Royal author reveals real reason Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson stopped talking

The once close relationship between Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson ended over the latter's autobiography and fears she was selling stories about her to the press.

Historian and author Andrew Lownie, whose 2025 biography about Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor caused shockwaves around the world, has lifted the lid on the real reason the royal sisters-in-law fell out.

Lownie, who just released a paperback edition of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, which contains new allegations about the couple, also claims the pair never reconciled before Diana's death in 1997 – a year after Ferguson's biography was published.

Lownie was speaking in a video released by the Daily Mail overnight when he said a previous story that the two stopped speaking after Ferguson revealed she once caught a type of wart from Diana was only partly true.

"The two actually fell out over Sarah Ferguson's autobiography, in which she referred to catching a verruca [wart] from borrowing some shoes from Diana," he said.

"In fact, the reality was that Diana was very concerned that Sarah Ferguson might well be selling stories about her."

Lownie said while Ferguson pretended otherwise, the "relationship was never repaired".

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Ferguson's book, My Story, was released in November 1996. Lownie said the two did not speak again before Princess Diana died in Paris in August 1997.

Elsewhere during the video, Lownie spoke about the pair's long relationship.

"The relationship between Sarah Ferguson and Diana, Princess of Wales, was a very complex one," he said.

"They were childhood friends. It was Diana who actually introduced Sarah Ferguson [to Prince Andrew] at Ascot in 1985, which led to the engagement and marriage the following year."

He said after the wedding, the pair remained "good friends" who bonded over their children, who were of similar age.

He claimed they also bonded over their role in the royal family.

"Diana would come to Sarah Ferguson every Sunday and they would moan about the royal family," he said.

"They both felt very restricted within the confines of the monarchy.

"But at the same time, there were some concerns that Diana had that Fergie was perhaps too boisterous, that she was kind of undermining Diana's own reputation and she began to distance herself."

Lownie also claimed Diana "kind of played a tough trick on Ferguson" because she said that they would both divorce at the same time and that would "of course have a much bigger effect than one of them".

"Then she let Sarah Ferguson do it on her own and basically learned from how the royal family treated [her] about how she would handle the divorce herself."

Lownie believes if Ferguson decided to write another tell-all book, as predicted, it would most likely centre on her relationship with Diana as well as "her relationship with the Queen, which she claims was very good", something he said "the Queen might have said 'recollections vary'" about if she was alive today.

Lownie told The Mirror last week he believed Ferguson could be "negotiating" for a royal pension in exchange for her silence, with claims she has been approached to take part in a tell-all Oprah-style interview.

Others believe she could be in negotiations to write a book.

Lownie spent four years researching his book, which lifted the lid on Andrew's long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, taxpayer-funded overseas trips and other wild claims about the former prince's sex life, including his penchant for sex workers.

He also detailed an alleged affair between Ferguson and Sean 'Diddy' Combs – something she denied – her ongoing friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and "Marie Antoinette-like" waste at the couple's former home, Royal Lodge, which they were forced to vacate earlier this year.

Ferguson has been lying low since losing her title of Duchess of York in October 2025 and renewed interest in her relationship with Epstein following the release of the so-called Epstein Files.

There has only been one sighting of her this year, with The Sun newspaper spotting her in the Austrian Alps.