Jennie Bond has revealed the two most shocking episodes she’s witnessed during four decades covering and commenting on the Royal Family.
The veteran author and journalist still recalls her disbelief at seeing photos published in the Daily Mirror of Sarah Ferguson, then aged 32, topless and having her toes sucked by her financial adviser at a French villa in August 1992.
She told the Western Mail: “It was utter humiliation for the Duchess of York. She was at Balmoral that day and she went down to breakfast and everyone had the papers in front of them, all laid out.
“She was profoundly embarrassed, and was summoned by the Queen, with whom she had always got on very well. And in her own words, Sarah’s own words, the Queen was absolutely livid. It was utter humiliation for Fergie, and she didn’t really recover from that, not for a very long time anyway.”
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The toe-sucker was millionaire Texan businessman John Bryan and the poolside snaps were taken just a few months after her separation from Prince Andrew was announced in March 1992. However, the couple were still officially married and the incident also angered the majority of the British public.
To underline Bond’s point about Fergie’s treatment at the hands of the other royals, it is believed that Princess Margaret wrote to her in a letter in 1995: “You have done more to bring shame on the family than could ever have been imagined.” The letter was in response to the Duchess sending her a bouquet of flowers.
The ‘Fergie Toe Sucking Scandal’ in the Daily Mirror in 1992
Jennie’s other shocking episode came several decades later when Prince Harry published his bombshell memoir Spare in January 2023, three years after he quit royal life and moved to the USA with his wife Meghan Markle.
The author, who was the BBC’s royal correspondent for 14 years, said: “The publication of Spare was about as explosive as it can get. Every page contained new drama.
“Harry just wanted to get his side of it out, but it was so profoundly hurtful. And I think it was in Spare that he crossed the red line with his father and brother. His vitriolic remarks about Camilla and unkind comments about Catherine really cut to the quick. And that’s the root of his irreparable rift with William.
“We learned so much about Harry and how he was thinking – and also how he misremembered things, as there were several instances when he got things plain wrong. So in the end, perhaps he proved his grandmother was right when she said ‘recollections may vary’.”
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