Sarah Ferguson is going to end one of her worst years by spending Christmas Day all alone.
The Duchess of York was due to fly out to Norway to stay with her close friend Geir Frantzen, the frozen food magnate, but yesterday became the latest victim of the weather chaos when her flight was cancelled.
Now she will be rattling around in her ex-husband’s house tomorrow, while Prince Andrew and their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie join the rest of the Royal Family for a festive lunch hosted by the Queen at Sandringham.
There is no chance of a last-minute sympathy invitation.
The 51-year-old duchess has been something of an outcast from the Royal Family for 18 years since she was caught sucking the toes of her American lover, Johnny Bryan.
Prince Philip reportedly insisted she should not attend any more family gatherings.
And when she was caught requesting £500,000 for access to Andrew in a newspaper sting earlier this year, the royals were even more aghast.
And Sarah has little in the way of family. Both her parents have died and her sister Jane, 53, lives in Australia.
Tomorrow the only company Fergie is likely to have at Royal Lodge in Windsor – the home she shares with Andrew – will be some domestic staff, who may be asked to cook her Christmas dinner.
But the duchess is being ‘very brave’, a source said. And she can at least raise a small, solitary toast to being on the cusp of clearing debts that at one point reached nearly £5million.
Very brave: The Duchess will miss her girls Beatrice (left) and Eugenie (right) at Christmas this year but expects to see them early in the New Year
The outstanding amount is understood to be just £150,000 thanks to a generous hand-out from Andrew, 50, and agreements with all but two of her creditors.
She is filming a reality TV-style series called Finding Sarah for the Oprah Winfrey Network and working on re-establishing her image in America.
A source told the Daily Mail: ‘Sarah will be on her own unless a servant or two is on hand. It’s all a bit sad but it just about sums up her year.
‘It’s not very nice to spend Christmas on your own, and Sarah will miss her girls dreadfully. But worse things have happened to her and she’s very brave. The good news is that she has cleared a lot of her debts up and next year is looking a lot better.’
For many years Fergie stayed at Wood Farm, a five-bedroom house on the Sandringham estate, on December 25.
Beatrice, now 22, and Eugenie, 20, would have lunch with the Queen and then walk down to the house to see their mother before returning to Her Majesty’s residence for a traditional game of charades with about 20 members of the Royal Family.
But for the last few years the duchess has stayed away. She has been romantically linked with Mr Frantzen – though the pair have said they are just good friends – and has spent two previous Christmases at his luxurious farmhouse on the Vesteralen Islands in the Norwegian Arctic Circle.
She expects to see her daughters at New Year. On Christmas Day this year, Prince William and his fiancée Kate Middleton will be notable absences from the Sandringham lunch.
A newly qualified search and rescue pilot, William has volunteered to work a 24-hour shift at RAF Valley, in North Wales, while his bride-to-be is spending a final Christmas with her family in Berkshire.
A source close to the duchess said last night: ‘She was due to go to Norway to see friends but she couldn’t get a flight because of the snow. She will spend Christmas quietly consequently.’
Source:Dailymail