As we heard this week, Prince Andrew stayed at Balmoral for about a week before he jetted off – in a private plane, no less – to Spain with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson. Fergie had been in Balmoral for a few days too before Prince Philip chased her off, and I think Andrew must have picked up Fergie from an undisclosed location before they headed off to Sotogrande. There was some question about whether Andrew left Balmoral early when all of the sh-t hit the fan about Jeffrey Epstein – some papers say yes, he did leave early, but the Sun now says that this trip to Spain was always on his schedule and it was always going to be a vacation with Fergie, and not a “hiding out” situation. Of course, the Sun just uses the Fergie-Andrew relationship as a jumping off point to talk about Epstein, which… at least one tabloid is doing that. Some highlights:
Business as usual for Andrew: For while his links to paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein come under renewed scrutiny, it’s business as usual for ‘Air Miles Andy’ as he enjoys a free holiday at a £38million luxury villa. The villa is one of the best in Sotogrande, a 4,500-acre slice of southern Spain which has become one of Europe’s largest gated sports resorts. It has lush polo fields, a modern marina and no fewer than five golf courses on which the prince can work on his swing. Crucially, the villa is virtually invincible to trespassers, being surrounded by an electric fence and accessible only down a drive that stretches for half a mile.
The villa is comped: It is owned by a Spanish businessman who welcomes the subtle kudos of hosting a British prince and who is content to waive any rental. His only insistence has ever been that Andrew donated a signed photograph of himself and his family, which now stands on the grand piano in the villa’s music room. Naturally this is an arrangement which suits the Yorks, who have honed the business of free holidays down to a fine art.
Fergie at his side: Sarah Ferguson is herself facing scrutiny over £300,000 payments for “consultancy work” from Hong Kong businessman Johnny Hon – are staying together in the villa. To those who know him, the holiday is no surprise. According to several of his former girlfriends who soon grew bored of his routine of watching – and rewatching – endless DVDs on how to improve his golf game, Prince Andrew is a creature of habit. Indeed Fergie and Andrew are said to view the villa as a second home. For the last 20 years Andrew has rarely missed his break on the Spanish estate, often taking his two daughters Beatrice and Eugenie.
He was always planning on this trip: It has been said that Andrew was “haunted” by all the negative coverage building up over Epstein and had retreated early to Spain, breaking off his stay at Balmoral. But this vacation at ‘Soto’ (as he calls it) has long been in his diary. “Andrew and Sarah were due to go to Spain long before the Epstein business blew up,” says a senior royal source, “so to say that Sarah was publicly by his side beside to show her support is not quite right.”
Andrew & Sarah aren’t “reuniting” really: A source says, “Andrew and Sarah get on wonderfully together, but as the staff at Royal Lodge know very well, there’s no romance between them. Those days are long gone. To put it bluntly, there is no physical activity.”
Sarah was entangled with Epstein too: One of the reasons that the Yorks are putting on a united front amidst this storm, is that Sarah too was involved with Epstein. When her finances ran aground with debts in excess of £1.5 million, it was Epstein who helped bail her out, along with a sizeable donation from Andrew himself. So it was no surprise that when the first stories started appearing about Andrew’s questionable links with the seedy businessman – and that he had been a guest at Sandringham and Balmoral (and had met the Queen) Sarah’s was the first voice heard defending him.
The Sun goes on from there, but it’s just history at this point and the message is the same: Andrew and Fergie are cheap, vulgar and they are both deeply entangled in the Epstein crimes. Fergie has never even said whether she paid back the money Epstein loaned her. Anyway… Fergie and Andrew took a private plane to a comped Spanish luxury villa and they’re trying to wait out the Epstein storm. But.. but… Meghan took a private plane TOO!
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Can we take this man’s titles and status already, PLEASE? He is vulgar in every sense of the word.
Take Sarah’s title, too, while you’re at it. Oh, and Bea’s, too….she’s also a recipient of Johnny Hon’s money to the tune of £100,000.00 for a (what’s the term that was used?) non-voting directorship in one of his businesses. That’s what Sarah was paid the £300,000.00 for. Hon’s quoted as using the royals for their connections and for photo ops (plasrtered all over his home and office) to show other Chinese business people his “in”. Peter Philips and Zara Tindle are also on this gravy train.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hong-kong-tycoon-puts-zara-tindall-peter-phillips-and-sarah-ferguson-on-his-payroll-srvhtfpm2
I wouldn’t mind Andrew’s whole branch of the tree to be snipped, show them actions have consequences all the way down by taking away their precious titles and any public monies. It won’t happen but a girl can dream.
