Despite it being revealed that Sarah Ferguson has been hiding away at a ski resort in Austria – sources say she has no plans to leave the Alpine retreat
Sarah Ferguson has no plans to leave her Austrian ski chalet despite her hiding place being rumbled, according to a source. After not being seen in public for almost seven months after becoming embroiled in th Epstein scandal, she has eventually been tracked down to a reported £2,000-a-night ski chalet in Austria as she attempted to move around the alpine village incognito.
Mystery had surrounded her whereabouts ever since she was repeatedly named in a tranche of documents released by US investigators probing the late billionaire sex offender’s crimes, with calls for her to give evidence in the US on what she knew. But despite her location now being revealed and calls growing for her to speak to authorities, a source says she has now plans to leave her Austrian bolthole.
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They told The Sun: “She has no immediate plans to leave. Even though her location has finally been revealed. The resort has got everything you’d want for a lengthy stay.” It comes after a relative of Fergie’s, her cousin-by-marriage Martin Barrantes spoke out, saying he had spoken to the former Duchess of York in recent months and explained her reason for hiding out.
He told the Daily Mail: “I have spoken to her [and] can tell you that she just wants to protect her children and her grandchildren.” Barrantes — who is the nephew of Fergies late stepfather, the Argentinian polo player Hector Barrantes – added: “Sarah is going through a difficult moment, and I wanted to send her our support; she is a valued member of our family. Sarah was perhaps foolish to trust him and take such confidence from him, and I am sure she regrets that now.”
It comes as the Mirror previously revealed that Fergie has not been contacted by any member of the Royal Family since she was unceremoniously stripped of the title she traded off for decades, despite being divorced from Andrew for 30 years. One friend said: “Sarah is living in fear right now. She’s not immune to everything that is happening. She realises how serious everything is, and she is not coping with it.
“She is definitely worried about returning home to the UK and is relying on the kindness of friends to help her through the situation. But she knows she can’t keep moving around forever. Sarah feels she has been abandoned by the royal family and has been treated very unfairly. She is at a complete loss over what to do.
Rumours in the publishing world have continued to gather pace that Fergie is also hoping to relaunch her shattered literary career with a tell all memoir, but she has demanded a fee of more than £1million. A source said: “One thing is for certain, she is desperately short of cash.”
The Epstein scandal hit Fergie last September when it emerged despite publicly disowning him – prompting a string of charities to drop her as a patron.
Meanwhile, in documents released in January, Fergie appeared to say to Epstein in an email: “I am at your service. Just marry me.” In another email to Epstein, she made a crude comment about her daughter Eugenie’s love life and described him as the “brother I have always wished for” and even called the criminal a “legend”.
Another appears to show her begging the paedophile for a job as his house assistant, and it also emerged she appeared to take her daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie to visit him in Florida just days after he was released from prison in 2008.
It led to a US lawmaker writing to the former duchess, urging her to testify to Congress about Epstein. Congressman Suhas Subramanyam requested that she give evidence in a government investigation into Epstein’s sex trafficking operations. As a non-US citizen, Ferguson, 66, is not compelled to appear before Congress or respond to the request.
