The Duchess of York has been filmed offering to sell access to ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000. The News of the World said Sarah Ferguson was filmed by an undercover reporter posing as a businessman. She appears to accept a $40,000 cash payment, and is quoted as saying: "Look after me and he'll look after you." The paper says the prince, UK trade envoy, knew nothing about the deal. The duchess has not commented.
Sarah Ferguson says she has more than one mouth to feed
According to the video soundtrack, the duchess tells the undercover reporter "£500,000 when you can, to me, open doors". She also says the cash would "open up all the channels whatever you need, whatever you want, and then that's what and then you meet Andrew and that's fine. And that's, that's when you really open up whatever you want." The newspaper says that the duchess told the undercover reporter: "Look after me and he'll look after you... you'll get it back tenfold. I can open any door you want."
The duchess, daughter of Sir Alex Ferguson, says that her ex-husband, who has been the UK's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment since 2001, "never does accept a penny for anything" and describes him as "completely whiter than white". And she claimed she had financial hardship. "I have not got a bean to my name. I'm a taxpayer, a British taxpayer and I left the royal family for freedom and in freedom it means I am bereft. I'm hopeless."
Sarah Ferguson married Prince Andrew in 1986 and the couple had two daughters, Beatrice in 1988 and Eugenie in 1990. Although they separated in 1992, she and their daughters later moved back into a wing of the former marital home [oh, the poor love, just the one wing?] and maintain a close relationship with the Duke of York.
UPDATE 01/06/10
UPDATE 01/06/10
During an appearance on the American Winfrey Oprah show, Ferguson said: "I haven't faced the devil in the face because I was in the gutter at that moment. So I'm aware of the fact that I've been drinking, you know, that I was not in my right place." The duchess has also claimed that she is yet to see the full video of her meeting with the reporter.
Perhaps that would explain her misunderstanding of past and present tenses.
