Options for Sarah to recover from the 'Cash for Access' scandal


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As the weddings of the girls and other events surrounding them, such as their graduations from university, will be private events we can therefore assume that the Queen and Philip won't be attending these events as Sarah, their mother will.
 
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Iluvbertie said:
As the weddings of the girls and other events surrounding them, such as their graduations from university, will be private events we can therefore assume that the Queen and Philip won't be attending these events as Sarah, their mother will.
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According to my girlfriend there are no graduations in England but they'd still celebrate, probably once with the parents and a visit with the grandparents.

As harsh as it seems, Phillip does have a point. Yes he does have it in for her but it doesn't change the fact that Sarah doesn't ned pampering she needs the discipline she so surely lacks financially. Yes letting her go bankrupt is harsh but she can't be allowed to walk away from this having learned nothing, which is a real possibility.
 
sliver_bic said:
According to my girlfriend there are no graduations in England...
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William certainly had a graduation from St Andrews in Scotland.

The following website refers to graduation ceremonies at Oxford. Academic dress of the University of Oxford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following website shows the graduation at Goldsmiths (where Beatrice is studying): Presentation Ceremonies, Goldsmiths, University of London

The following website is from the University in Newcastle where Eugenie is studying: Congregation Ceremonies - - Newcastle University

I think you friend might be referring to the end of high school, where like Australia there is often no formal graduation but from university their is but to many US people they still call uni 'school' and thus if you asked your friend about graduating from 'school' the friend might have assumed high school rather than university.
 
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IluvBertie is absolutely right, as so often, about the graduation ceremonies in the UK and Australia. I know this being an Australian graduate and post-graduate myself and my husband, a graduate and post-graduate of The University of Oxford.

In my view, it would be churlish and remiss for either the Queen or the Duke to miss either of their granddaughter's university graduation on the basis that they didn't much care for the girls' mother, though other factors may prove difficult when the time comes. In fact, past practice leads me to assume that the Queen will do what is right and proper for her to support and encourage and congratulate her granddaughters. There is absolutely no reason to believe that she doesn't hold them both in high regard - in fact, quite the reverse.
 
I'd like to mention that Sarah's personal debts have been cleared, so reliable, non anti-royal press reports, assert.

The remainder are business debts. In this, she's not the only one who has businesses which have crashed in recent times.

I make no apology for her in this at all as I'm not conversant with all of the circumstances, but I would suggest that we all re-consider and reflect on unsubstantiated accusations that her debts are anything from 2m to 5m pounds, depending on which report we read. Her critics can't agree on the extent of her iniquities.

I've always felt that her annual stipend of a miserly 15,000 pounds, awarded when she voluntarily eschewed her royal status and left the family, was disgraceful. It was very tiny then and it's entirely inappropriate and inadequate today.

So why should she get anything?

Because in her day, she bought a breath of fresh air to the hidebound court. She was a young woman of personality who represented those many millions who had never before become part of the royal mystique. She had a long, aristocratic-based background, she was utterly without pretension or malice, and she produced two lovely granddaughters for the Monarch.

Ultimately, she was driven out, and yes, I'm fully cognisant of her misdemeanours, but how many remember 'why'?

I do.
 
In my opinion she shouldn't have settled for 15,000 trust me the queen would be willing to pay more money to save her and the rest of the royal family of 15+ years of constant embarrassment from the duchess, well that's just my opinion.
 
I am sure that in hindsight the Queen wishes that she had provided for Sarah in an appropriate manner rather than let her be forced to sell herself and her royal connections to earn a crust (her royal connections being the fact that she was the Queen's ex-daughter-in-law). It was the cache of that position that allowed her to get out of debt the first time but now she has nothing and either must be provided for as she should have been or fact further embarassment as she tries to rebuild her life again.
 
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And it's a good opinion,too, Jonc93.

When Sarah, so the rumour goes, accepted the 15,000 annual pounds, her lawyers and advisors encouraged her to not accept. However, she did, and the rest is history.

Possibly, it may even explain why Andrew remains so supportive and continues to assist her in every way imaginable, especially with her basic costs of living.
 
I honestly feel a bit of pity but at the same time no because the Duchess dropped her 2 million dollar a year deal with Weight Watchers!! That was the first wrong move that led her down hill. I also think she took her courtesy title to far, she tried to live like a duchess, and now she has to pay for it!
 
sliver_bic said:
According to my girlfriend there are no graduations in England but they'd still celebrate, probably once with the parents and a visit with the grandparents.
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Every University in England/Scotland/Wales and NI has a graduation ceremony when each years students leave.

After her £5m debt, Sarah Ferguson fights to avoid bankruptcy | Mail Online

The Duchess of York is 'doing everything she can' to stave off bankruptcy after falling £5million into the red.

Sarah Ferguson's debts are accumulating thousands of pounds a week in interest following a series of failed business deals.