Exactly! The Johnny Hon expose is pretty gross–but of course getting lost in the shuffle with the much more horrible Jeffrey Epstein story. The Royal Reporters who jump on Meghan for the slightest sure are blase about the Hong Kong grift that many members of the RF have going on.
It’s so weird to me that they felt the need to clarify whether they were still having sex. Ick.
Right? I don’t think many (any?) people care about that. we care about the girls who were abused at the hands of people like Epstein and Andrew.
I bet there is no romance. Knowing how much these two have done, I’m sure there is no “activity” involved.
@Seraphina I agree. Relationships like this where both parties engage in such depraved behavior inevitably are blunted of any real trust, love, joy or passion.
They are both circling the drain together and eventually someone has to pay the price. I cannot see how Andy or Fergie can survive another crisis like this. The Queen really needs to put her foot down now, bc if Andy understands that he has gotten away with this he will just up the ante.
Yep. I couldn’t care less that he is or isn’t diddling his ex-wife. I think the focus needs to be his victims.
@MIGNIONETTE, I agree with all you said.
This ghastly pair emphasizes all the worst of the Royals. When Chuck is on the throne and not Andrew’s protector, I am looking forward to seeing if they actually get knocked off their lists. Pedophilia is not okay. It’s not. The violation, the entitlement – it blows my mind that adults think any of it is acceptable. I’d like to think that Chuck knows this.
On the one hand, the Queen is Andrew’s mother and I cannot fault a parent for supporting their child even when they’re guilty of monstrosities. But not like this. Not to the extent of preventing him from facing consequences. It’s repellent.
When Chuck takes the throne both Andrew and Fergie will be quietly ‘retired’ off somewhere and told to stay out of the public eye if they want a pension. She pretty much lives off him and always has done.
As discussed yesterday these 2 are bound together by their lifestyles and dodgy dealings with shady characters across the globe.
What’s hilarious is what the nasty haters say that Meghan is, is actually what their English bred Sarah is. Ironic now that I see it. I too think it a grand idea that PC push them off to a quiet life and tell them if they don’t behave, no more money.
As I said earlier, at this point it’s Meghan I feel for. Having gotten on the marry go round called the BRF.
Will Andrew and Fergie get the Duke of Windsor treatment?
@IlsaLund – that’s really too generous, for him at least. If he’s guilty of raping a teen, prison is where he belongs.
Chucky boy was besties with Jimmy Saville for decades. There is NO WAY Charles didn’t know of Saville’s predilection for young girls. YOUNG girls. Also, Charles’ mentor, Laurens van der Post, the writer, was also found out to be a pedo. The only “redeeming” factor is that Charles didn’t diddle underaged girls with them.
Saying “everyone must have known” is just another way of blaming victims. High-profile abusers learn how to carefully build their public reputation. They draw people in with a very winning persona, which switches when they decide someone is prey (and won’t cause trouble). Someone like Saville would have been very, very careful to make sure that Prince Charles had only the nicest things to say about him. And Charles being who he was, people would have felt they needed absolute proof to disagree with him about Saville.
Nah, Saville assaulted the women at St. James Palace. He wasn’t careful.
“Chuck” luvs his pedos too. He even writes to them, and pours his poor heart out to them.
I can fault a Mother for supporting their child…that’s a GROWN MAN who is TOTALLY USELESS and one of the reasons is because his Mama co-signed on ALL HIS BS!!!!
The readers absolutely needed to know if there is or isn’t any physical activity, lol!
Urgh, I’ve just had lunch.
I’m eating breakfast and have lost my appetite. 🤢
I think the York couple would be slightly more palatable if at least it seemed they were locked together by some sense of romance or affection. But clearly they are NOT which points up what they are locked together by, which I propose is sleazy secrets and international grift-craft, tossed with an insincere splash of “We need to stay together for our (thirty-something year old) daughters!”
I think they dropped this info to make it seem like Andrew likes adult women and therefore couldn’t possibly be involved in the exploitation and rape of children.
