RF. Inside Sarah Ferguson’s Biggest Scandals: Provocative Snaps, an Alleged Affair During Pregnancy and the ‘Love of Her Life’

She once captivated the world — but now, in the shadow of the shocking Epstein scandal, Sarah Ferguson faces a new wave of public fury. From royal disgrace to jaw-dropping affairs and public humiliation, this is the extraordinary story of a woman who defied the Palace and paid a shattering price.

Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, has never managed to stay far from the searing glare of controversy. With the recent release of the never-before-seen Epstein Files by the US Justice Department last December, fresh outrage has erupted — and the royal exile is once again at the centre of a maelstrom.

But, as those close to the monarchy know all too well, this is far from Sarah’s first brush with shame. Long before whispers of her links to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, she was already making headlines — and not for reasons the Royal Family would ever wish to remember.

In 1989, while still married to her now-disgraced ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Sarah met the dashing oil tycoon Steve Wyatt at the British Opera Festival at Houston Grand Opera.

Pregnant with her second child, Princess Eugenie, and in the depths of marital misery, Sarah soon succumbed to Steve’s charms — and an illicit love affair began to blossom.

“Steve Wyatt was the main reason for the breakdown of her marriage,” David Leigh, co-author of “The Duchess of York Uncensored,” revealed.

“Fergie fell head over heels in love with him. She met him at a time of her life when she was exceptionally low and felt Andrew wasn’t supporting her. She went to Texas and she met a very handsome and rich Texan who was very attentive and loving and they very quickly fell in love.”

According to later reports, Sarah had her first intimate night with Steve while five months pregnant with Eugenie. The former couple are said to have been passionate lovers, seizing every opportunity to be together — even reportedly jetting off to a secret holiday in Morocco.

Yet for Sarah, it was more than passion. “Steve Wyatt was the love of her life,” David declared. “Andrew may have been her best friend, and he probably still is now and probably always will be, but Steve Wyatt was the love life of her life.”

The affair escalated with breathtaking audacity. In 1990, Sarah brazenly invited Steve to a lavish ball at Windsor Castle, celebrating Andrew’s 30th.

In one glittering room: Princess Anne’s 40th, Princess Margaret’s 60th, the Queen Mother’s 90th — and, amid the festivities, the then-Duchess’s secret lover.

Queen Elizabeth II, ever the voice of reason, privately questioned whether Steve was “quite the sort of person” her daughter-in-law should be “encouraging” — yet Sarah dismissed the monarch’s sage advice.

The trysts grew ever more outrageous. After meeting him during an official visit to America — a trip from which she infamously returned with 51 pieces of surplus luggage — the former Duchess began inviting Steve to dinners at Buckingham Palace.

There, she reportedly welcomed guests who could further his commercial interests in the Middle East, all while maintaining a façade of royal decorum.

On at least one occasion, Sarah and Steve arrived at Le Gavroche for a dinner to which they were not even invited, proceeding to put on what a guest would later describe as “a display of mutual fondling […] have never seen before in a three-star restaurant”.

For Sarah and Steve, it was not to last. When their secret was finally exposed, it shattered Sarah’s marriage and sent Steve fleeing back to America — allegedly, to make his fortune and propose.

But fate was cruel: Steve, stepson of US tycoon Oscar Wyatt, found no riches waiting. He had lingered in England through 1991, his dreams as fragile as their forbidden romance.

Allan Starkie, author of “Fergie, Her Secret Life”, recounted the heartbreak:

Still, Sarah doted on him — outfitting his apartment in Washington, filling out his Christmas list, and vowing to wait for his return and the wedding she so desperately hoped for. But Steve grew cold, distancing himself until Sarah was left feeling unwanted and adrift.

Her shattered dreams haunted her. “It left her totally broken,” David confessed. “She dreamt that one day they would be together hopefully living in America, she was forever making dreams in her head.” Even after Princess Eugenie was born, her longing endured.

The so-called playboy eventually wed Cate Magennis, while Sarah moved on with Steve’s friend, John Bryan. The saga had taken another wild twist when Sarah, craving comfort, accepted John’s invitation to dinner — and ended up spending the night with him.

Their romance was strictly denied… until the explosive toe-sucking photographs appeared on front pages in 1992.

The pictures, snapped at a villa in the South of France, showed John caressing the bikini-clad Duchess and sucking her toes — leaving no doubt he was far more than the “financial adviser” he claimed to be. As the images spread, John insisted, “I wasn’t sucking her toes, I was kissing them!”

Sarah, staying at Balmoral with the Queen and the royal family, faced a gruelling breakfast as the press pored over her naked form.

Royal expert Jennie Bond recalled, “There she was, with all the members of the royal family, who traditionally have all the papers laid out on the breakfast table. The scene when she went into the dining room was horrendous, because there were her brothers-in-law turning over the pages and staring at her naked top half of her body.”

“It was excruciatingly embarrassing and she went to the Queen, and the Queen was livid,” Jennie continued. “She was absolutely furious with Sarah.”

The repercussions were swift. Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell claimed Prince Philip temporarily “banned” Sarah from royal residences.

But Sarah was not the only one entangled in extramarital exploits. Royal author Andrew Lownie exposed former Prince Andrew’s own indiscretions — sleeping with “more than a dozen women” in his marriage’s first year.

Friends of the former royal have claimed he appeared to tolerate his wife’s affairs, resigning himself to the collapse of their marriage.

Isolated from the rest of the household, he would reportedly take his meals alone in his study, while Sarah shared dinner with one of her lovers elsewhere in their home.

Yet Sarah herself was consumed by jealousy, wanting to remain “The One” with all the accompanying privileges. Girlfriends, Lownie said, were dispatched “through a mixture of charm and ruthlessness”.

By 1996, the fairy tale was finished. Andrew and Sarah’s divorce was official, granting them the freedom to forge new lives. Yet Sarah’s continued presence in the US — and her repeated public comments on her treatment by the royal family — left the House of Windsor seething.

Every Christmas, as she languished in a separate house on the Sandringham estate, her daughters were whisked away to see the family. She had well and truly beaten the code of silence — but at what cost?

With the current Epstein scandal looming over the royals, Sarah Ferguson has vanished from the public eye for months. Is she lying low, or plotting a triumphant return? For now, the world can only wait — and wonder.