In a sign of her increasingly desperate predicament, she cannot even afford to repair the £130,000 Bentley lying idle in her garage, it was claimed.
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Iluvbertie said:
I think you friend might be referring to the end of high school, where like Australia there is often no formal graduation but from university their is but to many US people they still call uni 'school' and thus if you asked your friend about graduating from 'school' the friend might have assumed high school rather than university.
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Yeah it's my mistake, she's never mentioned the ceremony for her University but I just checked and they have one, so I apparently confused what she told me about high school and applied it to Uni.
Polly said:
...Ultimately, she was driven out, and yes, I'm fully cognisant of her misdemeanours, but how many remember 'why'? I do.
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Why? Because she decided to strike out on her own, dug herself out of a hole and then firmly replanted herself in one with her own bad decisions and then compounded it with horrible behavior. We can place the blame on the family or on the person who ultimately hung herself.

You talk about her voluntarily giving up the status like she was doing such an honorable thing. The marriage fell apart and they got divorced and away went the title, it's as simple as that. On top of that she's spent the time since cashing in on that connection, it's not like people know her as Sarah Ferguson, it's Sarah Ferguson Duchess of York, it'll be like that as long as it makes her money.

She chose to take a small amount instead of going for the big reward, that's her choice. It all goes back to her. If she had fallen on her face after the marriage under the original debt, these arguments would hold water because she made the harder choice of choosing good relations over money.

Unfortunately, she got herself out of trouble and that "miserly" 15k meant nothing when she was riding high. She ha screwed herself over and attempted to do the same to her greatest defender in an effort to get herself out of the mess that she created, the decision to take the 15K has no place here. Different time, different debt.
 
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I would imagine that Sarah is a very likeable, fun-to-be-with person. But I really think that she has some very serious mental and emotional problems that need to be dealt with. A healthy well-balanced person does not go around recklessly spending money that she does not have, with no thought about how it is going to be paid.

If all her debts are paid by PA and HM? the situation will simply happen again, a couple of years down the road.

Even if she was given 50,000 pounds a month from PA (and I don't believe he has that kind of money) she could quite easily go through that in a day! It's also highly unlikely that Sarah will ever again make the big money that she once did. They have a really big problem on their hands with her.
 
Most first time credit card users, and even some long time users as well, have that issue the difference is when you reach the end of the line, they stop.

I still wonder how long Sarah's finances would be watched by Andrew's people, if anything it'd be best to stick with them if only because they'd be more likely to, through Andrew's wishes, take care of her by pulling her back in risky situations.
 
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Polly said:
...Ultimately, she was driven out, and yes, I'm fully cognisant of her misdemeanours, but how many remember 'why'? I do.
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I remember as well. However! No matter how mean the little men in grey were to her, nobody but NOBODY took a gun to Fergie's head and said "Sleep with Steve Wyatt and Johnny Byran." She did it herself. Just like all the rest of her choices. SHE made them. SHE CHOSE.
I wonder, Polly, if you've gotten those rose-colored glasses from the same place as Bertie?
 
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I fail to see how the Duchess current events have anything to do with Steve Wyatt and John Bryan...so let's move on.
 
jonc93 said:
...I also think she took her courtesy title to far, she tried to live like a duchess, and now she has to pay for it!
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But Jonc93, she actually is a duchess, and it's not a courtesy title but a fully traditional, legal one, pertaining to the divorced or widowed wives of all peers, and princes, for that matter.

From recall, the money which she made from Weight Watchers and other American-based enterprises paid of her first batch of debts. I don't know whether, subsequently, Weight Watchers dropped her or she dropped them.
Russophile said:
...However! No matter how mean the little men in grey were to her, nobody but NOBODY took a gun to Fergie's head and said "Sleep with Steve Wyatt and Johnny Byran." She did it herself. Just like all the rest of her choices. SHE made them. SHE CHOSE.
I wonder, Polly, if you've gotten those rose-colored glasses from the same place as Bertie?
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Well, Russophile, if we're going down the track of who slept with whom, I'd be equally critical of a whole raft of people, most probably.

I tend to be forgiving of human frailties, particularly those captured by spying, telephoto lenses. She was extremely foolish but she was also unlucky as she wasn't the only member of her contemporaries in the royal family to commit adultery.

Rose-coloured glasses, you suggest? Not at all: but I do believe in fairness. And, of course, I've always rather liked Sarah, despite her obvious flaws.
 
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I believe I also wrote about the rest of her choices which has led her to this point. That was the begining. Like Zonk has said before, I, too, had admired her for digging herself out of her rut only to watch her throw herself back in. There comes a point when one cannot be so forgiving when someone keeps doing the same thing, over and over and over and over again.
It reminds me of my ex husband. No matter how many times he told me he was "New Mxxxxx", it was the same old leopard who hadn't changed his spots or ways.
 
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To some extent I agree with you, Russophile, but if the less sensationalist press is correct, she's extricated herself from her personal debts this time, too. And to the best of my knowledge, she's been in severe financial stress twice, not repeatedly, unless there's information about which I am ignorant.

Although I don't know the details of her business collapses I'm still prepared to assume that they are concomitant with the hundreds of thousands of businesses ruined throughout the entire world because of the GFC. Even many of those who were, hitherto, considered quite savvy and successful business men and women have suffered enormous losses.
 
