Copyright hellomagazine
Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, have been exes longer than they were ever married. Despite their marriage ending, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and his former wife have remained fixtures in each other’s lives, with Fergie even once describing the two of them as "the happiest divorced couple." Though before holding that title, the former Duke of York and Fergie, as she is affectionately known, were husband and wife. After getting engaged in 1986, the pair, who are said to have been introduced by Princess Diana, wed that July at London's Westminster Abbey, an occasion Fergie has previously called "the happiest day of my life." Two years later, Sarah and Andrew became parents with the birth of their daughter Princess Beatrice, followed by their second child, Princess Eugenie, in 1990. However, after nearly six years of marriage, the parents of two separated in March 1992. Although they have managed to be happily divorced, they were not happily married. "The main problem with the marriage, really, was that he was in the Navy," Phil Dampier, royal author and expert, explains to HELLO!. "[Andrew] was away for months, month, months on end. She got very bored, very quickly and found constant scrutiny as a royal, much harder than I think she possibly thought. Possibly didn't get enough support from the family." In an interview with Fergie, Harper's Bazaar reported that her and Andrew's separation was triggered by the demands of his naval career, which limited the couple's time together to just 40 days a year for the first five years. The pair ultimately went on to divorce in 1996. "I didn't want a divorce but had to because of circumstance," Fergie confessed to Harper's Bazaar in 2011, referring to it as "the most painful time of my life." She said: "I wanted to work; it's not right for a princess of the royal house to be commercial, so Andrew and I decided to make the divorce official so I could go off and get a job." While they went their separate ways, the former couple continued to live together at Royal Lodge, and Fergie has remained a staunch supporter of her ex-husband. "My duty is to him. I am so proud of him. I stand by him and always will. The way we are is our fairy tale," Sarah told the Daily Mail in 2018. "Although we are not a couple, we really believe in each other. The Yorks are a united family." Though Phil muses that behind closed doors, Andrew and Sarah's relationship is possibly not as strong as it looks in public. He tells HELLO!: "I think it just suited them initially with the children, then they just kind of got stuck in a groove and have just been almost can't live with each other, can't live without each other, sort of thing. Just bolted together through their mutual sort of lifestyles." But then why maintain the relationship personally or publicly? "Fergie just, quite simply, got a roof over her head all these years, which she would have found difficult to have that lifestyle because she's just incapable of keeping money," Phil believes, while for Andrew "he's had the stability for his daughters, for the mother, being around while he went off all around the world, let's be honest, enjoying himself." As Andrew fell from grace over the Epstein scandal, his ex-wife repeatedly came to his defence, and he, in turn, has shown the same loyalty toward her. "He stood by her. She stood by him because they've both been as bad as one another, to be honest about it. They've both been involved in scandal. So it's a kind of mutual survival," Phil says, adding: "They've been welded together by a sort of mutual self-interest, and possibly brought out the worst in each other." After Andrew announced on October 17 that he would no longer use his title or the honours that had been conferred upon him, a source told HELLO! that Sarah "will always support her former husband's decisions." Seventeen days later, Buckingham Palace issued a statement revealing that King Charles had on October 30 initiated a formal process to remove the style, titles and honours of his brother Andrew. "Prince Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence," the statement read. "Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him. Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse." HELLO! understands that Andrew will be moving to a property on the private Sandringham estate. Meanwhile, Sarah is understood to be making her own arrangements. Pressure had been mounting on the couple to move out of Royal Lodge prior to the palace's announcement on October 30. As for whether the former couple's friendship will continue now that they are both leaving Royal Lodge remains to be seen. Hours before the palace's statement, Phil remarked to HELLO!: "If they hadn't been under pressure to leave Royal Lodge, I think they would have carried on as before. But if she does go into a separate property, be it abroad or be it in Australia with her sister or something, or if she moves into Adelaide Cottage, or if she moves into a house in London, or whatever happens, I think if they do actually physically live apart, I think that could be the beginning of the end for their relationship, in the sense that I don't think their relationship will be quite the same." "Especially now the kids are grown up," Phil continued. "This whole saga could have crept up in their relationship, which behind closed doors, is probably not as close as people think."