Honestly, I think it would look BETTER if the narrative was that he was “hiding out” in Spain. that would at least indicate that there is some acknowledgement among the royals of how bad this is, and how bad that ride-to-church was. The idea that “he’s just doing what he always doing, relaxing in Spain and not worried at all about these allegations and the Epstein ‘thing’ ” looks way worse for him, IMO. But that could just be me.
Agree–the tone of yesterday’s story was that he was worried and hiding out, now the Sun is spinning it as regular relaxation and fun times, business as usual, he knows that no one can touch him.
This was on-point I think
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2019/aug/15/andrew-and-fergie-is-a-conscious-recoupling-of-convenience-on-the-cards
You are absolutely right…at the very least this scumbag and his leeching wife should be feeling some sort of shame but people like them never do. I am disgusted by them…I hope they do get the Duke of Windsor treatment and f….. off out of the country never to be seen again. Its pretty obvious he is not going to have to answer for his crimes so just gtf already.
I agree, Becks1. It actually would be less icky to me if he was showing some sort of fear/acknowledgement of what is going on. And Tourmaline, thanks for the link to the Guardian article. I laughed out loud at the “WHO AMONG US?” line (only time I’ve done anything other than pull a “I’m going to punch someone/something” face in frustration when reading an article related to this disgusting saga).
I hate that this awful man continues to live a life of incredible luxury, is kept safe by his status, and keep evading punishment….One of the many issues with a hereditary monarchy, by virtue of his birth he is entitled to this life and there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it
Must be nice…
ITA, I’m like, why does he need a free vacation from anyone? His whole life is basically a vacation and he gets it all free courtesy of the British taxpayer…
Honestly are we witnessing the BRF in freefall? Please god let it be so.
Fergie the enabler looking like a fat, bedraggled canary and Pedo Andy playing up the pompous, entitled man about town is almost too much to witness.
These people living high on the hog off the taxpayers’ dime is one thing…but being actual felons and rubbing it in our faces is another.
Utterly shameless this guy is.
Great description of Fergie, the woman has never known how to dress herself. Of course if she were any kind of decent person it wouldn’t matter, she’s been a grifter and a scrub her entire adult life. Exactly why she and Andrew are so tight, I suppose.
“fat, bedraggled canary” – best comment ever.
The Twinkle…would be nice if karma strikes in my lifetime. That would right a lot of wrongs!
Hi – fat lady here. I have run 10Ks for charity, I have worked to rescue animals, and I try to donate to RAICES, BLM and planned parenthood and be a general good citizen. I’m not trying to shame anyone so here goes.
I know it’s a gossip site and meant in good fun – she does look like a canary! – but please don’t associate my size (which I can’t help, for numerous reasons) with people lacking morality or even being evil or stupid. I hear it enough when I’m trying to be out, living life, from all kinds of people, especially for some reason, when I’m trying to exercise. Chubby! Obese! Fat loser!
Even my most well meaning friends will call out trump for being a FAT (emphasis on fat) loser.
Here’s the thing – Kellyanne Conway and Stephen Miller are losers too but we don’t call them “SKINNY losers!” – which believe it or not, skinny was an insult lobbied at people back when being thin was considered a sign of poverty/malnutrition. Skinny was seen as weak, and used as an insult by toxic hypermasculine men against men they perceived to be homosexual.
Ingrained body hate, hopefully, will go away in the next decade or so, much like kids in my day used to say “that’s so gay!” but not really understanding how hurtful the words are. I certainly meant no harm when I said that, but saying those words did subtly reinforce concepts that gay men are lesser or weirder, which was something preached by my church and family, and is an idea which has taken time and effort to unlearn.
If I wanted to insult Fergie I would say that she is pond scum, but even that has more vitality and green. Ha! Or I would call her a snake, but even snakes refuse to associate with vermin. Ba-dum-bah!
Anyway, it would be cool if we could come up with ways to do call-outs of people that don’t accidentally reinforce stereotypes. I understand it’s hard to change ingrained patterns, but it’d be great if we could try. Hat tip to So you want to talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo who covers this topic and so much more.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk and have a great friday CBers.
Well said, Yeet.
You’re a wonderful person Yeet. Thank you.
I totally agree with everything you say here.
Sarah isn’t “fat” really. Her clothes tend to be ill-fitting, lacking in ease. That’s a bigger issue than her body shape. A skinny person in too tight clothes won’t look good either.
