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Sarah Ferguson's down to earth nature saw her win the hearts of the nation, but behind closed doors, it appears her spending habits were anything but. Once hailed 'Fabulous Fergie' by the media, Sarah said she was the "luckiest girl in the world" to be marrying a "handsome prince" on the night before her royal wedding in 1986. However, her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has now been stripped of his royal titles and faces a life of exile in the shadows while Fergie has been left homeless and worlds away from the lavish lifestyle she clung onto for decades. Last week, King Charles delivered the final blow to his younger brother and booted him out of his 30-room Royal Lodge mansion, where he had lived with Sarah since 2008. That same week, the former Duke of York lost all of his royal honours, which was confirmed in a statement by the Palace, who made it clear that King Charles and Queen Camilla stand with the victims and survivors of abuse in all forms. Jeffrey Epstein victim, Virginia Guiffre, who took her own life earlier this year, accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her three times when she was a teenager. The 65-year-old has continued to vehemently deny these claims. Andrew is now set to move into a property on the sprawling Sandringham estate but Fergie has reportedly been told by the Palace to find her own living arrangements, cutting her out from the royal fold completely. Sarah, who is the mother of the King's nieces, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, had been living with Andrew for years despite their divorce in 1996, the Mirror reports. Andrew will apparently receive a six-figure pay-out for moving out of the Lodge, but Fergie, who famously found herself in excessive debt for years, has no such safety net to fall back on. The ex duchess has previously confessed she is "terrible with money" and has faced bankruptcy in the past. With her net worth reportedly only coming in at £745,000, Fergie seemingly wouldn't even be able to afford a terrace property in the town of Windsor which she's called home for decades. According to a quick Rightmove search, terrace houses go for anywhere between £795,000 to £1.87 million. Sarah has clawed herself back from financial problems in a number of ways including starring in Weight Watchers advertising campaigns and flogging products on QVC to appearing on Loose Women and even writing saucy novels. However, her crazy spending habits and apparent love for excess are at odds with the current predicament she finds herself in. The former duchess was allegedly bailed out by the late Queen on "several occasions" after running up staggering debts. According to Andrew Lownie's new biography, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, this included a payment of half a million pounds in April 1994 when the bank Coutts "demanded £500,00 within 14 days." Lownie, who spent four years researching Sarah and Andrew for his book, claims the ex duchess was a manic spender during her marriage, splurging on staff, holidays, parties and flowers, in what he has described as a life of "opulent excess". Worst of all, he claims no thought was given as to how bills would be settled. Lownie detailed ridiculous bills such as paying £65,000 to have a personal trainer on permanent standby despite using their services on just two occasions in one year. Meanwhile, Fergie also allegedly ran up a bill of £51,000 at the luxury department store Selfridges, where she would make purchases through the firm's personal shopper and her old school pal, Pandora Delevigne. Sarah also once spent £14,000 in a month at a London wine merchant, according to the book. However, Fergie's excessive spending eventually caught up with her. After a bill of £500 went unpaid, a newsagent reportedly refused to supply the Duchess, while a local butcher, dry cleaning company and car hire firm are also listed among her creditors. Even the BP card used at petrol stations was allegedly confiscated due to unpaid arrears. Fergie accumulated a £6,500 bill using Queen Elizabeth's special mail service on "an almost daily basis". As well as mailing out letters and photographs, the Duchess would also send out opulent gifts, including silver letter openers, cufflinks and money clips. Lownie also claims that Sarah made some questionable decisions when it came to property. Back in May 2009, the mum-of-two apparently signed a year's lease on a £3million mansion on Surrey's swish Wentworth Estate, at £8,000 per month. However, when the property owners decided to return earlier than expected whilst still requiring her to honour the six-month payment agreement, the former duchess reportedly opted against moving in altogether, instead making Royal Lodge at Windsor her home alongside ex-husband Prince Andrew. This resulted in, as Lownie described it, "£50,000 on a house she never lived in". A former member of staff told Lownie about "greed and wastefulness that contributed to the duchess's financial downfall", saying: "Every night she demands a whole side of beef, a leg of lamb and