Princess Anne Reportedly Nearly Confronted sarah Ferguson Over Controversial photos
LONDON, UK – Princess Anne was reportedly on the verge of a physical โconfrontation with Sarah, Duchess of York, in โthe early 1990s โfollowing the publicationโข of compromising photographs, according to a โขnew claim detailed in a recent biography. The incident occurred during the breakdown of theโค Duchess’s โขmarriage to Prince Andrew, now knownโ asโ Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Author Andrew Lownie, in his bookโค “Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York,” alleges that the Princess Royal was deeply angered by images showing โฃSarahโข Ferguson with her American “financial advisor,” John Bryan, while on holiday in France. Theโข photos, published in the British press, depicted Bryan appearing to suck the Duchess’s toes.
According โฃto Lownie’s account, Sarah Ferguson travelled to Balmoral in Scotland to be with Prince Andrew and โother members of the Royal Family after the holiday with Bryan. She reportedlyโค fled the breakfast room upon discovering her โคin-laws reading the newspapers featuring the images.
A witness present at Balmoral told the Duchess’s biographer, chris Hutchins, that Princess Anne “came close to โthrottling” Sarah, and later voiced her disapprovalโฃ at dinner. “There was not โคone voice raised against Anne,” the source stated.
A servant presentโฃ during the period also observed that Sarah “acted in theโข strangest way,” adding, “You wouldโฃ have thought she was the person wronged, as if she had everyโฃ right to go on holiday with another man, โkiss and cuddle him, and the onlyโ person who had behaved wrongly were theโ photographer and the editors of the newspapers who had published the pictures.”
Prince Andrew’s reaction to the scandal, as described by Lownie, shifted fromโข anger to โsadness, with the Queen allowing โhimโข to focus on official reports.
The fallout from the scandalโข continues to reverberate within the Royal family. In October, King Charles III stripped Princeโข Andrew โof his “prince” title. He is now known as โAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor and is set to move out of Royalโค Lodge in Windsor, where he had been residingโ on a peppercorn rent โฃagreement.
Context: โข The events โdescribed took place duringโ a period of intense media scrutiny of โthe British Royal Family, often referred to as the “War of the Waleses” due toโข the highly publicized marital difficulties of โPrince Charles and โPrincess Diana. The scandal involving Sarah Ferguson further contributedโฃ to the challenges faced by the monarchy in the 1990s.