Sarah Ferguson has ‘divorced’ Prince Andrew and it’s paying off for the Duchess of York with an increasingly prominent role in the royal family after years of loyalty to her embattled ex-husband

She was relegated to the sidelines for years after her high-profile divorce from Prince Andrew in 1996, but now Sarah Ferguson appears to be firmly back in the royal circle.

The 64-year-old Duchess of York, still affectionately known to most as Fergie, was invited to the King’s Coronation Concert in May and spent Christmas at Sandringham, where she walked to church with members of the royal family.

As if that wasn’t enough to prove that the mother of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie has been brought in from the cold, she took center stage at the memorial service for the late King Constantine of Greece at Windsor Castle yesterday.

In an extraordinary turnaround after being barred from royal duties by his mother, the late Queen, and stripped of his HRH and military titles just two years ago, 64-year-old Andrew led the Firm to St. George’s Chapel – and his ex-wife was right. his side.

“Prince Andrew and the Yorks are firmly back in the fold,” a royal watcher told MailOnline after the Duke and Duchess’ joint appearance at the service.

The extraordinary reversal of fortune for Sarah – which would have been unthinkable if Prince Philip were still alive – is attributed to the King rewarding her loyalty and the Duchess finding a powerful advocate in Queen Camilla.

A source told The Mail On Sunday earlier this month: ‘There is a feeling that whatever Sarah’s personal faults – and she can be like Marmite in that respect – she has been a good mother to the girls and loyal to Andrew. ‘

A friend of Charles echoed this sentiment, telling The Daily Mail’s Richard Kay in December: “[The King] has always valued loyalty and he appreciates everything Fergie has done for his brother.

“It may be an exaggeration to say she kept him alive, but she certainly kept him healthy. Imagine what Andrew would be like without Sarah, who despite everything is one of life’s optimists?’

In the four years since Andrew fell from grace due to his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, no one has been more supportive of him than his ex-wife, who has not shied away from publicly defending him.

The king – who softened his approach to Sarah last year – also admires the way the duchess has restored her own reputation while keeping her family together.

The royal family is unlikely to have forgotten the ‘toe-sucking’ photos of Fergie, taken while she was on holiday with her Texan tycoon lover, nor the way she offered Andrew access in return for cash and got caught in a newspaper sting.

But in recent times the Duchess – who still lives with Andrew at the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park in Berkshire – has found a powerful advocate in the King’s wife, who “likes Sarah,” a source said.

The insider told Mail On Sunday earlier this month: ‘They are both royalty. They share a love of horses and Fergie will be smart enough to play the game with Camilla and realize that she is the power behind the king. That she should be nice to them and support them.’

In December, the Duke and Duchess of York walked behind seniors as crowds lined the road outside St Mary Magdalene Church for the traditional Christmas Day service at the Norfolk estate.

It was the first time in 32 years that Fergie had joined the royals for the walk, after Prince Philip banned him from attending.

According to his biographer Gyles Brandreth, she was ‘out of bounds’ as far as Philip was concerned, and ‘vulgar, vulgar, vulgar’ as one courtier memorably said.

For years, her ex-husband took their daughters to royal family celebrations without Sarah. She wasn’t even on the guest list for Prince William and Kate’s wedding in 2011, with the rest of her immediate family attending the glittering occasion.

In a 2021 interview with Town & Country, the Duchess revealed that she herself felt she was not “worthy” of attending the event and left the country.

‘I didn’t think I was worth going to their wedding. I actually took myself to Thailand to get away from it so I could try to heal,” she said.

But the attitude towards Fergie softened somewhat in 2018, when she was invited to Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle.

Sarah was then invited to the coronation concert as a ‘VIP visitor’ in May 2023, according to reports from The Sun. Although she was not allowed to attend the coronation itself; her daughters and Prince Andrew attended the historic Westminster Abbey event.

Meanwhile, Camilla was the highest-ranking royal at the event for the late King Constantine of Greece yesterday, while her husband King Charles was absent as his cancer treatment continued.

But after Prince William pulled out of the service at St George’s Chapel at the last minute for unspecified ‘personal reasons’, Prince Andrew was left as the second-highest royal gift, leaving others including Princess Anne, Zara and Mike Tindall, led on foot. .

Phil Dampier told MailOnline: ‘It’s very special that Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson were front and center as they walked into the chapel, almost like old times.

‘Yes, it was a private family event, but it was a big turnout of royals that was seen by the public.’

It is understood that the Duke of York attended the service as a member of the British Royal Family and was invited by the Greek Royal Family, and as such yesterday’s appearance was not an official royal engagement.

The service marked the first public event the Duke has attended since the Christmas Day service at Sandringham – and came almost two years after he settled the sexual assault case brought against him by Virginia Giuffre, a sex slave victim of Andrew’s friend. Jeffrey Epstein.

The settlement was never disclosed but was estimated to be worth approximately £12 million ($16.3 million).

It spared him the need to testify under oath at any trial in the US, and it was claimed the Queen helped him pay for that. Andrew has vehemently and repeatedly denied all allegations against him.

The Duchess has consistently defended her ex-husband, branding him a “thoroughly good, very gentle man” who “shines” as a grandfather during an appearance on Lorraine in August 2021.

“Prince Andrew is such a good man, he really is a very good man,” she said during the TV interview.

“He is a very gentle man, he is a very good father and we have done very well with co-parenting, hence our girls are very solid and down to earth.

‘But now he is really good as a grandfather, he can talk for hours about football and the like. It’s a pleasure to see him really shine as a grandfather.’

In 2018, Sarah told the Daily Mail: ‘We are the happiest divorced couple in the world. We are separated from each other, not from each other […] It is my duty to him. I am so proud of him. I support him and always will. The way we are is our fairy tale.’

Recently, speculation has arisen that the Duke and Duchess of York are thinking about getting married again.

The rumors came after Sarah revealed she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma just months after undergoing a second round of reconstructive surgery following a breast cancer diagnosis.

Despite a double health blow, the Duchess has maintained a business-as-usual approach, including posting to Instagram and attending events like yesterday’s.