Sarah Ferguson had ‘whirlwind affair’ while pregnant – and introduced lover to Beatrice

Sarah Ferguson has weathered many storms in the past, earning her a reputation as being the great survivor in the Royal Family. But now it seems her world has finally come crashing down

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Andrew and Sarah share two children together(Image: Camera Press)

They were once the “happiest divorced couple in the world,” but it seems the once-unbreakable bond between Sarah Ferguson and her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has finally shattered.

With their lives left in tatters as fresh revelations about their links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein surfaced, the former couple are set to go their separate ways following their eviction from Royal Lodge, where they have lived together since 2008.

And their very public fall from grace seems to have broken Fergie’s unwavering loyalty to Andrew. There was a time when it seemed Sarah was the great survivor in royal circles. She is certainly no stranger to scandal – including the moment she was caught up in a shocking affair while pregnant with her second daughter, Princess Eugenie.

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Andrew and Sarah on their wedding day in July 1986(Image: Getty Images)

Andrew and Sarah have actually known each other since they were children but it wasn’t until 1985 that they started dating after being seated together at Royal Ascot. They got engaged nine months later on February 19, 1986 – his 26th birthday – with Andrew presenting his wife-to-be a ruby engagement ring.

Their wedding took place at Westminster Abbey on 23 July 1986 and two years later, they welcomed their first child, Princess Beatrice, followed by Princess Eugenie in 1990. But cracks had begun to appear in their relationship. Andrew’s naval career saw him away from the family for long periods of time.

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The Duke and Duchess of York at Heathrow Airport with their two daughters, Beatrice (in the Duchess’s arms) and Eugenie (in the cot)(Image: PA)

Fergie later claimed she spent eight months of her first pregnancy alone, once telling Rosie magazine that Prince Philip forbade her from living with her naval husband wherever he was stationed. Speaking to US TV host Ernie Manouse in 2010, she said: “My deal was that I was marrying my man, who happened to be a prince and a naval officer. But what I got was not the man, I got the palace and didn’t get him. For our marriage, I saw him 40 days a year.”

It was that loneliness that apparently saw Sarah fall into the arms of another man. The Duchess, then in her third year of marriage and pregnant with Eugenie, met American Steve Wyatt. They are said to have crossed paths in 1989 at Houston Grand Opera’s British Opera Festival, and quickly fell for each other.

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It has been claimed that Texan Steve Wyatt was the real love of Sarah’s life(Image: Alan Davidson/Shutterstock)

It was later claimed that Steve, not Andrew, was the ‘love of her life’ and that she fell ‘head over heels’ in love with him. “Steve Wyatt was the main reason for the breakdown of her marriage,” claimed David Leigh, co-author of The Duchess of York uncensored.

“She met him at a time of her life when she was exceptionally low and felt Andrew wasn’t supporting her. She went to Texas and she met a very handsome and rich Texan who was very attentive and loving and they very quickly fell in love. Andrew may have been her best friend, and he probably still is now and probably always will be, but Steve Wyatt was the love life of her life.”

Their romance gained much publicity when photographs, including one of Steve with Sarah’s then-toddler daughter Beatrice, appeared in newspapers in January 1992. Two months later, Sarah and Andrew announced their separation.

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Sarah, Duchess Of York, Pregnant With Her Second Baby

But her love story with Steve wasn’t to be, and Sarah was apparently left heartbroken when he got engaged to Cate Magennis. On finding out the news, Sarah is said to have confided to a friend: “I can’t have the man I love because he’s getting married. What’s the matter with me? Why didn’t he marry me?”\

Then all hell broke loose in August 1992 when Fergie was pictured having her toes sucked by her American financial advisor John Bryan – Steve’s close friend – as they soaked up the sun in the South of France.

She faced widespread public ridicule, and was privately blacklisted by much of the Royal Family – mostly notably, Prince Philip and Princess Margaret, who reportedly told her in a letter: “You have done more to bring shame on the family than could ever have been imagined.”

On 28 March 1993, it was announced that the formal separation agreement between Sarah and Andrew had been settled, after months of speculation that the couple might be reconciling. Their divorce was finalised in May 1996.