Princess Diana, and Sarah Duchess of York were firm friends throughout most of their dual run in the 80s royal limelight – but the brides of Windsor were not speaking at the time of Di’s tragic death in 1997.
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The falling out has long been the subject of rumour – and now one of the most unpleasant and bizarre has been confirmed as the real reason: Fergie’s indiscretion about Diana’s personal health issues.
According to British TV documentary The Royal Family at War, the source of the feud was Fergie’s indiscrete revelations about her former friend in her autobiography, My Story.
And the freezing out all came down to one sentence – a line that started out so well but ended with a resounding thud.
‘Diana helped me by giving me all her shoes (and less happily, her plantar warts)’, wrote Fergie – who was then immediately cut from Di’s life.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Di had warned Fergie that while she supported her decision to write the book, some things were totally off limits – namely any reference to herself.
‘Sarah made clear that she was going to write a book, and Diana was supportive of that,’ explains Sunrise royal expert Robert Jobson. ‘But she said, I don’t want you to mention me at all.’
Plantar warts, sometimes called verrucas, are an infectious skin condition, which much like regular warts can be transmitted by skin exposure or shared surfaces.
The Diana Chronicles author Tina Brown notes that the revelation was ‘fatal’ for the friendship, explaining, ‘Goddesses don’t get warts’.
Despite her desperate attempts to make it up to Di, Fergie never succeeded. Things became so toxic, that when Diana threw a party for friend David Tang, she told him the guest list could include literally anyone he wanted.
But when he suggested Fergie, the response was swift. ‘Absolutely not,’ Diana replied.
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