EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Rumours swirl that Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson are thinking about marrying again… But were they pushed by the Palace to divorce in the first place?
Fresh rumours swirl that Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew are thinking about marrying again. But should they have divorced in the first place? Sarah’s father, Major Ronald Ferguson, blamed the Palace for pushing them into it, suggesting that an extended separation was what they wanted. And Prince Philip and Princess Margaret were keen to evict Sarah from the family, a source says. They brought the Queen round to their way of thinking. When Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, the Yorks, according to my source, were ‘persuaded’ to do the same. Now the greatest obstacle to remarriage (Prince Philip) is gone, is the way clear to retie the knot?
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, Johan Eliasch (c) and Prince Andrew, Duke of York, at Royal Ascot in 2019
The wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson on 23 July, 1986
Previously classified papers reveal that then Tory minister John Profumo hushed up the disclosure that soldiers deployed to Balmoral to guard the monarch were being used as unpaid beaters for royal shoots. Squaddies are still asked if they will beat for shoots, whispers a source. But they now volunteer for the task, rather than being commandeered, and pocket a beater’s fee to boot.
The Old Etonian Association’s annual review includes a 12-page section on books written by OE alumni. Included are four pages on Nicholas Shakespeare’s biography of Ian Fleming, as well as details of 20 other books. However, there’s not a peep about one of the biggest-selling books of last year – or indeed any year – Prince Harry‘s Spare. Is Harry persona non grata at his alma mater?
Elizabeth Hurley‘s New Year’s reunion with ex-hubby Arun Nayar comes 12 years after their divorce was finalised in a 92-second court hearing. The judge ruled at the time that Liz was entitled to a divorce due to Nayar’s ‘unreasonable behaviour’, adding that ‘the respondent [Mr Nayar] has behaved in such a way that the petitioner [Hurley] cannot be reasonably expected to live with the respondent’. All forgotten now!
Elizabeth Hurley reunited with her ex-husband Arun Nayar to celebrate New Year’s Eve together on Sunday night with the star’s son Damian, 21
During his fawning BBC documentary about Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies, Alan Yentob makes a brief reference to Davies’s first Time Lord, actor Christopher Eccleston. ‘There was one problem,’ Yentob narrates. ‘Christopher Eccleston could only make one series. A new Doctor was needed.’ More to it than that, surely? Eccleston has said: ‘I left because my relationship with the showrunner [Davies] and the producers broke down – the politics of the show.’ Recently asked to name his conditions for returning to Doctor Who, Eccleston announced: ‘Sack Russell T Davies.’ Nothing to see there, Alan?
The New Year prompts recollections of the late Killing Fields author Christopher Hudson’s 1987 booking of a Savoy Hotel dinner for eight to view the millennium fireworks 12 years later. In February 1999, he received a letter from the Savoy ‘re-confirming your request to join the house-party at the Savoy at a cost of £3,000 per person’. ‘That’s £24,000 for supper and a view of the fireworks,’ Hudson wrote. ‘I could take eight people round the world for that.’ He cancelled.
