Fergie defends Prince Andrew, says they are ‘happiest divorced couple’

Sarah Ferguson is speaking out in defense of Prince Andrew and the recent sexual assault case opened against him by one of Jeffery Epstein’s victims.

Fergie defends Prince Andrew

Fergie discussed her relationship with her ex-husband (and current roommate) Prince Andrew and surviving her own royal divorce in an interview with the Financial Times published on Friday, 6 August. According to The Huffington Post, the Duchess of York, who is on a whirlwind media tour to promote her debut adult historical novel, said that she and the prince are the “happiest divorced couple in the world.” 

“Andrew and I call it divorced to each other, not from each other . Compromise. Communicate. Say what you feel .  …  What’s the point in having an argument, honestly? ” Fergie said. 

The prince and Fergie were married from 1986 to 1996, though they separated in 1992. They have two children together, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and continue to live together at the Royal Lodge in Windsor. 

The duchess added that she “one hundred per cent” believes Andrew didn’t witness inappropriate behaviour during his long friendship with the late convicted sex offender Epstein. 

Fergie’s book tour

“It’s been very challenging for him. None of my life is duty. It’s because I feel it. I want him to come through this. I want him to win,” she said, later adding, “I know everything about him. I think he is an extraordinary person. He was so good to me when I went through absolute, abject hell,” Fergie said of the 2010 scandal in which she was recorded by a tabloid reporter offering access to her ex-husband in exchange for half a million pounds. “He unquestionably stood by me. It’s not a tit-for-tat. It’s just, I know who he is.” 

“I’m lucky I wasn’t locked up,” she said of the scandal. “I would have been! I would have been hysterical, and mad, and a witch and burnt, and all those other things ,” she said. “You don’t divorce [from a royal] and keep your head. Anne Boleyn didn’t! I’m the only divorced woman who is still alive.”

Prince Andrew accuser files civil case

Fergie’s comments come only mere hours after Virginia Giuffre, who was an accuser of Epstein, claims she was sexually assaulted by Prince Andrew in London and New York.

Prince Andrew has consistently denied Giuffre’s claims. Giuffre’s case cites New York’s Child Victims Act, which expanded victims’ rights to sue alleged abusers. The case claims the prince engaged in sexual acts without her consent, knowing how old she was and “that she was a sex-trafficking victim”. It says the “extreme and outrageous conduct” continues to cause Giuffre, now 38, “significant emotional and psychological distress and harm”, reports the BBC.

“In this country no person, whether president or prince, is above the law, and no person, no matter how powerless or vulnerable, can be deprived of the law’s protection,” the documents read.

“Twenty years ago Prince Andrew’s wealth, power, position, and connections enabled him to abuse a frightened, vulnerable child with no one there to protect her. It is long past the time for him to be held to account.”