Sarah Ferguson may soon find herself sitting across from Thames Valley Police investigators, not as a suspect, but as a potential witness in the case against her ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office for allegedly forwarding confidential trade documents to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew was arrested on his 66th birthday at his temporary home on the Sandringham Estate. The charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Now legal experts say Ferguson, also 66, could be drawn into the investigation. An unnamed top barrister told Page Six that police may have grounds to question her as a witness, not because she held public office, but because of what she might know.
They may want to ask her some questions. While Sarah Ferguson would not have been in a public office at that time, I don't know what she knows, and if she has disclosed anything (in emails consistent with her role as an ex-royal and Andrew's ex-wife).
An insider added that it's ultimately "up to police" what they decide to do, noting that "as part of this investigation, they can call upon who they want."
Ferguson's potential involvement as a witness doesn't emerge from thin air, Page Six reported. The Epstein files have already painted an unflattering picture of her relationship with the convicted sex offender.
According to those files, Ferguson allegedly asked Epstein for £20,000 to cover rent in 2009. In January 2010, shortly after Epstein's release from jail, she allegedly emailed him with the words "Just marry me." By May 2010, she had allegedly requested a job as his "House Assistant," stating she "desperately" needed the money and describing herself as "very traumatized and alone."
The article notes there is no evidence of any criminal wrongdoing by Ferguson. A representative for her declined to comment on Andrew's arrest.
The timing of Ferguson's potential police involvement coincides with what appears to be a broader collapse of her post-royal life. She has been stripped of her Duchess of York title amid the Epstein scandal. She was evicted from her former Royal Lodge home. She is believed to be in the United Arab Emirates, having spent time with friends in the French Alps before seeking "winter sun."
Her business portfolio is dissolving. Six companies for which Ferguson served as sole director have applied to be struck off the UK's official Companies House register. Her charity, Sarah's Trust, announced it would close, with the board releasing a carefully worded statement:
Our chair Sarah Ferguson and the board of trustees have agreed that with regret the charity will shortly close for the foreseeable future. This has been under discussion and in train for some months.
The charity insists the closure had been "in train for some months," though the timing alongside the renewed Epstein scrutiny invites its own conclusions.
There is a broader lesson embedded in this story, one that extends well beyond the British royal family's dysfunction. The Epstein saga continues to expose the staggering number of powerful and prominent people who maintained relationships with a convicted sex offender, sometimes long after his crimes were public knowledge.
Ferguson and Andrew divorced in 1996, yet she remained publicly loyal to him for decades, consistently defending and supporting him even as the Epstein connections grew more damning. The emails revealed in the Epstein files suggest a financial dependency on Epstein himself, one that persisted years after his first conviction.
None of this makes Ferguson a criminal. But it does raise a question that elites on both sides of the Atlantic have spent years dodging: Why did so many people of means and influence treat Jeffrey Epstein as a normal business contact, a friend, even a potential employer, when the world already knew what he was?
The police will determine what Ferguson knew and when she knew it. The public already knows enough to draw its own conclusions about judgment.
The investigation into Andrew is still in its early stages. Whether Ferguson is formally questioned, and what that questioning might reveal, remains to be seen. Thames Valley Police hold the cards now, and the scope of their inquiry appears to be widening rather than narrowing.
For a family that once symbolized tradition and duty, the Mountbatten-Windsors have become a case study in something else entirely. Six shuttered companies. A closed charity. A birthday arrest. And an ex-wife who may not be able to stay on the sidelines much longer, no matter how far she travels to find the sun.
