Exiled, grieving and dropped: Inside Sarah Ferguson's 'worst year' as she turns 67

Once upon a time, the former Duchess of York would have delighted in enjoying a raucous dinner in a fashionable London restaurant with her daughters, or hosting a party for friends at the palatial home she used to share with her former husband.

But after what has arguably been one of the worst years of her life, Sarah is in no mood to celebrate another year around the sun.

It’s barely 12 months since Sarah found herself ostracised and dropped by multiple charities after her close friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was laid bare in a series of damaging emails, in which she called him her "steadfast, generous and supreme friend".

This week, the removal of a plaque at Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London, which commemorated her opening a facility there in 1990, marked the latest chapter of her fall from grace.

An extremely low-key birthday

“Sarah always loved to party,” royal commentator Phil Dampier tells HELLO! “She would be the first to throw a lavish party where bottles of pink Laurent Perrier champagne would flow freely, but I suspect that this birthday will be extremely low key and in keeping with the fact that she's kept this low profile for the best part of a year. Nobody has seen her, and she's really determined to stay out of the limelight.”

Since she and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor were forced to move out of Royal Lodge, the former Duke’s 30-room home in Great Windsor Park, Sarah has managed to largely stay hidden from view. Earlier this year, she was spotted at a luxury Swiss clinic before taking refuge at the £15 million ski chalet belonging to her close friend and former boyfriend, Paddy McNally, whom she dated in the 1980s before she married Andrew.

In another blow to Sarah, the Formula One tycoon died in July, at the age of 88. The following month, Sarah moved back to a rented house at an undisclosed location in the UK.

“I think this probably has been one of the worst years of her life,” says Phil.” She’s lost her house, she’s lost her best friend, she's a social outcast and she's not seeing as much of her children and grandchildren as she might. She’s still grieving for Paddy, who was her closest friend for 40 or 50 years. She certainly always went back to him when she needed financial help or a shoulder to cry on, and she always remained in contact with him.

“She had been living with him in Switzerland up until his death. I know that she was extremely upset about it. He was definitely the real love of her life. They would have got married had it not been for the fact that he was a philanderer and he didn't want to settle down with her, but she would have married him.”

Supportive daughters

Sarah does still have some loyal support, however, in the form of her daughters Princess Beatrice, 38, and Princess Eugenie, 36, who, Phil reveals,  have both visited their mother at her rented home in the Home Counties, outside of London, in recent weeks.

“Friends tell me they have both been to see her at her new house in the past couple of weeks,” he says. “I don't think they want to be seen with her in public at the moment, and she probably realises it's not a good idea either, but behind the scenes they are talking and trying to be supportive. They're very embarrassed and are obviously sort of reevaluating their own lives and their own contacts and the things they get involved with because they don't want to be tainted by scandal. But I don't think the relationship is quite as close as it used to be, certainly.

“It wouldn't surprise me if she is going to celebrate her birthday in Portugal, where Eugenie lives,” Phil adds. “She really has kept a very low profile and if she's going to do any family celebrations or get togethers, it's going to be out there rather than in a restaurant or pub in London or Windsor. I just don't think she wants to be seen at the moment.”

Nor has Sarah seen Andrew, who is living in exile in a farmhouse on the Sandringham Estate. Despite living with him 30 years after their divorce, Sarah is yet to visit her ex-husband in Norfolk.

“I understand she hasn’t been up to visit him once since she's been back in the country,” Phil says.  “I think that relationship is now purely one where they talk to each other about any family matters, but there's no way they'll move back in together again. People think that they were living together at Royal Lodge, almost like man and wife, but they weren't. They were living in separate wings, separate parts of the house, leading separate lives most of the time. It was just convenient for her to live there.”

Andrew fights back

While Andrew appears determined to rehabilitate his image and find his way back into the royal fold, Phil believes there is unlikely to be such an opportunity for Sarah. Earlier this month, Andrew won a High Court case against Thames Valley Police, who were found to have used to wrong search warrants when they raided his homes in February, when he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

“Andrew is definitely starting to fight back,” Phil continues. “Getting the police to admit the search warrant had been wrong is an opening salvo, but eventually he hopes that he won’t be charged or found guilty of anything. I would imagine that his aim is, in time, to be readmitted to family events like Christmas and Easter. He’s deluding himself if he thinks he can actually make a comeback as a royal as a working royal, but I know that he wants to. But I can’t see Sarah ever again being invited to the royal Christmases, events, or any royal get together.”

So, can we expect to see Sarah anytime soon, perhaps writing a tell-all book,  telling her story on TV, or launching a business initiative as she has done before when times were tough.

“She’s denied that she's writing a book, but I have no doubt she will attempt some sort of comeback at some point. Only she knows exactly how that will manifest and exactly what that will be,” says Phil. “But she is the comeback queen. Who knows whether, at 67, she's capable of doing it or if it's too late. But she will certainly have a try.”