Inside 60 Minutes Australia’s most SHOCKING royal interview with Sarah Ferguson – following Jason Knauf’s bombshell claims

Last week, Prince William‘s closest aide Jason Knauf appeared in his first TV interview with 60 Minutes Australia.

Mr Knauf, a New Zealander who worked as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s press secretary, stood by his complaint about the alleged ‘totally unacceptable’ behaviour of the Duchess of Sussex.

‘The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights’, he had written in an 2018 email, where he accused Meghan of ‘bullying’ and undermining the confidence of two staff.

When asked if it was tough to have the spotlight on him following the leak of his emails, he said: ‘I wouldn’t change anything’.

Royal watchers have since branded the interview ‘extraordinary’ but 60 Minutes Australia is more than used to a royal scoop.

While she is now seen as a doting grandmother, Sarah Ferguson was once one of the most controversial members of the royal family.

In 1992, the Duchess of York, who was married to the scandal-ridden Prince Andrew from 1986 to 1996, was pictured having her toes sucked by her ‘financial advisor’ John Bryan in the French Riviera. And then in 2010, she was captured on camera offering to take cash in exchange for access to her ex-husband.

When confronted with this footage and questioned by journalist Michael Usher in 2011, the Duchess stormed out of the interview, insisting that she needed to ‘take five minutes’. Usher later branded it ‘the largest train wreck interview I have ever done’.

Sarah Ferguson sat down with 60 Minutes Australia to talk about her book My Story in 2011

In a candid voiceover, Michael said the ‘conversation turned toxic’ when he brought up the ‘cash-for-access’ scandal.

In the shocking interview, he asked Sarah: ‘Did you take the money? At one point you had $40,000 cash sitting in front of you, did you take that?’

Sarah replied: ‘Absolutely yes. It was given to me and I got it in the car and then returned it straight away.’

‘Once the scandal broke?’ Michael questioned.

Looking frustrated Sarah added: ‘As soon as I knew it was a scandal not once it broke, Michael.

‘Don’t try and trick me now because I am not going to play this game. Delete that bit. I don’t to go down this route.’

The duchess then turned around to her Australian agent John Scott, who was off screen, and expressed she didn’t want to continue with that line of questioning.

‘It’s too tabloid-y,’ she explained.

The Duchess of York was married to the scandal-ridden Prince Andrew from 1986 to 1996

She has written two memoirs: My Story in 1996 and Finding Sarah in 2011

Sarah (centre) poses with her daughters Princess Beatrice (left) and Princess Eugenie (right)

Patting a copy of her autobiography Finding Sarah: From Royalty To The Real World, Michael said: ‘But this is everything you have written in your book though and you are releasing your book and you’ve agreed to do the interview.’

Sarah retaliated: ‘The book has already been released and the thing is I am not going to go down to this point. I am going to answer your questions but that is done, it’s finished. I’ve answered it.

‘Thank you very much – moving on to the next question.’

After being asked if the News of the World scandal helped her ‘review her life’, Sarah rolled her eyes and snapped: ‘Sorry? What’s your question?

‘I was very grateful to be in that position. In a way when I hit rock bottom because of it, it woke me up.’

When pressed further by Michael, the Duchess rebutted: ‘What more can I say? What more can I say?’

Sarah then looked off camera again at her agent and said: ‘Remember, remember, remember? What’s she called? Cindy. Yeah. I am going to take five minutes.’

Upon returning, Michael described Sarah’s mood in her voiceover as ‘frosty’. ‘I feel like I have gone from confidante to commoner,’ he said.

After being questioned about the cash-for-access scandal, Fergie stormed out of the interview with 60 Minutes Australia

During a recent radio interview, Michael opened up about his awkward interaction with the Duchess, calling it ‘the largest train wreck interview I have ever done’.

‘I had to call her Duchess. She wouldn’t let me call her Sarah, lots and lots of airs and graces,’ said the veteran journalist.

‘But she was fine, and she was relatively sweet. But then there was just this moment…she turned and getting her back into the chair, was crazy.

‘She came back and she continued the interview, and then it was like a different personality again.’

The reporter then said that after the awkward interview, he and his crew walked outside when the Duchess of York came running after them.

‘She chucked her heels off and she’s in her stockings on the lawn. Going “Michael, how was that?”‘ he related.

‘By that stage, I just said, “Sarah, if I were you, I’d be asking to go back into the room and do that interview all over again, because I don’t know what happened.”

‘Then she goes, “Oh, well, anyway, who wants to sign some books? I’ll sign your book for you. And now, what are your kids names?” And off she went from there.’

Veteran journalist Michael Usher (pictured) branded it ‘the largest train wreck interview I have ever done’

At the time, John, the Duchess’s representation in Australia, claimed that the footage was cynically taken out of context and demanded that the network withdraw its advertising of the programme and delete scenes from the interview.

He told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper: ‘We had gone through all the questions and subject matter beforehand and filmed all the walking in the park footage before we sat down.

‘She did walk out when she was ambushed – no, it was entrapment – but after cooling down she said to me, “F*** them, let’s do this”, and she did, but it was a banal interview and her demeanour reflected that.’

John said the Duchess was shocked when asked to watch the News of the World footage again during the 60 Minutes interview.

He said making the Duchess sit through the footage again was unnecessary, because she had obviously already seen it and had agreed to answer questions about it.

But 60 Minutes producer Mr Thomson said: ‘She agreed to talk about the issue, as she has already extensively done, so it certainly wasn’t entrapment.’