‘Reckless Spender’: Inside Sarah Ferguson’s £4.5M debt spiral and the lavish habits that fueled it

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, is once again under the microscope — this time for a reported £4.5 million debt that royal insiders say was almost entirely self-inflicted.

According to Daily Mail columnist Andrew Pierce, who detailed Fergie’s finances on Best Magazine UK’s Suddenly Single podcast, the problem is simple: “She is a reckless spender. That’s her problem.”

How Do You Rack Up £4.5 Million?

For Pierce, the figure — nearly $6 million today — is “extraordinary.” But a look at the Duchess’s spending over three decades makes the math less mysterious.

Andrew Lownie’s 2025 biography Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York describes a lifestyle of “opulent excess.” At one point, Fergie’s household retinue reportedly included 17 staff: a cook, driver, maid, butler, dresser, nanny, three secretaries, a personal assistant, a lady-in-waiting, two gardeners, a flower arranger, and a dog walker.

She traveled with 25 suitcases — one packed solely with clothes hangers — and paid up to £4,000 in excess baggage fees per trip. Weekly Waitrose vegetable bills hit £300. Clothes spending reached £100,000 a year, with £25,000 dropped in a single hour at Bloomingdale’s.

“She had her own cupcake chef. Every family should have one,” Pierce said. “And she always took a dresser with her, a hairdresser, a publicist. She just spends — she’s very generous. She buys people very expensive presents, but it’s not her money to buy the present with.”

From Royal Bailouts to Epstein Money

Fergie’s debt history stretches back to the 1990s. By 1994, she owed £3.7 million. By November 1995, debts totaled £3.5 million, with the late Queen Elizabeth reportedly clearing them “on several occasions”. In 2009, her lifestyle business Hartmoor collapsed with £600,000 in debts.

Her US company, Hartmoor LLC, failed with $1 million owed.

Most controversial was her 2010 “cash for access” sting. Filmed by News of the World, Ferguson offered undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood access to Prince Andrew for £500,000, saying “£500,000 when you can, to me, open doors.”

She was seen taking a briefcase with £40,000 cash. She later told Oprah she was drinking and “in the gutter at that moment.”

In 2011, it emerged she used £15,000 from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to pay her former assistant’s unpaid wages. Though she publicly condemned Epstein, emails released in 2025 showed her privately calling him her “supreme friend” and urgently requesting money for rent. Seven charities cut ties after the revelation.

Still Spending?

Despite no steady royal income, reports say Fergie recently stayed at an Alpine clinic in Austria costing £2,000 a night. “Who’s paying that? Who’s paying the bill?” Pierce asked on the podcast. “It won’t be Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor because he’s going to have to conserve every penny he’s got for his legal costs”.

Her business ventures continue to struggle. In 2025, Ginger & Moss — her tea and jewellery firm — reported £363,000 in bills and a £321,000 deficit. A crypto firm that paid her up to £1.4 million as “brand ambassador” also collapsed, allegedly costing investors millions.

The Pattern

Royal commentator Christopher Wilson, who co-wrote Fergie — Her Secret Life, said: “She’s a fighter. At the moment it looks like she really is reaching the end of the road, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see her bounce back”.

Fergie has worked — books, Weight Watchers spokeswoman, films, TV columns at £5,000 an article. But as one YouTube investigation put it: “The money was always there… And it went out faster than it arrived every single time”.

For Andrew Pierce, the conclusion is blunt: the Duchess of York didn’t inherit £4.5 million in debt. She spent her way there — one cupcake chef, dresser, and suitcase of hangers at a time.