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Sarah Ferguson called her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s accuser a ‘salacious liar’ in a resurfaced television interview,
Appearing on American talk show The Meredith Vieira Show in January 2015, Ferguson came to the defence of her ex-husband, who had recently been accused of sexual abuse by Virginia Giuffre.
“I don’tunderstand how in this day and age people can make salacious lies up and how the media then write about it and follow on with it”, she said.
“There’s nothing more to be said. It is shockingly accusatory lies which I won’t stand by and let anybody believe. I have to shut it down right now.”
In 2014, Giuffre, a trafficking victim of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, filed legal proceedings against the former Prince claiming he had sexually assaulted her on three separate occasions.
Andrew was stripped of all his royal patronages and military titles in January following a civil lawsuit brought by one of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking victims, Virginia Giuffre. Photo / Supplied
“This is defamation of character of a person that is the opposite of how he has been portrayed.”
She described the accused sexual predator as “one of the greatest men I’ve ever met in my life and my best friend”.
Even after their split in 1992, Ferguson and Mountbatten-Windsor have maintained a close relationship and have lived together at Royal Lodge for the last 18 years.
Their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, were also mentioned in the interview, with the then 56-year-old asking Vieira if she could “imagine” what they’ve been through.
Ferguson said the family “will not be defeated, that we are impenetrable and that we will show by success”.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson have remained good friends since their 1992 split. Photo / Mark Cuthbert, UK Press via Getty Images
In 2022, Mountbatten-Windsor reached a settlement with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount but did not admit his guilt - instead, he said he regretted “his association with Epstein”.
Ferguson was herself friends with Epstein, exchanging correspondence over the years in which she asked him to marry her and begged him for a job as a house assistant.
In the wake of the ongoing scandal, royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told GB News the former couple are experiencing a “very substantial change from the image of this idea that they were the world’s most friendly divorced couple”.
Fitzwilliams said he imagines Ferguson will be planning a comeback but had less than favourable expectations for its success, noting that her charities have “cast her adrift”.
