The image seen during video calls is recognizable yet markedly somber.

The former Duchess of York, last publicly spotted in London on December 12 at her granddaughter Athena Mapelli Mozzi’s christening, has seemingly vanished from the public eye since the resurgence of the Epstein scandal. Apart from rumored sightings in Dubai, Switzerland, and Ireland, she has kept a low profile.

Reportedly on a covert tour, Fergie is said to be staying with a series of discreet, affluent friends, maintaining connections with close confidants via FaceTime. Those who have seen her describe her appearance as ‘disheveled.’

“She’s not attending to her hair roots or keeping up with her Botox treatments,” one source notes with concern.

Despite reports of her presence in multiple countries, Fergie is determined to maintain a low profile. “She’s really struggling and appears anxious,” reveals a friend.

The same friend mentions that she juggles three different mobile phones, switching between them in an effort to remain undetected.

‘She has three phones and she goes cycling through them because she’s afraid that she might be being tracked. She is convinced that a lot of people wish her harm.’

There seems to be no in-person contact at all with daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, who according to Vogue writer Plum Sykes appeared looking glossy and glowing at a Cotswolds party last month, telling the assembled company that they were ‘doing fine’.

Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, has not been out in public since December. She is pictured in New York in 2023

Despite speculation that Sarah might move in with Beatrice and her family in the Cotswolds, their annexe – a converted cowshed – remains unoccupied.

And her relationship with her ex-husband, the former Prince Andrew, seems to have cracked under the immense pressure of their mutual disgrace, the extent of their links to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein having been finally exposed.

The friend says: ‘She and Andrew are on speaking terms but not talking that much. It is almost as if they have run away from each other. She is bobbing around with friends.’

Until the scandal entered its decisive stage last year, they were living together at Royal Lodge, formerly home to the Queen Mother, in Windsor, and Fergie liked to say they were the happiest divorced couple in the world. She didn’t go into exile with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, quite possibly because the King didn’t wish to extend any largesse towards Fergie, who has heaped one disgrace after another on the family.

We don’t know what’s on Andrew’s mind, but one would imagine that his investigation by police, who arrested him on his 66th birthday in February over alleged misconduct in public office, will loom large.

It emerged last week that detectives have asked Crown prosecutors for investigative advice. Their inquiries relate to Andrew’s period as a trade envoy, and the question of whether he leaked sensitive information to his friend, Epstein.

He will have a lonely Easter in his modest new quarters on the Sandringham estate, and will be nowhere near today’s traditional Easter Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, followed by a walkabout which the King and Queen and Prince and Princess of Wales will all attend.

Daughters Eugenie and Beatrice also won’t go – apparently by mutual agreement.

Eugenie stepped down from her role at the Anti-Slavery Collective charity last month and Beatrice faces questions over just how she afforded her jet-setting lifestyle in her 20s. Had either been bankrolled by Epstein’s millions? There is no comment on anything, from either.

We know that Epstein provided their mother with funds and flights – and that a grateful Fergie called him her ‘supreme friend’ and even urged him: ‘Marry me!’

Sarah’s relationship with her ex-husband, the former prince Andrew, seems to have cracked under the immense pressure of their mutual disgrace, writes Alison Boshoff

She also flew with both daughters to visit him in Florida immediately after he was released from prison in 2009.

There is, as you would expect, bitter regret from Sarah, who believes that she was a gullible fool rather than more culpably involved, even though some of their contact post-dates his conviction and jailing for sex offences involving an underaged girl.

A friend says: ‘She has been asking, “How am I going to get through this?”

‘She complains a lot about being broke – although I don’t know if that is broke in the sense that you or I would understand it. Her friends have been joking that they wouldn’t be surprised to find her selling her old handbags on Vinted.’

So who on earth is seeing Fergie these days – on FaceTime or in person?

While the answer is partly her society friends, who have huge homes and lots of money, she also has a surprisingly large circle of showbusiness and media chums, and some of them are wealthy enough to shelter her.

They range from A-listers such as Sir Elton John, Naomi Campbell and Demi Moore, whom she has known and cultivated for years, right down to the shallower reaches of the celebrity pond, where you find Fergie fans including the TV presenters Natalie Pinkham and Richard Bacon, and some of the more Euro-trash It-girl types, who know her through her daughters. Or, in the case of Lady Victoria Hervey, via a friendship with Andrew.

When Fergie’s daughter Eugenie married Jack Brooksbank in 2018, the guests included a dozen famous people, all of whom were ‘FoF’ – Friends of Fergie.

Kate Moss and her daughter Lila came. Moss had got to know Fergie initially through her association with the late socialite David Tang – both women would go to Tang’s lavish parties. The link was then cemented when Moss started dating Nikolai von Bismarck – his mother, the posh stylist Debonnaire, is a close friend of Fergie’s.

Count Gaddo della Gherardesca, 86 – the wealthy former partner of Sarah – snapped with the ex-duchess in 2016

Robbie Williams also became a friend of Fergie’s after they both took a freebie holiday on the yacht owned by Phones 4 U billionaire John Caudwell.

Again, a love of freebies brought Fergie close to Demi Moore – both women have taken gratis holidays on tycoon Richard Branson’s Necker Island. (Branson was moved to deny that Fergie was hiding out there earlier this year.) Moore was among the celebs who attended Eugenie’s wedding.

Many more showbiz friends and acquaintances enter the circle thanks to Sir Elton John. Fergie went to many of his ‘White Tie and Tiara’ parties, and this is where she met and became friendly with Victoria Beckham.

The then Prince Andrew later hosted Harper Beckham’s sixth birthday party at Buckingham Palace, which caused a storm when the Beckhams posted pictures of the celebrations.

Fergie also has an entree to the smart Delevingne set via mum Pandora, who was at school with Fergie and is one of her lifelong best friends.

‘A lot of people, including well-known people, are quietly still very loyal to her,’ says one. ‘Not that anyone is boasting about it, at this point.’

One source said last month that she was hiding at the Wiltshire home of her old flame Paddy McNally, now 88.

Princess Beatrice, Sarah Ferguson and Kate Moss attend Fashion For Relief 19 years ago

She dated the former racing driver and motorsports executive for three years before marrying Andrew, and the pair have remained close despite their 22-year age gap.

Fergie would no doubt be welcome in McNally’s other homes, in the Swiss ski resort Verbier and in St Tropez in the south of France.

However, another friend hears differently. He tells me: ‘She was in Devon at first, I don’t know with who. Then she went to Dubai, that was in February. Then she went to Austria and Switzerland. She’s staying in some place which is like a castle now, and apparently there is an Italian count looking after her.’

This could – just – be Count Gaddo della Gherardesca, 86, a wealthy former boyfriend who has an enormous family pile in Tuscany and is thought to have a ski lodge in Verbier.

His office did not respond to requests for comment.

Perhaps, though, the period of purdah is coming to an end. After all, as anyone who knows the former duchess can attest, Fergie is happiest when in the spotlight.

My source adds: ‘She says that she will come back soon.’

Those who have for decades witnessed her chutzpah would not be surprised at all. Whether her return would be welcomed by anyone but her oldest friends is another matter entirely.