
Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (Image: Getty)
The last 12 months have been a nightmare for Sarah Ferguson but somehow things have just got a whole lot worse. Fergie’s charity, Sarah’s Trust, has formally wound up and is marked as “removed” on the public register of charities.
The charity said in February it would close “for the foreseeable future” days after new details emerged about the former Duchess of York’s friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Established in 2020, Sarah’s Trust was “dedicated to supporting frontline, grassroots work to address the humanitarian and environmental crisis, the hunger crisis and issues perpetuating cycles of extreme poverty”.
Last October she lost her ‘Duchess of York’ title when her ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, relinquished his Duke of York title amid mounting pressure over his links to US financier Epstein.
But for Fergie, the real nightmare began – and her cosseted life of entitlement and unafforded luxury began to unwind – a month earlier.
In 2011 Fergie gave an interview – after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for procuring a 14-year-old schoolgirl for prostitution – to stress how she had made a “terrible error” in “having anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein”.
But in September 2025 an email surfaced claiming that shortly after giving that 2011 interview, Fergie emailed Epstein to apologise for badmouthing him – calling him a “supreme friend”.
Fergie vanished into thin air and has barely been seen since, but her problems were just beginning as charities she patronised started dropping her like a bad smell.
She lost her title, which opened doors for her in all of the world’s trendiest shops, clubs and restaurants.
Then it was later announced she and Andrew would be leaving their shared luxurious 30-room Royal Lodge mansion in Windsor, leaving her effectively homeless.
Then in the New Year the US Department of Justice (DoJ) started releasing millions of documents relating to Epstein, known as the Epstein Files, that showed Fergie was in contact with Epstein while he was in prison.
Sarah Ferguson strenuously denies any wrongdoing, but some of her emails are distasteful to the extreme.
After asking Epstein to pay for her and princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, to see him in New York after he was released from prison, she penned a gushing note to thank him for the meet up/free holiday.

Fergie has not joined Andrew by also moving to his new Marsh Farm cottage in Sandringham (Image: Getty)
She told Epstein: “In just one week, after your lunch, it seems the energy has lifted. I have never been more touched by a friends [sic] kindness than your compliment to me in front of my girls.
“Thank you Jeffrey for being the brother I have always wished for.”
In 2009, after the crash of a business venture, Ferguson emailed Epstein: “I urgently need 20,000 pounds ($27,521) for rent today. The landlord has threatened to go to the newspapers if I don’t pay. Any brainwaves?”
But the following year, another email from “Sarah” to Epstein makes you definitely want to rush for the sick bucket.
She gushed: “You are a legend. I really don’t have the words to describe, my love, gratitude for your generosity and kindness. Xx I am at your service. Just marry me.”
Just marry me? Seriously? He was by then a convicted sex pervert. Is she bonkers?
Lastly the US government released a final correspondence from their files when she wrote to him: “My dear spectacular and special friend Jeffrey, you are a legend. I am so proud of you.”
She sent that in April 2009 after he gave her an idea for a charitable initiative she was launching called “Mothers’ Army”.
Now her own charity Sarah’s Trust has formally wound up. It’s over.
The only way Fergie is going to get near a charity in the future is popping into Oxfam in Primrose Hill to see if they have any celebrity pre-owned designer frocks in stock at a knock down price.