Sarah Ferguson allegedly turned down a very generous gift from the late Queen Elizabeth II because she was “anxious” about it, reports have claimed. The former Duchess of York has been banished into the shadows following her recent fall from grace after the latest bombshells regarding her relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. But it hasn’t been the only scandal Fergie was ever involved in. Ms Ferguson got married to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in 1986, but they divorced in 1992, and one year later, the late Queen gifted her granddaughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, Birchhall, a £1.5million, seven-bedroom Georgian property in Surrey amid the “chaos” of the separation.

But Ms Ferguson turned down the offer, reportedly because she feared she could not afford its upkeep, and continued to live with her daughters at Sunninghill Park until 2006. A source told Radar Online: “Sarah quickly realised that accepting a grand Georgian estate and actually being able to sustain it were two completely different things,” the insider claimed. Behind closed doors, she was said to be genuinely anxious about taking on a house that could end up draining her financially and becoming a constant source of stress rather than stability.”

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