Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jun 9

Lownie Says Diana Cut Off Ferguson Over 1996 Memoir, Ending Friendship Before Her Death

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Jun 9

Lownie Says Diana Cut Off Ferguson Over 1996 Memoir, Ending Friendship Before Her Death

Q: What secrets in Sarah Ferguson's book destroyed her 'unbreakable' bond with Princess Diana?

The rupture was reportedly caused less by one explosive “secret” than by Sarah Ferguson’s decision to write publicly about Princess Diana in *My Story*, including personal and unflattering details Diana believed should have remained private. The detail most often cited as the breaking point was Ferguson’s anecdote that she caught a verruca, or wart, after borrowing Diana’s shoes. Royal author Andrew Lownie says Diana found that story deeply hurtful and humiliating. He argues it became the “final straw” in a friendship already under strain. Royal commentators also say Diana was angered by Ferguson’s references to her sons and by what she saw as a broader breach of trust. Richard Fitzwilliams and Helena Chard have said Diana suspected Ferguson of “selling stories” and leaking personal information. For Diana, who was highly protective of her image and private life, the memoir suggested Ferguson might reveal intimate details that could damage her reputation. So the issue was not a hidden scandal newly exposed in the book, but Ferguson’s publication of private anecdotes, mentions of Diana’s family, and material Diana viewed as disloyal. Despite later apologies from Ferguson, Diana reportedly never forgave the breach, and the two remained estranged until Diana’s death in 1997.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 9

Andrew Lownie’s expanded “Entitled” says Princess Diana never reconciled with Sarah Ferguson after Ferguson’s 1996 memoir “My Story,” leaving the former close friends estranged until Diana died in 1997 at 36.
The book and royal commentators cited in the report say Diana felt betrayed by references to her, her sons and even a joke about catching a wart from Diana’s shoes, seeing Ferguson as exposing private conversations.
Lownie and other royal watchers describe the memoir as the final break in a bond forged long before the women married into the royal family, when they were known as the “Terrible Twins” and “Wicked Wives of Windsor.”
Ferguson wrote in her 2011 memoir that the pair had not spoken for a year before Diana’s death, though she said she kept writing letters and believed Diana had wanted to talk shortly before the crash.