A matter of days after Harry and Meghan returned from their six-year Californian exile to live in the Cotswolds, reports reach us that Sarah Ferguson is apparently leaving her place in Switzerland, packing up her collection of teddy bears, and heading back to live in the Home Counties.
Not only that, but the former duchess is now, according to The Sun, considering offers to take part in a tell-all television interview. Do these people never learn? Doesn’t she remember what happened when her ex-husband did that? And doesn’t she have friends and advisers who will tell her that the best thing she can do is shut up, live a quiet life and resist any temptation “to put the record straight”. Things can only get worse, Sarah.
For the Royal Family, it is all pretty inconvenient. The return to these shores of the Sussexes, their children, their two dogs and Meghan’s signature Moroccan mint-scented candles was bad enough, forcing both King Charles and Prince William to consider in real time how they manage the fractured relationship with Harry and Meghan, but the arrival of Fergie, an unguided missile when it comes to public relations, is a walking, talking reminder of the scandal that continues to bedevil Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and the shame it brings to the House of Windsor.
This is the opposite of a heart-warming royal reconciliation, more like the cast of a long-running soap opera getting back together for a Christmas special. Who can say what propelled Harry and Meghan to return to the UK from their home in Montecito, a discreet, affluent community minutes away from the Pacific Ocean, and where they could live in relative privacy and year-round sunshine. Already, every sighting of blacked-out Range Rovers and men with earpieces is breathlessly conveyed on the Cotswolds grapevine.
While no one should begrudge Harry a chance to re-establish cordial relations with his close family, the avalanche of coverage that his return has triggered – most of it unnecessarily negative, in my view – is not helpful to a Royal Family trying to restore its image in the wake of the Andrew fallout.
Fergie’s return to the public eye is another matter. Her very presence invokes the spectre of her “supreme” friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, of Andrew’s royal defenestration, and indeed of her own entanglement in the inquiry into the late paedophile’s activities. Relatives of Epstein’s victims have publicly called on Ferguson to give testimony in the United States.
She is not accused of any criminal wrongdoing. But that is not really the point. The perception is that she represents the worst aspects of our monarchy – a sense of entitlement, of believing to be above the law, and, not least, having a tin ear when it comes to PR – and it’s only through living a blameless, anonymous life will she be able to piece together her shattered reputation. That’s just one of the reasons why agreeing to an interview would be such a terrible idea.
The unhelpful paradox for the modern Royal Family is that those who are furthest from its purpose are the ones who generate the most interest, and coverage. So the good work Charles and William have done in conveying a more contemporary, relevant image in their public work is undermined by a new plot twist in the soap opera.
Fergie has some form in misjudging the public mood, cashing in on her royal proximity by taking the shilling from media organisations. The columnist Jane Moore, who was a fellow panellist on ITV’s Loose Women, gave a perfect insight into Fergie’s character. She wrote: “I have met and interviewed Sarah several times over the years and she’s a fundamentally kind, positive person. But the deadly cocktail of her naivety and fondness for the high life has always made her something of a loose cannon.”
It’s too early to tell whether this cannon will detonate again. The British people are prepared to forgive, if not forget, and we love a story of recovery and reconciliation. But Sarah Ferguson brings back a lot of baggage, in both the physical and metaphorical sense. And she hasn’t, as yet, shown much discretion in her public life.
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