Sarah, Duchess of York: "Cash for Access", May 2010

[LadyHylton]

Thank you, Ladies, for making me feel welcome!

The Daily Mail is a tabloid paper so you have to take it with a grain of salt. But they do seem to get a morsel or two right a lot of the time.
I had understand she had agreed to a lesser settlement so she could have her freedom to write her autobiographies. No confidentiality agreement. That is what I read, so that may be wrong. If so, please, someone correct me.

It's not fair to the Queen & Andrew to have this be their fault since she was the one to decide she wanted to write books that no longer provide royalties.

[zembla]

Interesting insight by Tina Brown...

Fergie Bribery Scandal: Tina Brown on Sarah Ferguson - The Daily Beast

[Iluvbertie]

Originally Posted by Melibea

This is just getting worse by the minute
Can she renegotiate the divorce settlement now?

Yes a divorce settlement can be renegotiated - particularly if the financial circumstances of either party changes and that is clearly the case with Andrew after the sale of Sunninghill and the death of his grandmother, from whom he inherited a trust fund.

[rominet09]

That woman has no shame. The persons I pity are her daughters !

[udyusa]

You are So right, rominet. Has Sarah Ever had 'shame'? Her daughters will have so much to live with... and to live down. I do not envy them.

[Princejohnny25]

I dont think she will be able to get any more money out of Andrew, her financial situation changed as well. She became a millionaire, then lost it, then got it again, then lost it again. She has showed that she can make a living and survive, but always loses it by her own fault. Plus, it was Fergies toe suckin photos that instigated the official divorce. I dont really see how they could make a good argument to get more money for her? Are there any law or divorce experts to dish out facts?

[Alice the goddess]

How did the tabloid set up the meeting? Did they push her to do it?
How did the tabloids know she wanted to sell access to her ex husband

[Mermaid1962]

If so, I don't think that they had to push very hard.

[Iluvbertie]

Her circumstances can be brought into the situation but she can certainly argue that she got a bad deal.

With no fault divorce, which is what this divorce was, who cheated or left etc is irrelevant to determinations of this kind. Simply put the wife is usually entitled to half of the husband's assets, or more if she has custody of the children, which she didn't. Once his circumstances changed she can, and many have, petitioned for a reconsideration. The fact that she has made and lost money should be taken into consideration but so will her ability to earn an income for herself - her qualifications (none) so her only means of earning an income is to play on her 'of York' name and connections. A court could rule a number of ways here but certainly a chance to renegotiate would allow both sides to put their cards on the table.

[Lumutqueen]

Originally Posted by Alice the goddess

How did the tabloids know she wanted to sell access to her ex husband

They didn't.
They just asked the question, and she replied.
I doubt she was pushed into the meeting at all.

If she wants to ask for more money, thats reinforces my opinion of her as a golddigger.

[Iluvbertie]

If getting more money from Andrew means that she won't be able to use her 'of York' name for personal gain and thus won't be tabloid fodder then I don't see her as a golddigger but rather one who says - either I have to sell what I have to earn a living or you have to make it possible for me to live in the style appropriate to the mother of British princesses.

[Wisteria]

Sarah has managed to go through more than one fortune, so if she gets more money from Prince Andrew and goes through that as quickly as she has done so far, will she be asking for more and crying the poor mouth again?
I think only a fool throws good money after bad. She has had more money than most people in the UK have had in a lifetime and gone through the lot, mainly by a lack of good sense and then as she gave birth to two girls with HRH before their names she feels she is entitled to be kept in a way she was not accustomed to before she married Prince Andrew and be given money every time she manages, al by herself, to run up debts.
My sympathy goes to The Queen and her long-suffering patient ex-husband, her daughters and to the people she owes money to.

[Iluvbertie]

It isn't a matter of where people's sympathies lie but how to prevent a repeat. With no help financially from her husband's family she will continue to use her name and the 'of York' style to earn a living bringing the name into more disrepute than currently.

She was given bad advice at the time of the divorce and should have held out for more. She could now threaten to sell what she knows about the family for a lot of money and dish the dirt on the family, and she would know quite a lot, unless they pay up. She hasn't done so in the past but there is nothing to stop her now unless they do something - she is a loose cannon and they need to do something to prevent her doing worse than offering to introduce someone to her husband for a fee (something quite legal by the way).

[Lumutqueen]

Well I see her as a gold-digger. No way is she going to give up her style.
So she is the mother of two princess, she shouldn't be living the lifestyle of someone who is royalty. She was given a fair divorce, she should have adjusted to what she was given and thats that. She shouldn't "sell what she has" for a living, she should do something decent with whatever skills she has. She just doesn't like the fact that she is no longer royalty, and has to partake in scandals to hit the headlines If she threatens to sell what she knows, than that shows me again that she is pathetic, she would be seriously hurting the family that she was once a part of and a family her daughters are part of.
What she's doing is pathetic, and if I was her daughter, I would be ashamed of her.

[Idriel]

I hope this latest rumor is true.
I hope she'll manage to extort a couple of millions from Andrew so that when she's done blowing through it all over again she has nobody left to blame beside herself and even her most ardent apologists will have run out of excuses.

Preventing a repeat? Ohh, the triumph of hope over experience!

As for selling what she knows about the royal family: she knows nothing of any worth. She has had zero access (aside from Andrew and her daughters) since her divorce and as she was by far one of the worst behaved member of this family, any skeleton she knows of are likely of her own making (and have already made it to the cover of tabloids).
The cushiest information she has are 14 years old and won't be of interest to anyone.
What could she possibly write? Gossips about Andrew's life (whom nobody care about) or about her daughters' private life (I would not put it past her)? Or is she going to write about Diana's foot warts again?

I doubt anybody in BP is shaking in their boots.

[zembla]

I really don't think her divorce settlement was fair on any level, but I do agree that she was a foolish spender. She made A LOT of money over the years and did nothing to save it. I'm not saying TRF should have given her a Diana settlement, but maybe enough to distance themselves and keep her on the down low from embarrassing them with one bizarre venture after another.

[rmay286]

I don't see why Sarah should be getting a bigger divorce settlement. Maybe her settlement was too small, but that isn't the cause of her current problems. Even when she was a part of the royal family and had access to the income that royals have, Sarah was hugely in debt! In fact, I saw an interview with her once where she was asked why she divorced Andrew, and she said, "Because I had to work and I couldn't work as a royal." That suggests that the money she had as a royal wasn't enough to fund her lifestyle and she wanted a chance to earn more. Sarah then got a Weight Watchers contract supposedly worth 2 million dollars a year, and within three years of that contract ending, she is now apparently almost bankrupt. This despite having other smaller opportunities to earn money over the three years since the contract ended.

That makes me think that no matter how much money Sarah has, she will always spend beyond her means and have nothing to show for it in the end. IMO by giving her more money, the royal family will not prevent future scandals, they'll just delay them.

[lyndaW]

I guess what upset me the most, was Fergie says she was living off her daughters Trust Funds set up by the Queen Mother for the two girls.....the way Fergie spends I wonder just how much is left in those funds.............and she was considered Mother of the Year !

[AuntyTam]

I am disturbed by that admission too. She should not be able to touch that money.
Is anyone reporting on today's anticipated meeting between Sarah and PA yet? So far, I haven't come across any information...

[COUNTESS]

She is a foolish woman and perhaps one of her foolish acts was to marry Andrew.