media, capturing the former Duchess of York and the American socialite enjoying a sun-drenched escapade in May 1990.

Though the images might have seemed benign at first glance, they sparked intense speculation about the true nature of their ‘complex’ connection, particularly as one image depicted Sarah and Andrew’s young daughter, Princess Beatrice, perched on Wyatt’s knee.

In response to the scandal, royal author Nigel Cawthorne reports that Buckingham Palace acted decisively, with the late Queen instructing Fergie to immediately sever ties with Mr. Wyatt.

Writing in his book, War of the Windsors: The Inside Story, Mr Cawthorne claimed Fergie rebelled against her mother-in-law’s wishes, with reports at the time suggesting she visited Mr Wyatt’s flat on two more occasions. 

Ultimately, the photographs confirmed what had been speculated for some time: Sarah and Andrew’s fairytale love story was officially over, as the pair announced their separation less than two months later on March 19, 1992. 

In January 1992, up to 120 photographs of Sarah Ferguson (right) and Texan oil tycoon Steve Wyatt (left) on holiday together in Morocco in May 1990 were discovered in his flat

The snaps raised serious questions about the nature of their ‘complex’ relationship – especially after one snap showed Sarah and Andrew’s then-one-year-old daughter Princess Beatrice sitting on the businessman’s knee

According to David Leigh, co-author of Duchess of York: Uncensored, Mr Wyatt, son of socialite Lynn Wyatt, ‘was the main reason for the breakdown’ of Andrew and Fergie’s marriage.

The royal expert added that the former Duchess was ‘head over heels’ for the tycoon whom she believed was the ‘love of her life’, rather than Andrew.

‘She met him at a time of her life when she was exceptionally low and felt Andrew wasn’t supporting her,’ he wrote. 

Fergie and Mr Wyatt’s rumoured affair first began when the pair were introduced at a festival in Houston in November 1989 while the then-Duchess was heavily pregnant with her second daughter, Princess Eugenie. 

Writing in Entitled, royal author Andrew Lownie detailed how one individual who had been present for their first meeting recalled ‘there was a clear chemistry between them’. 

The day after the festival, Sarah, now 66, made her infatuation with the businessman abundantly clear when she flew more than 200 miles to Mr Wyatt’s 16,000-acre ranch near the Rio Grande, Mr Lownie added. 

Barely two months after giving birth to Eugenie in March 1990, Fergie jetted to Morocco with her young children to resume her affair with Mr Wyatt at the luxurious Gazelle d’Or resort overlooking the Atlas Mountains. 

Fergie’s relations with Mr Wyatt raised further eyebrows when she introduced him to Dr Ramzi Salman, then head of the Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organisation, at a Buckingham Palace dinner.

The photographs of Fergie and Mr Wyatt (pictured) confirmed what had been speculated for some time: Sarah and Andrew’s love story was officially over. They publicly announced their separation on March 19

According to David Leigh, co-author of Duchess of York: Uncensored, Mr Wyatt (pictured with Sarah in 1992), ‘was the main reason for the breakdown’ of Andrew and Fergie’s marriage

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

Shortly after the Palace dinner, the pair were also spotted at another upmarket dinner party hosted by Lord McAlpine at a luxurious restaurant in Mayfair.

According to the royal author, one diner recalled Fergie and Mr Wyatt engaging in ‘a display of mutual fondling I have never seen before in a three-star restaurant’.

Yet it wasn’t long before Fergie and Mr Wyatt’s romance fell apart, and she later began an alleged relationship with her financial adviser and cousin by marriage, John Bryan. 

In August 1992, five months after her separation from Andrew had been publicly announced, Sarah flew by private jet to the French Riviera with Mr Bryan and young princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

The holiday would culminate in a scandal so vast that it would later draw comparisons to the Abdication Crisis that had rocked the Royal Family 60 years earlier.

Lying on a sunbed in St Tropez, Mr Bryan was pictured kissing and sucking Fergie’s toes under the damning headline: ‘Fergie’s Stolen Kisses: Truth About the Duchess and the Texas Millionaire’.

It remains a mystery who tipped the paparazzi off about the pair’s remote location, yet the notorious photographs had grave consequences for a rather distraught Fergie.

Fergie and Mr Wyatt’s rumoured affair first began when the pair were introduced at a festival in Houston in November 1989. The American oil tycoon (pictured with sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell prior to her conviction) is the son of socialite Lynn Wyatt

According to royal author Nigel Cawthorne, Buckingham Palace’s reaction to the photos was swift, as the late Queen (pictured with Sarah) immediately ‘ordered Fergie’ to cease all contact with Mr Wyatt.

After Fergie and Mr Wyatt’s romance fell apart, she began an alleged relationship with her financial adviser and cousin by marriage, John Bryan (pictured left) in 1992

Indeed, Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell even claimed that the late Prince Philip temporarily ‘banned’ Fergie from all of the royal residences following their publication. 

Yet it wasn’t just Fergie who was believed to have engaged in extramarital affairs during her turbulent marriage.

According to Mr Lownie, Andrew – who has since been stripped by the King of his royal titles due to his friendship with Epstein – slept with ‘more than a dozen women’ during the first year of his marriage. 

He alleged that close friends claimed Andrew had ‘accepted his wife’s infidelities and that his marriage was over’ and that the former prince ‘would dine alone off a tray in his study while Sarah and one of her lovers ate together elsewhere in the house’.

Yet, according to the royal expert, Fergie was not quite so forgiving of Andrew’s lovers. 

Mr Lownie claimed: ‘Sarah was jealous of any of Andrew’s girlfriends. She wanted to remain “The One”, with all the perks that brought, and girlfriends were invariably dethrough a mixture of charm and ruthlessness.’

In 1996, Andrew and Fergie’s divorce was officially finalised, with the former Duke and Duchess now free to go their separate ways entirely.

Yet the pair continued to spend ample amounts of time together, and have even lived in the same residence, Windsor’s Royal Lodge, since 2008. 

In August 1992, Fergie and John Bryan became enthralled in a notorious ‘toe sucking’ scandal that saw the former Duchess’s public image thrown into further disarray. (Pictured: Fergie appeared tearful at her first public appearance following the scandal)

According to royal author Andrew Lownie writing in Entitled, Andrew slept with ‘more than a dozen women’ during the first year of his marriage to Fergie (Pictured: the couple on their wedding day in July 1986)

However, this arrangement will soon end. After they were stripped of their titles, the King also ordered Andrew and Fergie to vacate the 30-room Grade II listed mansion they have called home for nearly 20 years. 

While the disgraced ex-Duke will be banished to a private home on the monarch’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, Fergie will now be forced to ‘make her own arrangements’, according to sources.

An alleged friend previously told the Daily Mail: ‘The honest truth is that she has nowhere to go and no one to go with. Her future is hanging in the balance.’ 

Another source said: ‘People don’t want to be associated with her any more’.

It came after it was revealed that in April 2011, less than two months after she told journalists she would ‘never have anything to do with (Epstein) again’, the former Duchess ‘humbly apologised’ to the convicted sex offender for letting him down. 

After the damning email correspondence was publicly exposed in September 2025, the former Duchess was dropped by seven charities, including the Teenager Cancer Trust, which she had backed since 1990, and the British Heart Foundation.

Her spokesperson, James Henderson, claimed that the email was sent in a desperate bid to protect Beatrice and Eugenie after Epstein had threatened to destroy the family in a ‘chilling’ phone call.