Despite her divorce from Prince Andrew in 1996, Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson is still referred to as the Duchess of York – even though she is no longer a working member of the British Royal Family.
Here’s why she retains the title and whether King Charles could strip it from her.
WHY DOES SARAH FERGUSON STILL USE THE DUCHESS TITLE?
Royal protocol allows former wives of members of the royal family to retain their formal titles even after divorce, with a slight modification: their first name precedes the title.
This is why Fergie is known as Sarah, Duchess of York, just as Princess Diana became Diana, Princess of Wales after her divorce from then-Prince Charles in 1996.
However, divorced royal spouses do lose the ‘Her Royal Highness’ (HRH) designation, with the late Queen Elizabeth II formalising this through Letters Patent in August 1996.
The statement from Buckingham Palace at the time read, “The Queen has been pleased by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm dated 21st August 1996 to declare that a former wife (other than a widow until she shall remarry) of a son of a Sovereign of these Realms, of a son of a son of a Sovereign and of the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales shall not be entitled to hold and enjoy the style, title or attribute of Royal Highness.”
COULD FERGIE LOSE HER TITLE?
Speculation has been rife that Sarah Ferguson could be stripped of her Duchess title due to her ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A leaked email from 2011 revealed that Fergie referred to Epstein as a “supreme friend”, prompting Virginia Giuffre’s sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, to call for her title to be revoked.
Amanda told BBC Newsnight, “If you are not safeguarding the most vulnerable people in your community, why should you hold those positions of power?”
According to the Daily Mail, Prince William reportedly “feels even more strongly than the King that Andrew and Fergie are an embarrassment and will be urging his father to act,” a source claimed. “The optics of that pair of chancers guffawing away [at events] look terrible.”
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