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When King Charles encountered Sarah, Duchess of York in the sweltering heat at Royal Ascot last June, he greeted her and her younger daughter Princess Eugenie with flamboyant kisses on their hands.
Photographs of the ostentatious gesture became the most visible proof of the way that the monarch had welcomed Fergie back into the heart of the Royal Family since he became King three years earlier. It was a moment of affection that contrasted with his late father Prince Philip’s froideur to the former Duchess. He had held Sarah in such low regard that he had refused to be in the same room as her since she separated from Prince Andrew in 1992.
But the wisdom of the King’s embrace of Fergie has been brought into question by the release of the Epstein Files in which Sarah’s long and close relationship with the late Jeffrey Epstein has been exposed. Among the many tawdry revelations was that she took her daughters, then aged 21 and 19, to meet the American financier at his Palm Beach mansion just days after he was released from prison for procuring a 14-year-old child for prostitution.
So there are unlikely to be any pictures of the King kissing Fergie’s hand at the Berkshire racecourse this summer as she has kept well away from the cameras since her ex-husband was stripped of his ‘Prince’ title and she agreed to refer to herself as a duchess no longer.
Nor will there be an opportunity for her daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie to publicly greet their uncle. My colleague Charlotte Griffiths reported in The Mail on Sunday at the weekend that they had been told they could not join the family at Royal Ascot amid concerns about the unfolding scandal involving the House of York and their ties with Epstein.
Sources told the newspaper that the sisters, whose names appear several times in the Epstein Files, would not take their seats in the Royal Box at one of the key events of the summer season, nor could they join senior members of the family for the Royal Procession.
Last year at Royal Ascot, the King greeted Princess Eugenie and Sarah Ferguson with kisses on their hands – but there are unlikely to be such gestures this year, says our columnist
King Charles’s affection towards Sarah Ferguson starkly contrasted with the late Prince Philip’s froideur. But now her inclusion in the Epstein files has brought his judgment into question
The move was said to have ‘completely blindsided’ Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, who are already reeling from the arrest of their father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, last month on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Indeed, the princesses are regulars at Ascot, and they were welcomed to Sandringham at Christmas last year after Buckingham Palace officials had made clear that the King did not want to punish his nieces for the sins of their parents.
But their new exile is said to be part of a wider decision to exclude the princesses from all public-facing events for the foreseeable future.
Now, I hear that the Prince and Princess of Wales will not attend Royal Ascot if there is any chance of their being photographed with any member of the York family who, of course, could still attend the races, just not as part of the royal contingent.
‘I can tell you that William and Catherine won’t go if any of the Yorks are there,’ claims one of their friends.
The couple have long been more wary of the Yorks than the King has. Sarah was, for example, conspicuous by her absence at their wedding in 2011. By contrast, she was invited to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding seven years later and also attended Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral and King Charles’s Coronation concert at Windsor Castle.
Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice may be excluded from all public-facing events in the future, Richard Eden writes, with William and Catherine especially keen to distance themselves
William and Catherine are also less enthusiastic about Royal Ascot than the King and Queen Camilla. Last year, William attended on just one day while his wife did not go at all. Despite still undergoing treatment for cancer, the King attended every day in soaring temperatures.
When Catherine and Beatrice rode in the same carriage during the Royal Procession at Ascot in 2023, the body language appeared to be tense. Catherine was joined by William and Bea by her husband, the property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. There appeared to be no exchange of glances, and indeed the women seemed to ignore each other.
If William and Catherine’s friend is correct, this year will see the couple move even further away from the beleaguered sisters.
A Kensington Palace spokesman declines to comment. A royal source insists: ‘Conversations around Ascot aren’t on our radar.’
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