The Curious Case of Fergie’s £5 Million Mayfair Home: Part II. Last week, we learned that Sarah Ferguson could somehow afford to purchase a £5 million home in the posh Mayfair district of London. It was a bizarre story for many reasons, especially given that Fergie and Prince Andrew are constantly crying poverty, and they are both in perpetual states of brokeass. In 2014, Andrew and Fergie “bought” a ski chalet in Verbier. The sale was organized without a bank – they just made an arrangement with the owner, Isabelle de Rouvre, for huge payments over the course of five years. Shortly after Jeffrey Epstein’s mysterious death in jail in 2019, Andrew and Fergie’s money seemingly ran out. They were in arrears with Isabelle de Rouvre for millions in back payments. De Rouvre sued them and they eventually worked it out, and Andrew made a big show of selling the Verbier chalet earlier this year so he could pay off his various debts and avoid a seizure of his assets. You get the point: Fergie and Andrew are broke as hell. So how could Fergie afford the Mayfair home? That’s what Isabelle de Rouvre would like to know.
A French socialite to whom the Duke and Duchess of York owed millions of pounds after a dispute about a Swiss chalet is outraged that Sarah, Duchess of York, has bought a house in Mayfair. Isabelle de Rouvre, 74, described the news that Prince Andrew’s former wife had bought the London property for £5 million as “incredible and unbelievable” as she believed she “didn’t have a penny”.
The Yorks bought de Rouvre’s chalet in Verbier in 2014 for about £18 million. They agreed to pay her £5 million of that in cash instalments, with interest accruing. When the Yorks failed to settle the bill, de Rouvre took them to court. Today she reveals that she was in fact owed a total of about £6.8 million, which included interest, but agreed to a lower payment of about £3.4 million, partly because she was under the impression that the Yorks, both 62, were short of money. “I was forced to get lawyers involved and I settled for about half the amount,” she said.
De Rouvre said one reason she had not pursued the full payment was because of Prince Andrew’s American legal case brought by Virginia Guiffre, who alleged that he had sex with her when she was 17. Andrew has always denied the allegations. “I understood they didn’t have the money and believed he would be going to prison in America so I thought it best to get what I could,” she said. “I am outraged that I am now told she has spent millions on another property. It is just incredible and the whole story unbelievable. It is a dirty story as far as I am concerned.”
Sarah purchased the mews house from Grosvenor Estates, and it is thought to be a long-term investment for her daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. It will be rented out and details of the new ownership are yet to be published by the Land Registry. De Rouvre said: “I thought she didn’t have a penny.” She reached a settlement with the Yorks in November after a protracted legal battle. “The war is finished,” de Rouvre said at the time.
The Yorks took out a mortgage of £13.25 million and agreed to pay the remaining £5 million in instalments. When the couple failed to pay the outstanding amounts, “the whole thing became a mess”, de Rouvre said. “I couldn’t sleep, I just couldn’t carry on so I settled for £3.4 million to get away from it all and away from them.”
The Yorks, who divorced in 1996, still live together in the Royal Lodge, Windsor. Asked about the Mayfair house, a spokesman for the duke told The Sun that he had not been involved in the purchase. Sarah’s representatives confirmed the purchase of the Mayfair property to The Sun. When approached yesterday they declined to comment on the details of the purchase or the settlement reached with de Rouvre.
[From The Times]
It really is shocking. We get too “into the weeds” of royal gossip sometimes, but there are truly shenanigans afoot with Fergie and Andrew’s financial situation. To cry poverty selectively when it comes to paying off a luxury ski chalet, then turn around months later and purchase a $6 million home in Mayfair? It’s insane. What’s even more shocking is that there’s zero appetite for the British media to dig deeper. Where did Fergie’s money come from? How did Andrew pay off de Rouvre? How did Andrew pay the settlement to Virginia Giuffre? How much money did Fergie and Andrew really “borrow” from Jeffrey Epstein? How much money do they owe their creditors?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Source: Read Full Article