Prince Andrew and Fergie were given the opportunity to construct their own royal home by the late Queen Elizabeth, but things quickly got worse because the lavish residence went on to cost more than expected.
When Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson tied the knot in Westminster Abbey in 1986, they were showered with thousands of luxury gifts from the A-list celebrities who were invited to their star-studded nuptials. Among the presents they received to celebrate their marriage was the promise from the late Queen Elizabeth to have their own royal residence.
After the newlyweds toured countless of existing properties all around the country, they decided they would build their own home to service all of their wants and needs. Thanks to a generous cash gift from the Queen of £250,000, the couple started construction on their infamous Berkshire home named Sunninghill Park.
However, the late Queen was forced to put her foot down and prevent Andrew and Fergie from overspending on the stately home before their first marital home was constructed while the 30-bedroom home was still being constructed.
The former monarch was at breaking point with her son when they stifled their excessive spending and tightened her purse strings.
Royal author Andrew Lownie recalled the day the late Queen fed up with the excessive spending on the large property in a new Channel 5 documentary titled Fergie, Andrew &, The Scandal of SouthYork.
The Queen, according to Lownie, eventually stepped up and said, “You know, this is crazy. Who knows whether the helicopter pad was constructed at that time, and whether the tennis court and swimming pool were still in place?
Sarah Hewson, a royal correspondent for Talk TV, further explained that the Palace refused to pay any more money to the lavish home when the couple had already exhausted their budget in the middle of 1990, one year after construction started.
Hewson stated that Sunninghill Park was beginning to become a financial strain for the Queen, who was notoriously prudent and was having to pay the ever-escalating costs.
The Duchess of York began looking for other ways to pay for their dream home, eventually choosing Hello!, instead of accepting the fact that they had to work within their means to finish their marital home. a photo shoot magazine.
For the first royal couple to have approached the press for such a revelation, the 45-page magazine spread earned Andrew and Sarah another £200, 000 to finish their home, and it also received a lot of public criticism for their design choices.
Many quickly criticized the house’s interior, which included numerous teddy bears, cushions with trite slogans, and personalised toilet roll holders, including one that sang “God Save The Queen.”
“Fergie had a very enterprising idea that she would do a photoshoot for Hello!” said Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine. “Nobody in the royal family had ever done a shoot like that.”
“Although the Queen never commented publicly on it, she was less than pleased,” added Hewson. “She saw it as lacking decorum and that it was an invasion of privacy. Prince Philip, he just thought it was downright tacky and distasteful.”
The Yorks finally moved into their lavish home in October 1990, hosting a massive housewarming party with a jungle theme.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson announced their separation in 1992, finalising their divorce in 1996, and putting Sunninghill Park on the market in 2002 for a whopping £12 million. Before being purchased, the house sat on the market for five years, becoming in disrepair..
The couple still reside together at Royal Lodge on the Windsor estate despite having divorced. The King reportedly told the disgraced Duke of York to leave the 30-room Royal Lodge last year despite his lack of income.
There were claims that Andrew couldn’t pay for the 90-acre, Grade II-listed property’s £400, 000 annual maintenance, which included a pool and a piece of land. However, Andrew has so far refused to leave the Queen Mother’s former Windsor, Great Park, home.
Source: Mirror
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