What will Sarah Ferguson do now? Ex Royal seeks comeback after Epstein Files

Fergie, as she is known, has stepped back from charities she represented and faces further financial problems, which have plagued her since her divorce 30 years ago.

The files have been highly damaging for what’s left of her reputation, showing that she had greater ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein than first thought and that she had kept in touch after his initial imprisonment and had asked for money.

Now 66, she has not joined her husband in his exile, Andrew having moved out of the Royal Lodge, which they shared in Windsor, to a smaller property in the Sandringham Estate.

What is Sarah Ferguson doing now?

According to reports, the former Duchess of York is now plotting some kind of comeback.

Sarah is said to be "getting her head together" in the United Arab Emirates, reportedly telling friends: "I need to get back to work, I need money”.

She has been working as an author and charity campaigner, as well as a promoter of schemes to get children reading.

The Mail did not report what she might look to do next, but it has been speculated that she has hired a new PR team and is now seeking to distance herself from Andrew, having called them the “happiest divorced couple in the world”.

Their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, are said to be planning to "separate themselves in public" from Sarah and Andrew, but are "holding it together as a family" behind closed doors.

It was previously reported that she was househunting in London, but not everyone is keen on the idea of a Fergie comeback.

Shelagh Fogarty said: “From the comfort of the Emirates, where she has been with one of her daughters on a working trip, she is reportedly considering a return to public life. The very idea speaks to the level of ego and entitlement at play.”

What was Sarah’s relationship with Epstein?

Sarah is now lying low, having been implicated several times, with the release of the Epstein Files. Revelations involving her include:

• Jeffrey Epstein and Lord Peter Mandelson discussed putting her into rehab for medication abuse,
• Her debts were so great that she had a £10m cash offer from Phones4U founder John Caudwell in exchange for half of her earnings, while she also wrote to Epstein to ask for money - receiving a $15,000 bail out,
• Epstein had asked her to release a statement stating that he was not a paedophile, which she did not do, but in another email she wrote to apologise for distancing herself to “save her own reputation”,
• Sarah invited Epstein, after his release from prison, to a birthday party for Andrew - which was attended by her daughters,
• In a 2009 email, she wrote: "Thank you Jeffrey for being the brother I have always wished for,” adding, “I am at your service, just marry me.”
• An unknown child, fathered by Epstein, was also referenced by Sarah in an email which she sent to him in congratulations.

The revelations do not indicate guilt or wrongdoing by Sarah, nor that she knew or was complicit to the sexual trafficking and abuse that disgraced financier Epstein undertook.

However, the seemingly close ties have made some wary about the prospect of a return.

In her column for LBC, Shelagh added: “I am not saying she should hide away and never be seen again. Nobody should have to live like that. But the notion of a public comeback, a return as an author, a public champion of some organisation, or at the head of another charity, simply does not stack up.”

In recent weeks, The Firm has, for the first time, commented on the Epstein-Andrew situation, with both Prince Edward and the Prince and Princess of Wales expressing the need for a focus on the victims.

Eva Blum-Dumontet has called on the Royal Family to offer the victims more.

The policy lead at the organisation, that helps abuse survivors, told LBC: “Until the Royal Family is transparent - not just with the police - but with the British Public about just how much they got from Epstein and how much Epstein got from them, they cannot genuinely be part of the process we now all want to see: closure for survivors.”