a chicken, which are laid out on the dining room table like a medieval banquet. It's a feast that would make Henry VIII proud." They continued: "But often there is just her and her girls, Bea and Eugenie, and most of it is wasted. There is no attempt to keep it to have cold the next day. It just sits there all night, and the next day it's thrown away." Lownie further claims Fergie "would regularly miss flights that were not refundable", accumulating thousands of pounds in avoidable expenses. Another source disclosed that Fergie "thought nothing of arriving at an airport with 25 cases and paying between £800 and £4,000 in excess baggage. At least five of those cases were packed with toiletries and make-up. Another would be used solely for clothes hangers." Meanwhile, "personal trainers, hairdressers and Pilates instructors were paid hundreds of pounds an hour to wait for her to emerge for the day in the late afternoon. Her butler had to get in at 4.30am to put watercress on ice". Following her 1996 divorce from Andrew, Fergie complained about financial pressures According to The Times, she said: "We got divorced because I had to go out to work and Andrew and I believed that it wasn't right for me to be commercial while I was still in the royal family". Sarah had penned the first Budgie book whilst still married, "because there was no money for the second son. Or very little. When people say, 'You can't afford to do that,' I say, who are you? It's my money. I'll do as I want." Join the Daily Record's WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages Sarah even took money from late paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, with fresh allegations about her connection to the disgraced financier attracting enormous attention in recent weeks. She borrowed at least £15,000 from Epstein, with newly emerged emails purportedly revealing that she also requested additional sums: $50,000 (£37,240) to $100,000 (£78,475) from him to assist with "small bills" and that she asked to visit his private island in the Caribbean. Sarah Ferguson faced a backlash from several charities she had long been associated with when an email she wrote to Epstein in 2011 surfaced, despite having publicly disowned him in a newspaper interview. Many of these charities deemed it "inappropriate" to maintain their professional ties with Sarah, who referred to Epstein as a "supreme friend" in the email and apologised for her previous comments about him. Her spokesperson has defended her, stating that the email was written under extreme duress, with Epstein allegedly threatening to "destroy" her and her family after she expressed her abhorrence for paedophilia in the interview. However, another email later came to light, sent by Jeffrey Epstein to his legal team regarding her interview, which contained a shocking claim about Sarah "celebrating" his release from prison for sex crimes by bringing her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, then aged 20 and 19 respectively, to visit him. A source close to Sarah has stated that neither she nor her daughters recall this trip. The future residence of Sarah Ferguson remains uncertain as she prepares to leave Royal Lodge, with it being understood that she won't be returning to live with Prince Andrew. During pivotal discussions with the Palace prior to their shocking announcement, Sarah reportedly requested Adelaide Cottage, the former home of Prince William, Kate Middleton and their three children. The Prince and Princess of Wales have recently relocated to Forest Lodge, leaving Royal commentators stunned at Sarah's proposal. Prior to the resurgence of scandals, Fergie sold a luxurious London townhouse that she had only purchased in 2022. The Belgravia property, which she bought for £4.2 million, was allegedly rented out to tenants for an impressive £4,000 per week. However, she suffered a significant loss when she sold the house this summer, for £400,000 less than what she paid for it, according to Land Registry documents reported by the Daily Mail. Her spokesperson stated that Sarah "wasn't looking to sell it," but this year she "was asked by the tenant to buy it, and it seemed like a good time to sell. "It's an investment property for her girls, and so the monies will be reinvested accordingly," the spokesperson added. Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here . However, the Mail suggests other sources claim the proceeds from the sale may have been intended to help fund Andrew and Sarah's lifestyle at Royal Lodge, before they were evicted. Previously, it was suggested that Fergie might consider starting afresh abroad. Author Lownie discussed this possibility in a chat with Hello! magazine, prior to her and Andrew's departure from the Royal Lodge. He predicted that the couple would opt for residences that would enable them to stay "under the radar". Lownie speculated that Sarah could potentially relocate to Switzerland, where she and Andrew previously owned a ski chalet in Verbier. This £20 million property was listed for sale in 2022, reportedly to finance Andrew's out-of-court settlement with Virginia Giuffre.
