A ‘bereft but delusional’ Sarah Ferguson was tonight coming to terms with the enormity of her own catastrophic fall from grace.
Like a cat with nine lives, the former Duchess of York has spent the vast majority of her time in the public spotlight skipping from one scandal to another, with an apologetic shrug of her shoulders – and a keen eye on her next opportunity.
But according to friends, even the ever-optimistic ‘Fergie’ now sits ‘in the depths of despair’ after the arrest of her ex-husband, with whom she remained so personally and professionally entwined.
One told the Daily Mail: ‘She feels deeply depressed and that the world is out to get her. She is very, very down. Some people, including Sarah herself, are worried for her mental health.
‘[But] what she doesn’t appear to feel is remorse for what has happened. She just wants this to all go away and allow her to get on with her life. Her head is in the sand.’
A spokesman for Ms Ferguson has not responded to repeated requests for comment on her many appearances in the Epstein files, or on Andrew’s arrest.
The former duchess, 66, has not been seen in public since last September and her current whereabouts are unknown.
Friends have suggested that even people she could ‘normally rely on’ for support and funding have now ‘walked away’ amid huge public anger at the Epstein revelations. ‘The whole situation is toxic,’ said one, ‘no-one wants to go near it.’
Others fear that as someone with a ringside seat to Andrew’s dealings with Epstein over the years, the ex-duchess may yet be asked to co-operate with their inquiries by the police. ‘I am sure they will be keen to speak to her’, a source said, ‘that will be playing on her mind.
‘The whole family is frankly finished. No one will open their wallets now.
‘Sarah wants to be left alone to get on with her life, but that’s unlikely to happen.’
There has been no word either from her and Andrew’s daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Eugenie, 35, was this week reportedly spotted on a half term skiing holiday with her family in the Swiss Alps. Hours before her father’s arrest, she was seen in the upmarket resort of Gstaad alongside her husband, Jack Brooksbank, and children August, five, and Ernest, three, with their nanny and a group of friends.
Gstaad is a favourite with royalty and A-listers with the King having previously skied there, as well as Madonna.
Hello! magazine quoted an onlooker saying: ‘I was surprised too see her because I thought she would be keeping a low-profile in light of everything that has been going on.’ However she would not have known about Andrew’s imminent arrest and it is not clear how long the family stayed at the resort after the news broke.
The Mail has previously reported that Ms Ferguson has been asking around for help to find a PR team to resurrect her career and told friends she ‘needs to earn money’.
Sources close to her insist she plans to return to the UK and rent or buy a home in Windsor as she picks up the pieces of her life.
But friends have questioned how she will able to do this with no discernible income and a reputation that has been shot to pieces by the Epstein scandal.
This week it emerged six of Fergie’s companies are being wound down over the next ten days. Emails have shown her repeatedly begging for money to pay off her huge debts from convicted paedophile Esptein, even after his release from prison on child sex offences.
She also issued a grovelling apology for publicly denouncing him at the time, claiming she only did it to protect her career as a children’s author and saying he must feel ‘hellaciously let down’.
The former royal also described him as a ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family’ and joked he should marry her.
And the Mail previously reported that Ms Ferguson appears to be trying to ‘jettison’ her ex-husband, whom she has previous referred to as her best friend, describing them as ‘the happiest divorced couple in the world’.
Until recently they continued to live together at Royal Lodge, Andrew’s Windsor mansion, three decades after they split.
But she has recently told friends: ‘When I come back I am going to have to put some distance between myself and Andrew.’ She will not join him to live at his new home on the King’s Sandringham Estate, royal sources have confirmed.
