Sarah Ferguson has said that Prince Andrew is “lonely” following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
In the latest instalment of her podcast Tea Talks with the Duchess and Sarah, which she co-hosts with her friend Sarah Jane Thompson, the duchess talked about her ex-husband, the Duke of York’s grief for his mother and father, the late Queen and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
Even though Sarah and Prince Andrew divorced in 1996, the pair remain close and live together at Royal Lodge at Windsor. The pair share two daughters: Princess Beatrice, 34, and Princess Eugenie, 33.
After the Queen died, Sarah adopted her two corgis, Muick and Sandy, taking her total number of dogs to seven.
Sarah said on Wednesday (12 July), she and Andrew took the dogs to where the Queen would have walked them at Windsor – a woodland walk made especially for the monarch – at this time of year before she left for her annual break at Balmoral.
“It was very moving actually. At one stage we both, Andrew and I, just sat quietly under some really beautiful trees and I asked him if he was all right without his mum and dad,” she explained.
“He said it’s lonely. He thinks about it a lot.”
Prince Andrew, who is the brother of King Charles, stepped down from royal duties in 2019 over his links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In January 2022, he was stripped of his HRH title after he was accused of sexual assault by Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Epstein’s. He has vehemently and continuously denied these claims.
The Duke and Duchess of York on their wedding day 1986— (PA)
Ferguson is currently recovering from breast cancer surgery at Royal Lodge, the residence that she and Andrew have lived in since 2003. The home came under the spotlight earlier this year when it was reported that King Charles III had asked Prince Harry to leave his residence, Frogmore Cottage, and offered it to Prince Andrew. This would mean that the Duke of York would have to leave his much larger long-term home for a more modest residence.
It was reported earlier this month that the plan to move Prince Andrew out of Royal Lodge has been “quietly shelved”.
A palace insider told The Mail on Sunday that any plans for the contentious move to go ahead soon had been paused while the duchess recovered from her cancer surgery.
Earlier this month, a spokesperson for the Duchess of York told The Independent an eight-hour-long mastectomy had been successful and that the duchess was recuperating with her family.
In June, Ferguson’s representative confirmed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer following a routine mammogram screening.
On last week’s episode of Tea Talks, the duchess spoke about how her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie had responded to her diagnosis, saying: “I think it’s scary for any family member out there, you really start looking at your own demise. It’s a wake-up call, and you think, right okay, how am I going to deal with this?”
