When Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey in 1986, she was seen as a breath of fresh air in the royal family. Lively, funny and outspoken, Fergie, as the press called her, was hugely popular at first.
But the marriage struggled. Andrew was often away with the Royal Navy, and Sarah faced constant criticism in the press, about her weight, her clothes, her spending and her behaviour. In March 1992, the palace announced that the couple were to separate.
After the separation, Sarah was often seen with John Bryan, an American businessman who was described as her financial adviser.
In August 1992, Sarah was invited to Balmoral, the royal family’s Scottish estate, partly so she could spend time with her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
On 20 August 1992, the Daily Mirror published a series of intimate photographs taken with a long-lens camera at a villa near Saint-Tropez. They showed Sarah by a pool with John Bryan, in moments that left no doubt about how close they were.
According to many accounts, the newspapers arrived at Balmoral while the royal family was at breakfast. The scene, with the Queen and her family reading the pictures over the breakfast table, became one of the most famous moments of the royal family’s most difficult year.
Sarah later described the experience as one of the most humiliating of her life. She left Balmoral soon afterwards.
The scandal came in the same week that the Squidgygate tape of Princess Diana’s phone call was published. Together, they made August 1992 one of the worst months in modern royal history. Months later, the Queen would describe 1992 as her annus horribilis.
Andrew and Sarah divorced in 1996. Remarkably, they remained close friends and continued to share a home for many years. But the Balmoral breakfast marked the moment when Sarah’s place inside the royal family was effectively lost.