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Princess Diana had wanted to bring friend Sarah Ferguson into her royal world shortly after she married Prince Charles in 1981 but was stopped from royal courtiers, a new documentary has revealed. The Princess of Wales had met her future sister-in-law before joining the Royal Family but had seen plans to make Fergie her lady-in-waiting dismissed by Buckingham Palace. Speaking to Channel 5 documentary ‘Fergie and Andrew: The Duke and Duchess of Disaster’, commentator Eve Pollard suggested Diana played Cupid to get back at the courtiers by bringing Sarah and Prince Andrew together.

Ms Pollard said: “Diana and Fergie had met when they were younger.

Diana, actually, wanted Fergie to be her lady-in-waiting but she was turned down, as she said, by the men in grey.

“So Diana thought, ‘ok, I will get my own back’.”

The Princess of Wales put her plan in motion in the summer of 1985, when she invited Sarah Ferguson to join her and the rest of the Royal Family at Ascot to see the races. 

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Prince Andrew and Fergie, who had previously met as children, reportedly “clicked” straight away and announced their engagement only nine months after the start of their relationship.

The Queen’s former spokesman Dickie Arbiter said: “Ascot was coming around, Diana suggested that Fergie join the royal party.

“And Andrew met her and they clicked right away. It was a fast-match, a pretty quick romance.”

In March 1986, Andrew confirmed he had popped the question and presented Fergie with a personalised ring featuring ten diamond surrounding a Burmese ruby.

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The pair married four months later at Westminster Abbey and received the titles of Duke and Duchess of York shortly after the ceremony.

Footage from the wedding ceremony captured images of the Princess of Wales looking her close friend walking down the aisle with a beaming smile on her face.

But shortly after the wedding, Diana reportedly began to experience some feelings of insecurity as Fergie slowly won over an increasing amount of public support.

Author Howard Hodgson suggested the Duchess of York was a “fresh-faced, unsophisticated ‘girl next door’” adored by the media and the public, while Diana had been in the public eye for five years.

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He wrote: “Suddenly, the Princess, who had never been confident throughout her life, now became even more insecure as it appeared that her comfort blanket of being the favourite of the national press was going to be snatched away by her friend who was going to marry into the Windsors and would no doubt be soon siding with them against her.”

The Duke and Duchess of York assumed new royal duties after their marriage as Prince Andrew continued to serve as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy.

The couple welcomed their first daughter, Princess Beatrice of York, in August 1988 and then added to their family with Princess Eugenie in March 1990.

Andrew and Fergie announced their separation in 1992 after years of speculation about their marriage and officially divorced in 1996.

Despite the breakdown of their relationship, the Duke and Duchess of York have remained very close and continued to raise their daughters together during their childhood.

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