They are shocking and outlandish claims about a royal tryst – that Sarah Ferguson had a secret “friends with benefits” arrangement with rapper P. Diddy.
Royal biographer Andrew Lownie makes the astonishing claim in his new book Entitled, excerpts of which were published by the Daily Mail on May 8.
According to Lownie, a former worker at the rapper’s record label, Bad Boy Records, claimed the star boasted of “slamming” Fergie, and allegedly declared he “could not wait” until her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie “came of age”.
Lownie claims “another associate” says Diddy, real name Sean Combs, first met Fergie in New York in 2002 at a party thrown by Ghislaine Maxwell and that their ‘secret friends with benefits’ relationship “began in 2004 and lasted for years”.
“They’d meet in luxurious hotels… They once stayed at a seven-star hotel that was over £50,000 a night. They spared no expense,” a source allegedly told the author.
At the time, Fergie was a single woman. She had been divorced from the former Prince Andrew for many years – the pair separated in 1992 and the divorce was finalised in 1996.
Combs is currently in prison after being handed a 50-month sentence on charges related to transporting individuals for prostitution.
Now, insiders say that an increasingly “desperate” Fergie is considering doing the previously unthinkable in an attempt to “stay afloat while she claws back her life”.
The apparent plan? To sell some of the love letters her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor wrote to her during their seven-year romance.
“She’s got a tonne of letters from Andrew over the years, but she’s taking a big risk that releasing them will start a deluge of identical letters and messages he’s sent to other women,” one source claims.
The insider points to the fact that Andrew – who on May 6 was allegedly threatened by a man in possession of an offensive weapon near his Norfolk home – is in a vulnerable position and has “no means to fight back against any upset ex who wants to ‘compare notes’ with Sarah”.
“If Sarah wants to prove Andrew really did love her by his letters, she’s in for a rude shock,” the insider says.
The letters go back years. (Credit: Getty)
While Sarah apparently mulls over ways to make ends meet, Andrew is said to be passing time in virtual isolation by playing video games.
Adding to his woes are claims that Princess Eugenie – who recently announced she is expecting her third child with husband Jack Brooksbank – “has not been in touch” with her father since his fall from grace.
An insider made the claim to the Daily Express, explaining that Eugenie told her mother about the pregnancy first but did not break the news to her dad.
