Sarah Ferguson returned to the public eye last week, attending the memorial service for her former partner and long-time confidant, motor-racing entrepreneur Paddy McNally, after spending a year largely out of sight.
The 67-year-old is now understood to be settling back into life in the UK and keeping a low profile as she considers her next steps. She is also said to remain on cordial and supportive terms with her disgraced former husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
A spokesman told People magazine: “She’s happy spending time with her family and focusing on her relocation.”
The former Duchess of York is believed to be renting a six-bedroom home in a gated Home Counties community for £10,000 a month. The move follows several months living elsewhere in Europe while she stayed out of the spotlight amid the Epstein controversy.
Sarah has been embracing family life and spending time with her grandchildren, her spokesman added. She has also been seeing her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who attended Mr McNally’s thanksgiving service in her company last Thursday.
It is not known whether Sarah has met her former husband, previously known as Prince Andrew, since returning to Britain. However, the American publication reported that the pair remain in contact.
“They have an ongoing cordial and supportive relationship as co-parents and co-grandparents,” the former Duchess’s spokesman said.
Sarah has previously described herself and her former husband as “the happiest divorced couple in the world”, highlighting the strength of their family relationship despite a six-year marriage marked by scandal and infidelity.
Sarah Ferguson attends a memorial service for Paddy McNally at St Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, on October 29
Fergie and Andrew are grandparents to Eugenie’s newborn daughter, Adelaide Elizabeth Annina, who was born in August, as well as her sons August Philip Hawke, five, and Ernest George Ronnie, three. Eugenie shares the boys with her husband, Jack Brooksbank.
Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, have two daughters, Sienna Elizabeth, five, and Athena Elizabeth Rose, 22 months. Beatrice is also stepmother to Edoardo’s son, Christopher “Wolfie” Woolf, from a previous relationship.
Sarah did not attend Mr McNally’s funeral service in July, instead sending her daughter Princess Beatrice to represent her. The Knightsbridge memorial, however, offered the former Duchess an opportunity to reconnect with the public.
The appearance came almost a year to the day after the privileged and comfortable life she had long taken for granted began to unravel. In that time, she lost her position and title as Duchess of York, her home and her role as charities and businesses moved to cut ties with her.
Unlike her former husband, who was stripped of his princely title and HRH style and required by the King to leave Royal Lodge, Andrew was given a home on the Sandringham estate. Fergie, by contrast, was offered no such refuge.
Until Thursday, Sarah had reportedly been seen in public only once in 15 months. That sighting came when she was found staying at a remote £2,000-a-night spa in the Austrian Alps, where loyal friends described her voluntary retreat as a period of “recalibrating”.
The former Duchess suffered a dramatic fall from grace last year after The Mail on Sunday published emails that exposed the depth of her relationship with the late American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Although Sarah publicly distanced herself from Epstein, private messages showed that she had referred to him as a “supreme friend” and apologised profusely after criticising him.
The most damaging revelations, which prompted widespread public condemnation, concerned her daughters.
Sarah and former Prince Andrew attend the Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse in 2019
Only days after Epstein completed a 13-month sentence for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2009, Ferguson took Beatrice and Eugenie, then aged 20 and 19, to meet him in the United States. Their flights had been paid for by Epstein.
Following the publication of those and other shocking emails by the MoS, the King stripped Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of their titles and removed them from Royal Lodge, the grace-and-favour residence in Windsor Great Park that they had shared.
Charities including children’s hospice Julia’s House, Prevent Breast Cancer, the British Heart Foundation, the Teenage Cancer Trust and the National Foundation for Retired Service Animals subsequently dropped Sarah as a patron.
Fergie spent seven months outside the UK and was seen in several European locations, including Switzerland and Austria, as she maintained a low profile amid the continuing fallout from the Epstein controversy.
Last month, Sarah’s spokesman rejected claims that she was close to securing a multimillion-pound deal for a tell-all book about the Royal Family.
Although Fergie is believed to be determined to repair her damaged reputation and hopes to be welcomed back by the public, her spokesman said she had no plans to write a tell-all memoir.
The denial followed a report in The Sun claiming that a chapter-by-chapter outline for the proposed book had already been prepared. It was said to draw on detailed notes about several “key” royal figures, including her former husband, King Charles, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Epstein.
Sarah rejected the claim in a rare public statement.
Before Andrew, Paddy McNally was the man closest to Sarah. They met after Fergie was hired to care for Mr McNally’s young sons, Sean and Rollo, following the death of his wife, Anne, in 1980.
The pair began a romantic relationship, although McNally never asked her to marry him. At the time, he was building the fortune he made in partnership with Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone. Together, they transformed corporate hospitality at racetracks around the world by launching the Paddock Club.
His wealth allowed him to enjoy an extravagant lifestyle, particularly in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier, where he owned three chalets. One was known, euphemistically, as “Cocaine Castle”.
McNally also owned a Scottish grouse moor, a Wiltshire estate that had once been the country home of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, and a substantial villa in St Tropez.
In recent months, Mr McNally made his properties in Switzerland and the south of France available to Fergie as she moved between safe houses while keeping out of public view. Some have speculated that he may also have left her part of his £600 million fortune.
“Paddy was my father figure, 22 years older than me,” Fergie once said. “He taught me so much about life. Whenever I wanted advice, I turned to him because he was so worldly wise. He seemed to have seen and done everything.”
After making her first public appearance in Britain for many months, Fergie may need that advice more than ever.
