NEED TO KNOW
- Sarah Ferguson forced to vacate Royal Lodge along with her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
- Few accommodation options available to disgraced former Duchess of York so she is exploring a move to Portugal.
- Fergie’s youngest daughter Princess Eugenie has a home on the country’s Blue coast.
As the clock ticks down on Sarah Ferguson’s time as a rent-free tenant of Windsor’s 30-room mansion Royal Lodge, New Idea understands the former Duchess of York is eyeing a move to Portugal.
Desperately seeking a fresh start after she and ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, were stripped of their titles due to their association with the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,
Sources say Portugal “makes sense” given Fergie’s youngest daughter, Princess Eugenie, has a property there.
“Fergie thinks it could be the perfect place to regroup and, as she believes, bounce back from [everything],” says our exclusive source.
Of course, Fergie’s optimism about that fresh start, or her ability to shake off the scandal, may be grievously misplaced.
Eugenie and her sister, Princess Beatrice, “worry” that their mother “is deluded about the reality of her situation”, our source says.
“But they accept that she has to move somewhere – and Portugal makes sense.”
When King Charles, 77, took the decisive step of stripping his disgraced younger brother Andrew, 65, of both his dukedom and prince title
and banishing him from Royal Lodge to a property on the Sandringham Estate no residential or financial provision was made for Fergie, 66.
Both Andrew and Fergie, who divorced in 1996, are expected to vacate Royal Lodge by early in the new year at the latest.
“Moving into Eugenie’s oceanside villa – for the foreseeable future – is probably Fergie’s only realistic option at the moment,” our source says.
“Even if she can’t accept it.”
Eugenie, 35, and her husband Jack Brooksbank, 39, reportedly live in the exclusive CostaTerra resort on Portugal’s Blue Coast – where property prices begin at the $7 million mark with their sons August, four, and Ernest, two.
They moved there in 2022 due to marketing executive Jack’s work commitments.
Fergie first visited her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren in Portugal shortly after they relocated and she has also spent time in Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.
Earlier this month, both Eugenie, 35, and Bea, 37, were spotted in an intense conversation on a London street.
“The ‘what to do about Mummy’ question is consuming them both at the moment,” our source says.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if the subject of Fergie’s relocation was debated during that conversation.”
Fergie has not been seen in public since the Duchess of Kent’s London funeral on September 16.
“It’s entirely possible that Fergie is already in Portugal,” our source speculates.
“But no matter where she is, her life in exile has already begun… whether she accepts it or not.”
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