“In April, Princess Anne entered divorce proceedings against Captain Mark Phillips.
“In June came the first published extracts of Diana: Her True Story, a tabloid-flavoured rendering of the Princess of Wales’ bulimia, suicide tries, and marital problems with Prince Charles."
She added: “Not one to be left out, I’d had my own bit to contribute.
“From early on that year, Andrew and I had been discussing a separation.
“Not because we’d stopped caring for one another, but because I had reached the end of my royal rope.
“For six years I had shouldered the demands of Palace life.
“Gradually, relentlessly, they had beaten me down.
“They were killing me by inches.
“It was time to save my life.”
Ferguson was later photographed having her toes sucked by financial adviser John Bryant.
According to reports, Queen Elizabeth asked Fergie to leave Balmoral Castle where they had all gathered at the time of the scandal.
Royal correspondent James Whitaker revealed: “It happened in front of the whole family at the Queen’s country residence in Scotland.
“She was late into breakfast and everybody had got a copy of the Daily Mirror.
“As she walked into the room, they all stuffed it under their Times and Telegraphs and that sort of thing.
“She knew the game was up the second she walked into the room.”
Andrew and Sarah have remained close in the face of the scandal, describing themselves as the “world’s happiest unmarried couple”.
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