In 1990, they had two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, making them a perfect family unit.
But beneath the surface, cracks were beginning to appear in their relationship. Sarah privately complained that she spent only 40 days a year with her husband due to his naval service, and in early 1992 rumors emerged of an affair with Texas millionaire Steve Wyatt (she would later claim that she and Andrew were in an open relationship).
Andrew and Sarah kiss after announcing their engagement in 1986.
In March 1992, Buckingham Palace announced that the couple were separating after just six years of marriage. In a hint of what was to come, Queen Elizabeth also announced that she would not be responsible for Sarah’s debts.
The separation itself was not a disaster: after all, Princess Anne had announced her own separation from her first husband, Mark Phillips, three years earlier, and Princess Margaret had divorced in 1978.
Divorce can be done with dignity, which was the least that could be expected from a couple whose expensively celebrated marriage had lasted so short.
Instead, the pair seemed determined to outdo each other in their efforts to humiliate the monarchy.
Andrew and Sarah with their daughters Eugenie (left) and Beatrice in Switzerland in 1998.Credit: AP
In August 1992, just five months after the separation was announced, a topless Sarah was photographed on vacation with her financial advisor John Bryan, now her lover. Photographs of him sucking the toes of Elizabeth II’s daughter-in-law appeared on the covers of newspapers and magazines around the world, infuriating Prince Philip so much that he actually banned her on the spot from future family occasions.
Princess Margaret reportedly wrote to him saying: “You have done more to embarrass the family than I could have ever imagined.”
Amid speculation about a possible reconciliation, the couple’s divorce was finalized in May 1996. Sarah at the time retained the title Duchess of York, but stopped using Her Royal Highness.
Sarah with John Bryan, right.
By then, it had become apparent that Sarah’s spending habits were becoming a problem; It later emerged that at the time of the divorce, he was £4.2 million in debt.
She pleaded poverty and said her divorce settlement had amounted to just £15,000 a year, leaving her with no option but to seek other sources of income, such as a position as spokesperson for Weight Watchers, an autobiography titled Sara: my story and she Parakeet the helicopter children’s books
Buckingham Palace was so furious at his claims that it made it known that he had received £350,000 in cash, £500,000 from the queen to buy a house and a monthly allowance that had paid £500,000 in the first 14 years after the divorce.
However, Sarah seemed unable to live within her means and her greed became a constant source of shame.
In 2010, she was filmed offering an undercover job. World news journalist’s access to Andrew for £500,000.
Charging
Then, in 2011, it emerged that Epstein had helped her avoid bankruptcy by paying £15,000 to settle a debt to an assistant. Several charities immediately dropped her as a sponsor.
Andrew’s own relationship with Epstein became a wound to the royal family’s reputation that was reopened again and again.
In 2010, two years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution, Andrew was photographed walking through Central Park in New York engaged in conversation with him. His friendship with the pedophile cost him his role as Britain’s trade envoy and he insisted he had cut all ties with Epstein.
In 2014, he was accused in court documents of having sex with 17-year-old Virginia Roberts (later Giuffre), who said Epstein had trafficked her. The accusations continued for years. In 2019, Andrew, showing his typical arrogance, decided to give an interview to the BBC program. news nightthinking it would clear his name. But she only made matters worse when she said she had no regrets about her “very helpful” relationship with him.
Andrew with Virginia Roberts Giuffre (center) in 2001 and Jeffrey Epstein’s then-personal assistant Ghislaine Maxwell.
The crisis sparked by the interview led to Andrew’s suspension from public duties, including his resignation from his 230 patronages.
Andrew’s controversial friendships with foreign billionaires did not end with Epstein. The sale of his marital home for £3 million more than the asking price to the multimillionaire son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s president – who then abandoned it and it fell into disrepair – defied logical explanation.
In 2023, King Charles felt that Sarah deserved a second chance and joined the royal family to spend Christmas at Sandringham for the first time since 1992.
However, the Epstein scandal refused to die and in early October it emerged that Andrew, who claimed to have cut off all contact with Epstein in 2010, had emailed him in 2011 after a photograph of him with Giuffre appeared in the newspaper. mail on sunday.
In 2023, Sarah joined the royal family to spend Christmas at Sandringham for the first time since 1992.Credit: getty
He told Epstein: “Looks like we’re in this together and we’ll just have to get through it… we’ll be playing some more soon!!!”
His ex-wife was also caught lying on top of Epstein. In September 2025, it emerged that in April 2011, a month after she claimed to have severed all ties with him, Sarah wrote to him and told him that “from the truth of my heart” she wanted to “humbly apologize” for reporting him.
Furthermore, the duke had developed the unfortunate habit of befriending suspected Chinese spies. Chris Yang, who has been banned from entering Britain in 2023 on suspicion of espionage, had been invited to the royal residences by Andrew. This month, it emerged that the alleged spymaster at the center of the botched Chinese espionage trial had met Andrew at least three times.
Charging
On Thursday, the King decided enough was enough and began the formal process to strip Andrew of all his titles, leaving him simply Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. In doing so, the monarch has done what his late mother never dared to do: make his brother renounce the dukedom she had held so close to her heart.
For Sarah, the King’s decisive action marks the nadir of a public and humiliating fall. Where once there were tentative efforts to slowly bring her back into the royal fold, now there is only isolation. And when she leaves Royal Lodge with her disgraced ex-husband (rumored to happen in the new year) she’ll have to forge a path on her own.
The Telegraph, London
