Royal author claims Andrew plotted with Queen Elizabeth II to smuggle Fergie into Balmoral against Prince Philip's wishes

A royal author has claimed that Prince Andrew plotted with Queen Elizabeth II to secretly bring Sarah Ferguson to Balmoral for a weekend visit, defying the wishes of Prince Philip. The account appears in Paul Burrell's biography The Royal Insider and is set against the backdrop of 1992, a year the queen described as her annus horribilis due to a string of public royal setbacks.

Burrell writes that Andrew pressed his mother to host Ferguson and their two daughters at Balmoral, even though Prince Philip had banned Fergie from royal residences after the couple’s separation and the highly publicized toe-sucking photographs in St Tropez earlier that year. In the retelling, Andrew allegedly asked, "Wouldn't it be nice, Mummy, if Sarah and the girls could come and spend a weekend at Balmoral? They would love it. And you would love to see your grandchildren." The Queen is said to have agreed without Philip's knowledge, prompting a late-summer confrontation when Philip learned of the plan at Sandringham and phoned the Queen to insist she must be gone the next day." The account says the Queen explained to Andrew that Fergie could not stay in the same house as Prince Philip, and Fergie reportedly packed her bags and left Balmoral to avoid a royal contretemps.

The episode is described as part of a broader pattern in Burrell's book of recounting how the Queen's family navigated friction with Philip, who is portrayed as wary of Fergie’s continued presence at royal residences. Burrell notes that after the toe-sucking scandal, the Duke of Edinburgh had effectively banned Ferguson from royal properties, a ban that Andrew is said to have challenged by lobbying his mother for a Balmoral weekend visit that would allow Ferguson to see her grandchildren.

According to Burrell, the dynamic did not end with that weekend. He writes that after Prince Philip’s death in 2021, Ferguson allegedly saw an opening to re-enter the Queen’s world at Balmoral, aided by the sense that Andrew could facilitate access to the royal circle. Burrell also recounts the later period around the Queen’s passing, including episodes involving the couple’s dogs: he says Andrew and Ferguson bought two new dogs for the Queen—a dorgi and a corgi named Sandy and Muick—despite the sovereign’s stated preference against more dogs, and that those dogs remained with the couple after her death in 2022.

The narrative extends into the post-Queen era, with Burrell asserting that Andrew has struggled to recalibrate his role within the modern royal family since Elizabeth II’s death. He describes a sense that Charles III has been reviewing the use of the Royal Lodge, where Andrew and Ferguson live, and has been pushing for downsizing or relocation to Frogmore Cottage, the former home of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Burrell quotes Charles as saying that Royal Lodge is too large and expensive for Andrew’s current station, a line he frames as indicative of the broader recalibration of royal privilege under a new sovereign, with Andrew positioned far down the line of succession.

The assertions come from Burrell’s The Royal Insider, a biography that recounts personal recollections from Diana, Princess of Wales’s former butler. Buckingham Palace and representatives for the participants have not publicly corroborated the specifics of these episodes, and the article notes that Burrell’s account reflects one man’s perspective on a long-running family saga. The depth of memory and the passage of time complicate independent verification, but the narrative adds another layer to the enduring dialogue about the role and privileges of senior royals in the modern era.