The Truth Show BLOG

Partners in Crime “She had the most wonderful, infectious giggle,” gushed Fergie. She thinks Diana “would be so proud” of her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

IN December 1991 — one year before her divorce from the future King Charles III — Princess Diana wrote a heartfelt letter to her interior designer friend revealing the tremendous loneliness she was feeling as she grew more and more distant from the royal family. “I do feel extremely isolated more than ever now,” she said in the note, which was put up for auction in 2020. “I am continuously misunderstood by those around me.”

For years, there was only one person Diana felt she could trust: her longtime pal and former sister-in-law, Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson. The People’s Princess and the Duchess of York had been close since their teen years, but their relationship deepened when Fergie married Charles’ younger brother Prince Andrew in 1986. The 63-year-old has shared the truth about their friendship — how they bonded over being royal outsiders and why they weren’t talking at the time of Diana’s tragic death in 1997. “Fergie was like a big sister to Diana,” a source tells Star. “They were each other’s biggest supporters and told each other things no one else knew.”

INSTANT CONNECTION According to Fergie, she was 15 when she and a then-14-year-old Diana became fast friends. In fact, their mothers were schoolmates, but the two drifted apart until shortly after Diana married in 1981.

Fergie became Diana’s confidante as she struggled to adjust to royal life. And in 1985, the princess introduced her to Andrew. “It was Diana who said, ‘No, no I need you to come stay at Windsor Castle and you need to be with my brother-inlaw, Andrew,’” Fergie told one outlet. “When I came out of lunch I remember coming up to her and saying, ‘Ah, he’s really cute,’ and she said, ‘Duh, Fergie.’”

Diana showed her sister-in-law the ropes as Fergie adjusted to royal life. “Diana advised her how to smile in public and how to curtsy and to whom,” says the source, “and who to trust and who to watch out for.” While Fergie has said she “always felt safe mimicking Diana,” a rivalry developed. Diana told biographer

Andrew Morton that Fergie easily outshone her. “[She] wooed everybody in this family and did it so well. She left me looking like dirt,” Diana said, adding that Charles once lamented that she wasn’t as fun as his brother’s wife: “I wish you would be like Fergie — all jolly.”

The women brought out each other’s cheekier sides, and they were often caught playing pranks together. They famously dressed up as policewomen and attempted to crash Andrew’s bachelor party at a London club. “For a moment it must have seemed like a police raid, then guests obviously decided they were ‘kisso-gram’ girls,” said the manager of Annabel’s, the chic club where the group ended the night sipping champagne. Diana later regaled party guests with the tale, reportedly griping, “It was so hot in the wig and my feet were killing me — the shoes were two sizes too small!”

Their hijinks landed them in hot water with their mother-in-law, the late Queen Elizabeth II. When the duo playfully poked their umbrellas at a friend’s backside at Royal Ascot in 1987, “they got in big trouble and had to battle it out with the Queen,” says the source. “Family members highly disapproved of their shenanigans — but Fergie and Diana were young and hated that the royal family was so stuffy.” The redhead said few people made her laugh as much as Diana. “She had a terrific sense of humor.”

SEEKING SOLACE

They had each other’s backs during darker times as well. In 1993, scandal erupted when humiliating private conversations between Charles, 74, and then lover Queen Camilla, 75, were leaked. In the tapes, which had been recorded in 1989, Charles tells Camilla he wished he could be her tampon. (Fergie was also no stranger to bad publicity: the infamous “toe sucking” scandal broke in 1992 when the still-married royal was snapped in a compromising position while on vacation in St.-Tropez.)

Fergie and Diana split from their respective princes nine months apart (Fergie and Andrew parted ways in March 1992; Diana and Charles officially announced their separation that December). “They commiserated,” says the source. And on the night Diana realized she had to leave Charles, says the insider, “Fergie helped her make the decision.”

While Diana and Charles went on to have a contentious divorce, Fergie and Andrew (who share Princess Beatrice, 34, and Princess Eugenie, 32) remained tight. She recently revealed she’s supporting him financially since he was relieved of his royal duties in the wake of his underage sex scandal. “Since he stepped back [from royal duties] he doesn’t actually take taxpayers’ money,” said Fergie. “And I’m in a position where I can support him and the rest of the family through my work. And I’m really pleased and proud to do that.”

TRAGIC END

Sadly, Fergie and Diana had fallen out when Diana died in a Paris car crash at the age of 36. “They were like sisters, and like sisters they quarreled,” says the source. Diana had reportedly stopped speaking to Fergie when Fergie mentioned in her 1996 autobiography that Diana had given her several pairs of shoes “and less happily her plantar warts.”

The duchess has said she believes they would’ve mended fences had Diana’s life not been cut short. “At the end, we hadn’t spoken for a year,” said Fergie. “I tried, wrote letters, thinking whatever happened didn’t matter, let’s sort it out. And I knew she’d come back. In fact, the day before she died she rang a friend of mine and said, ‘Where’s that Red? I want to talk to her.’”