Princess Diana married Prince Charles in their unforgettable 1981 royal wedding. Sarah Ferguson – affectionately known as Fergie – knew the young Lady Diana Spencer before she entered royal life, and the pair were firm friends when the Duchess of York became a royal bride herself in 1986. However, they had a complex friendship which was never repaired after their final disagreement in 1996, a year before the princess died. 

The Princess of Wales and Duchess of York even devised a “divorce pact” together, when it became clear they were both struggling in their royal marriages. 

Tina Brown, in her 2007 book ‘The Diana Chronicles’, writes: “Diana had bailed out of that pact, leaving Fergie stranded.

“The Princess realised her sister-in-law was more useful as the ‘canary down the mineshaft’, as she put it.”

Although both royal women would separate from their husbands in 1992, before eventually divorcing in 1996, Sarah Ferguson took the plunge first and Diana learned from her sister-in-law’s mistakes. 

The former Vanity Fair editor continues: “Diana used her sister-in-law as a constant source of intelligence on Windsor tactics and saw the way that Fergie was being bested.”

Diana’s former media advisor Jane Atkinson told the author: “Sarah Ferguson was a very, very useful friend to the princess during the months before the divorce.

“If she hadn’t had her house to go to, she would have gone mad.”

According to Ms Brown, Diana regarded Fergie as having been “stampeded into a rash decision” by the Royal Family over her divorce from Prince Andrew.

Instead, the Princess of Wales bided her time over her divorce proceedings, which played out over 1996. 

Ms Brown writes: “In May, Diana went to the Queen and told her that unless her terms were met she would withdraw her consent to divorce.

“Without it, Charles would have to wait another two years until the obligatory five have had been reached for a non-consenting divorce.

“If she ran out of money, she would sell her jewels in order to live and that would be a great embarrassment.”

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In response, Prince Charles reportedly tried to go over the head of Diana’s divorce lawyer and straight to the head of the firm, Lord Mishcon, to try to reduce Diana’s demands.

However, Ms Brown writes: “On July 13, the divorce deal was sealed on the terms Diana asked. It was a sweet clear victory.

“She may have lost her title but she had won financial independence for the first time in her life.”

Until the divorce awarded her money in her own right, the Princess had very few assets of her own.

Most of her jewels belonged to the Crown, and she famously had to return the Spencer tiara, that she had worn on her wedding day, back to her brother when he became the ninth Earl.

Like Fergie, who had also lost her HRH title, Diana was stripped of her title in the divorce. 

Ms Brown writes: “[Diana] brooded on how Fergie’s prospects in the outside world were plummeting now it was clear her royal initials would be confiscated.

“Diana had a dread of descending into her sister-in-law’s world, leveraging her tiara to pay for her highlights. She wanted no part of such horrors.”

Unlike the Duchess of York, however, Diana agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of her divorce deal. 

The Duchess of York received a much smaller sum than Diana, however her lack of confidentiality clause meant that she could go on to make media appearances and publish her autobiographies, from which she has earned an estimated £2.2million.

According to 1992 reports, however, Fergie stood to win around £7million, or £14.2million in today’s money, from Prince Andrew’s trust fund.

Although the Duchess of York in later years complained that she did not get “a bean” from the Royal Family in the divorce, she did in fact  win a financial settlement, estimated to have been worth around £3million at the time.

t included £1.4million in trust funds for Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, and a provision for their educational fees.

However, it paled in comparison to Diana’s lump sum of £17million and £400,000 a year – worth over £31million and £780,000 in today’s money.

The Prince of Wales had to borrow from the Queen to meet the terms and drained his personal wealth, according to his former personal banker.

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