Just when we thought Andrew Lownie’s jaw-dropping book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York couldn’t spill any more shocking secrets, the esteemed biographer has dropped the bombshell that Prince Andrew’s father Prince Phillip and Sarah Ferguson’s mother, Susan Barrantes were secret lovers!
The shocking claim, which opens his new book, sets the bar high for scandalous secrets, which Andrew delivers time and time again.
Writing of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s 1986 wedding day, Andrew states: “The father of the groom and mother of the bride – lovers 20 years earlier – sat in the third carriage waving to the crowds…”
The two people he is referring to are the then Queen’s husband Prince Phillip and Sarah Ferguson’s twice-married mother, Mrs Susan Barrantes.
Andrew goes onto claim that the affair began because Susie, as she was known, became frustrated by the philandering of her first husband Major Ronald Ferguson, Sarah’s father – something that has never been confirmed.
And while many have been quick to dismiss his claims as gossip, Andrew insists his source for the information – his own wife Angela – is impeccable.
Angela, Andrew’s wife, grew up near Ascot and was neighbours with the Fergusons.
“I have known the story for over 30 years,” Andrew said during an interview on GB News, revealing that his wife’s father had been at Eton just before Sarah Ferguson’s father studied there.
“They were brought up together, they were neighbours.”
It’s certainly no secret that Prince Phillip was linked to a string of women during his decades-long marriage to the late Queen Elizbeth II.
And while both Prince Phillip and Susan Barrantes are no longer alive, which means they are unable to refute such claims, it seems Sarah’s father Ron Ferguson also had his suspicions that Phillip, may have designs on his wife.
In The Galloping Major, Ron’s 1994 memoir he notes: “I always suspected that Prince Philip had an eye for Susie. Certainly, they remain friends to this day.”
In the same memoir, he wrote: “Prince Philip usually made a beeline for the prettiest girl on the dance floor. He certainly found Susie’s company much more enticing than mine.”
There’s no doubt that Ron and Susie, who was the granddaughter of the 8th Viscount Powerscourt, were part of the social scene that mixed with the young Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Phillip.
Ron and Phillip were two of the leading polo players in the world at the time and in the 1960s there was plenty of gossip about Phillip and Susie.
Around the same time the Queen and her husband’s marriage came under scrutiny, so much so that the palace issued a public statement denying their were problems, which said: “It is quite untrue that there is any rift between the Queen and the Duke.”
As for whether an affair ever did happen, Ron never directly accused Prince Phillip of adultery and Susie always denied it.