We shall see if Sarah has changed and/or learnt any lessons. She has been awfully quiet of late, justifiably so, so there isn't any thing really to go on.
And being the gossip monger that I am :D I shall be watching to see what transpires.
 
Polly said:
To some extent I agree with you, Russophile, but if the less sensationalist press is correct, she's extricated herself from her personal debts this time, too. And to the best of my knowledge, she's been in severe financial stress twice, not repeatedly, unless there's information about which I am ignorant.

According to Sarah's interview with Oprah at the end of May, she didn't have any money. And as far as we know, she has not worked a day since then. So if the press is right and her personal debts of 1.5m pounds have been paid, then they are probably also right when they say that it was PA that paid them off...and not Sarah.
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Polly said:
Although I don't know the details of her business collapses I'm still prepared to assume that they are concomitant with the hundreds of thousands of businesses ruined throughout the entire world because of the GFC. Even many of those who were, hitherto, considered quite savvy and successful business men and women have suffered enormous losses.
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Some of Sarah`s losses (Handmade Films comes to mind) had to do with the GFC, but others are her own fault. I do think Andrew paid off her personal debts because as Katrieanna says, she didn`t have any money in May and hasn`t been working since then.

It`s odd to keep reading things about Sarah`s finances from "close royal aides" including discussions of what supposedly transpired on the yacht. It sounds like someone from the staff is spilling things without the royal family`s knowledge, or someone has permission to share some details to the press to gauge possible public reaction to different scenarios, like the Queen and Andrew supporting Sarah or Sarah going bankrupt.

I do think Sarah will end up going bankrupt. I don`t really see how she has a choice. I keep getting the impression from reading the articles that are coming out, that Sarah, Andrew, and maybe the Queen and the courtiers, are all hoping for Sarah to get some big contract in the U.S. again, but I just don`t think it will happen--the time for that has passed. Maybe the Oprah thing will work out for a while--if that network ever gets off the ground.
 
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Hi Kakieanne,

I guess that if Andrew did pay her personal debts then we shall never know.

As for not working 'since' - Sarah's written and published over 20 books. We have no way of knowing whether or not she's involved in another similar enterprise, after all.

Perhaps those press reports are from the same 'informed sources' which claimed that Sarah has stolen her children's trust fund monies? As if.
 
Sarah did say in the News of the World transcript that her daughters paid for her. I suppose we have no way of knowing if she`s earned money since the tabloid sting, but I think we might hear about it if she was involved with some new venture.
 
What Sarah needs to do is what many other women (and men) in similar situations do - get a sugar daddy. If she can not support herself in the lifestyle she likes to keep then find someone who can. Very simple.
 
Oh, yes, rmay286. But well-heeled daughters paying out for Mum's treats (and they wouldn't be the only ones) is vastly different from unsubstantiated allegations that Mum's stealing from the kids. Actually, as the trusts weren't set up by Sarah such actions would constitute a criminal offence. As my children have small trust funds set up by their grandparents, I know of what I speak, Australian law mirroring English law, as it does.

I only mentioned this at all because it's indicative of the extent to which some of the press will go to discredit anyone who falls out of favour this week, this month, etc.

Likewise the charges that Sarah's lazy. Maybe, but looking at her cv from the last few years certainly doesn't give me that impression.

I don't know, either, that her losses were her fault as I don't know what they actually are or how they came about. However, I have friends and family in the UK and the US who have suffered enormous losses through no fault of their own. Some who were living comfortably on investments no longer enjoy a regular income; some who were in business have almost gone to the wall because others can't pay their business accounts; some had business loans which were called in, unexpectedly, by the banks because the banks were in deep doo-doo from mismangement......there are a myriad reasons why decent, hardworking and honourable people have hit the wall. Whether Sarah is in this category I just don't know, but I'm prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt until I do.

One of my near relatives works, voluntarily, as a financial and business adviser to The Prince's Trust. I believe him, absolutely, when he says that even successful, well-funded and well-structured businesses have been in great peril in recent years with unexpected and surprise defalcations by some debtors, the banking crisis, the loss of spending power by many, and that more financial stress is still anticipated.

In sum, until I have absolute proof that the Duchess did anything untoward, un-businesslike, or downight dodgy, then I'm prepared to feel sorry for her and her financial calamities.

Best to all.
 
You don't consider attempting to sell Andrew out as untoward, un-businesslike, or downright dodgy? It was endangering him, possibly even her daughters, depending on who she might've set him up with and where such a meeting might have taken place.

What I wonder is if she'd be allowed to go into bankruptcy? I'm not sure how it works in the UK compared to the States, I've been looking around, but would the court take into account the fact that she lives in Andrew's home, that he in fact has the money to pay off those debts if he wanted to? Would it matter that they're not married?
 
The people I pity are those to whom she owes money and who will get nothing of their money if she is declared bankrupt !
 
Polly said:
As for not working 'since' - Sarah's written and published over 20 books. We have no way of knowing whether or not she's involved in another similar enterprise, after all.
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One would think she would get some sort of residuals, my Peter does with his books.
 
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