IDK what the deal is with that. Sure, we women tend to fluctuate in size, but you’d think that for a fancy event where everyone dresses up and hats are worn, that she wouldn’t have such perennial fit issues. Her clothes always seem to be too tight. IDK if it is dieters’ optimism or what.
tl;dr: She’s not fat. she just doesn’t know how to dress for her body shape.
Of course folks can look good at any size. Fit and silhouette are the keys, and after that, quality materials and construction. A well-fitting H&M dress will look better on you than ill-fitting Dior!
@Some chick, exactly. She has never had an ounce of taste or style; it’s astonishing that her appearance has been consistently awful!
All the criticism about H&M renovating their 10-room home got me curious about Andrew’s place in Windsor. Around 2004 he was “gifted” with a 30-room mansion that used to belong to the Queen Mother. He moved in after spending 7.5 million pounds(!) on renovations including installing an indoor swimming pool and a golf driving range. I don’t recall there being a huge outcry over that. And it couldn’t have been his 7.5 million. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have that kind of money. He spent more and has a way bigger place yet H&M get all the criticism.
The whole lot of them living high off the hog at our expense….shameless.
… but, but Pedo Andy is a blood prince.
He’s certainly entitled to living in a much bigger place than a merely married-in duchess who has more melanin than him.
And let’s not forget the $13M Swiss Chalet that Mummy bought for him; as we all know, poor Pedo *ONLY* makes about £450K/yr. from his labors, and complained bitterly to Mummy that he couldn’t exist on that!
Tai go back and read the British articles & reports on that. Even our MP’s openly criticised Andrew for that spending. Don’t make things up just because you don’t remember.
How nice, The Prince can work on his golf swing and because he is so entitled he and his whatever they are, get to vacation for free.
The more I get to know about the BRF the more I dislike them and my respect plummets. At this point, I feel sorry for Meghan marrying into this family. At least the dysfunction of her family (and every family has some dysfunction) was private and didn’t involve this kind of bullshit. Maybe that’s what Harry was referring to in his birthday message about a crazy ride. His crazy family!
Nice to see Harry’s side of the family has deplorables just like the markles. Just a different hustle.
Which means the Markles need to shut or the the tabloids will rerun their dirt and dig up more.
RoyalBlue…the poor Markles were not savvy enough to keep their mouths closed to be able to cash in on their connections. The Yorks, Wessexes, and Middletons all recognized a good thing when they saw it. Kind of fill sorry for the Markles.
Bam the Markles were so desperate all they could do was talk smack to earn that coin. The Yorks earn it via a completely different means even if it means accepting it from questionable sources. Both cases are shady as hell. It seems the treasury has a tighter grip on the sovereign purse than we may think. The royals aren’t gifted a limitless credit card and can spend at Will.
The trip may have been scheduled but thanks to the Epstein horror Andrew and Fergie look like the half royal Bonnie and Clyde. I would not be surprised if Phillip told him to lay low. The tabloids are trying to tie various royals to Epstein and Maxwell because they were guests at royal residences and parties. Charles is reportedly livid about this mess; and if more comes out on Andrew a King Charles will have the ammunition to side line both of them. Sarah may want to be Andrew’s ride or die girl now but will she stick with him if he is cut off?
Sarah goes wherever the money is. She was quite happy in Switzerland when she had that rich boyfriend there. When that fell out, she was right back to sponging off Pedo and her daughters’ trusts.
Money, and the return of her HRH. From everything I’ve read, she used her status/title to the hilt, very demanding if anyone failed to kowtow sufficiently.
Sarah dipped into her daughters’ trusts?!!
Does anybody else ever wonder what Diana would be thinking about all of this if she were alive? I assume she would have taken Meghan under her wing. I think she would have been fine with Kate too. I think she would have loved to see this and her wicked wit would have been lit, behind closed doors. Not loved that there were victims, don’t take me wrong. But I would love to have heard the nicknames she would have come up with for pedo andy.
Diana would never have let the Middletons be anywhere near William.
In your opinion, Who would Diana prefer: Chelsy or Cressy?
Enquring minds want to know! LOL! LOL!
If Diana had been around then William wouldn’t have turned to Carole as a pseudo mom, which was part of his attraction to that relationship with Kate in the first place. They may have dated in university but I doubt Diana would have let it continue after that.
If Diana had been alive and she had known who William really wanted (Isabella Anstrutherer-Gough-Calthorpe) she would have made sure her boy got the future Queen he truly desired.
