The following includes references to eating disorders.
When Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor divorced Sarah Ferguson in 1996, his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, expected her former daughter-in-law to have a big settlement. Ferguson would have been within her rights to seek financial security, but she had something else in mind. “When I met with Her Majesty about it, she asked, ‘What do you require, Sarah?’ and I said, ‘Your friendship,'” Ferguson recalled in a 2007 interview with Harper’s Bazaar. Elizabeth was surprised. After all, everyone in the Queen’s inner circle believed that Andrew’s ex would ask for money.
However, Ferguson felt that nothing could compare to staying on good terms with Elizabeth. “I would be able to say, ‘Her Majesty is my friend’ – not fight with her, nor have lawyers saying, ‘Look, she’s greedy.’ I left my marriage knowing I had to work. i have,” she continued. That’s not to say she got nothing. After the case was settled, she walked away with a $475,000 cash settlement. While it’s nothing, the settlement is pretty modest by British monarchy standards. For comparison’s sake, Princess Diana received a whopping $22.5 million in her divorce from Prince Charles same year.
Ferguson got what she asked for. She maintained her close relationship with Elizabeth until her death in September 2022linked to their shared love of horses and dogs. “Even after her divorce she would continue her good friendship with Her Majesty by walking the dogs in Frogmore and chatting,” a source said. The telegraph in 2022. In fact, Ferguson – along with Andrew – took on the responsibility of looking after Elizabeth’s beloved corgis after she died, which must stand as testimony to the queen’s trust in her former daughter-in-law.
Queen Elizabeth reportedly valued Sarah Ferguson’s loyalty
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson’s divorce hit Queen Elizabeth II hard. Andrew and Ferguson separated in 1992 – the same year Prince Charles divorced Princess Diana and Princess Anne divorced her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips. Coupled with a devastating fire at Windsor Castle that November, Elizabeth famously described 1992 as annus horribilis, Latin for “terrible year”. The tabloids couldn’t get enough, and that included coverage of Ferguson’s toe-sucking scandal.
As difficult as it all was, Elizabeth carried on stoically as ever, and she and Ferguson figured it out. Part of the reason the Queen is said to have been able to put aside her differences with her former daughter-in-law is because of Ferguson’s unwavering loyalty to Andrew and the royal family as a whole. Despite divorcing in 1996, Ferguson continued to support her scandal-plagued ex-husband. Ferguson and Andrew’s post-divorce relationship is so strong that they even lived together at the Royal Lodge from 2008 until their eviction in early 2026.
Elizabeth paid it forward by offering support to Ferguson amid her own controversies and personal struggles. The late Queen’s last words to her former daughter-in-law reflected this dynamic. “‘Sarah, remember that you are good enough yourself.’ It makes me cry,” Ferguson recalled Elizabeth telling her before her death in a 2024 interview with The Times. It’s a message she had tried to convey to Ferguson since the days when she struggled with eating disorders and faced public backlash over her weight as a new mother. “I believed my critics. But the Queen never lost me,” she said.
If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA’s Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive crisis support 24/7 via SMS (send NEDA to 741-741).
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