If Diana had been alive she would have found out who William wanted (Isabella Anstruther Gogh Al
Diana was snobbish herself. She didn’t like climbers, so the Midds & Meghan wouldn’t have been able to date/marry both Prince’s. Yea when you come from a lower class background and marry into royalty, you’ll be labelled as a social climber. Not that there’s anything wrong with climbing but people in Britain are very classist and like holding aspirational people down. The Midds and Meghan did well for themselves, by themselves, without huge wealth behind them – just plain old hard work and hustle. It takes nerves of steel to literally come from a council estate and have one one of your daughters become the future QC of the country. She’s inspiring for anyone from that background. Penetrating the aristocracy is hard for outsiders & now the Midds enjoy it all. It is a little different for Meghan but she doesn’t need the aristos approval – she has her own set of wealthy friends.
I’d like to add that it’s really funny when white people look down on social climbers. They have privilege from birth so I don’t know how they can’t use it to get ahead in the world. Then they get all frustrated & full of envy when others like them make it.
I think Epstein had a lot of blackmail on Andy. I always thought he threatened him to take that walk with him in Central Park after he was first convicted. He wanted photos out there that he was still supported by people like Andy.
Agree. From that day forward, we all knew Epstein has major dirt on Andrew, he was showing us!
I’ll be honest, I understand the intent behind comparing the coverage of the heinousness of these crimes with the rabid, shallow criticisms of Meghan. However, I think it’s unfair to include her in these stories even to make a point. Basically, let’s keep the focus on the utter abomination of Andrew and Fergie and exclude Meg from this narrative. She doesn’t deserve it.
Does that make sense?
Yes, ENN…but they can’t help it. Everything has to in some kind of way involve or conger up the Duchess of Sussex. Surely she must have been involved or known about Epstein too. smh
Bamaborn, I mean here on CB. This is one of the few corners of the internet that doesn’t sh*t on her for breathing, so I feel like we should not tie her to this story at all. She’s chilling with her baby and getting ready to deal with the Balmoral grind (and likely not thrilled with attending a couple of weeks after the church photo op but has to suck it up for the ILs) so let’s just leave her out of this entirely.
100%
All grossness aside, Andrew & Fergie haven’t gone out of their way to talk about the environment, Harry & Meghan have. Pointing out that A&F took a private plane and bringing Meghan into the story is like comparing apples to oranges.
Where did Meghan talk about the environment?
Let’s not talk about and Fergie with the same breath, you can call Meghan a social climber all you want.
She started working at thirteen and never sat around waiting for anything or anyone to fall her lap.
@Peg: on their instagram, which everyone assumes is written by Meghan.
As I said yesterday, they got called out because it was reported that the whole British Royal family (not just the Sussexes) has doubled their carbon footprint since last year.
I think this is the only valid criticism they have received given they mention global warming and the environment as one of their main concerns.
For me, every member should be criticized for this.
“But Meghan’s emails!”
(no I’m not being serious….Just feeling disgust at the blatant racist, sexist hypocrisy)
Me, too. Just look at the number and type of comments in this thread. Some people can’t even bother to stay on topic. Between today and yesterday, the number of commenters who have come out of the woodwork or only show up when there’s a Meghan thread just to criticize the Sussexes really makes me sick. The hate is real.
@Oleanna, yup these people cannot wait to criticize Meghan for everything. I am surprised that they are not blaming her for this too.
Trash!
I have developed a little fantasy regarding these two. Since the odds of Andrew ever facing a court seem small, I fantasize that Charles banishes Andy (and this Fergie) to a small villa “luxury” of course nothing middle class for these two spendthrifts. But they will be effectively banished and only get $$ if they never darken the monarchy again. And for the rest of their lives they are stuck with no one but each other for company.
I have no doubt that this vacation was always planned, but I also have no doubt that this was very much done to remove Andrew from the public eye for the time being as well. And it serves him well to keep Fergie with him, girl’s a loose canon and who knows what tf she might see fit to do all by herself. I honestly wonder if a part of the reason “they get along so well together” is because Fergie knows all of Andrew’s dirty secrets, and he in turn knows her, and this is a “keep your enemies closer” type of arrangement for the two of them.
How anyone could look at that (or any other) photo, and think that anyone other than Philip is his father, is utterly beyond me.
Gross!!