Prince Andrew "for sale"?

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Duchess of York filmed offering access to Prince Andrew for £500,000 (and taking £27,000 as a down payment)

 

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 11:41 AM on 23rd May 2010

 

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The Duchess of York said she could 'open doors' as she was filmed apparently offering to sell access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000.

The News of the World said Sarah Ferguson, 50, promised to introduce an undercover reporter posing as a wealthy businessman to the Prince, who has been the UK's special representative for international trade and investment since 2001.

During a covert film of the agreement, the Duchess was apparently handed a $40,000 USdollar (£27,000) cash down payment.

She appeared overcome with emotion and seemed to be in tears at the sight of the money as she drank red wine at an apartment in Mayfair

 

 

Eye of the storm: Sarah Ferguson (centre) and her daughter Princess Beatrice (right) arrive at the Eden Roc at Cap d'Antibes, France yesterday. The Duchess of York is accused of selling access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000

 

 

 

Fergie takes photos of Princess Beatrice and friends as they arrive at Eden Roc just days after she was filmed allegedly taking $40,000 from an undercover reporter

 

 

The paper claims the video was filmed on Tuesday night and it quotes her as saying: 'I can open any door you want.'

She was filmed telling him how to transfer £500,000 to her UK bank account and said: 'Then that, is then like, then you open up all the channels whatever you need, whatever you want, and then that's what and then you meet Andrew and that's fine. And that's, that's when you really open up whatever you want.'

The paper said that, despite the Prince knowing nothing about the deal, the Duchess claimed to have discussed it with him: 'Andrew said to me, "Tell him £500,000".

'He knows that he's had to underwrite me up to now because I've got no money. So if you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he'll look after you ... you'll get it back tenfold.'

 

But then the Duchess insisted he 'is completely whiter than white' as she explained how the Prince meets the 'the most amazing people' in his role as special representative.

 

 

Living the high life: Fergie checks her phone - for photos or to check the papers? - on board and is helped up the gangplank onto dry land

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prince Andrew, pictured addressing delegates at an Islamic economic forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was unaware of the arrangement

 

'He knows that he's had to underwrite me up to now because I've got no money.

 

'So if you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he'll look after you ... you'll get it back tenfold.'

The paper claims the Duchess met the fake businessman on two occasions - first at a New York hotel and then at the exclusive Mosimann's dining club in Belgravia, London.

It said she was then chauffeured with the reporter to a Mayfair flat where she was shown on the video apparently shaking on a deal to introduce him to her former husband.

The reporter also claimed she invited him and any friends he could drum up to sit at her table with daughter Princess Beatrice and friend Sir Elton John at the charity Butterfly Ball in London on Thursday.

She said there were up to eight seats available: 'Have you got any friends in London who want to spend? Well to sit on my table with Beatrice and me with Elton John - it's pretty cool.'

'We need some sort of fat cats around,' she added.

 

The Duchess, who lives in a guest room at Prince Andrew's Royal Lodge at Windsor, is said to have told the undercover reporter repeatedly that she had no money, saying her divorce settlement entitled her to just £15,000 a year.

 

'Do you understand that I absolutely have not a pot to p**s in?' she told him.

 

'I left the royal family with friendship, no money. Diana left with 20 million. And that’s why the Queen is my friend because I never took a bean from them.

 

'So if you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he'll look after you... you'll get it back tenfold'

 

'I have the biggest heart and the biggest of everything. But I have zero money. I have nothing.'

Today a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said they would not comment on the allegations.

The Duchess was at Eden Roc at Cap d'Antibes yesterday with daughter Princess Beatrice as Naomi Campbell celebrated her 40th birthday party.

The Duke and Duchess of York divorced in 1996 but have remained close friends.

 

According to the paper, the Duchess spoke of their relationship, saying: 'We're the happiest divorced couple in the world.'

Sales: Princess Beatrice and Sarah Ferguson at the Butterfly Ball charity function in South London on Thursday. The Duchess of York is said to have offered seats at their table, with Elton John, for sale to an undercover reporter

 

 

The Duchess of York is currently facing a High Court action for unpaid bills amounting to almost £200,000, brought by leading Mayfair solicitors Davenport Lyons.

There are also reports that TV presenter Chris Rogers has launched a legal claim for nearly £20,000 against the Duchess, after she attempted to stop the publication of his book detailing the trip they made to Turkish orphanages together two years ago - after which she was the subject of an extradition request by the Turkish government for filming illegally.

 

 

'To sit on my table with Beatrice and me with Elton John - it's pretty cool'

 

This has been dropped.

Earlier this month, she faced fresh criticism after a firm she hired to plan a celebrity ball collapsed with crippling debts when none of the A-list stars she invited turned up.

 

The lavish event entitled La Dolce Vita was held at the grand dining hall at the Cipriani venue in Wall Street, New York, in November 2007 in aid of her charity, the Sarah Ferguson Foundation.

 

The Duchess promised to invite a host of celebrities, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz, and assured the firm organising the event that she would fill 30 tables with customers paying up to £1,700 a ticket. Dancing was supposed to go on until 3am.

 

The organisers also believed that the Sarah Ferguson Foundation agreed to use money from an auction to cover outstanding costs should ticket sales not be sufficient.

The News of the World claimed she took a $40,000 deposit

 

But a source involved in the event said that none of the promises made by Sarah Ferguson and her aides within the charity came to fruition.

 

An e-mail seen by The Mail on Sunday, sent by the boss of the party planning firm, Charles Feather, to a colleague shortly after the event, said: ‘I am very bitter about this and especially as I don’t like letting people down but the Duchess of York has a great deal to answer for.

 

'I feel I have been treated disgustingly by her over this...false promises and empty assurances.’

 

A source said the only ‘celebrities’ the Duchess persuaded to grace the event were two relatively unknown actresses from a US soap opera.

It is not the first time she has caused embarrassment for the Royal Family.

 

In August 1992, just months after she separated from Prince Andrew, she was photographed topless on a sunbed having her toes sucked by John Bryan, an American financial manager.

Last year she infuriated residents of the crime-ridden Wythenshawe estate in Manchester after she spent 10 days filming there for an ITV show.

She called the area 'poverty-stricken' and 'blighted' and angry locals staged a protest outside their community centre.

 

She has become the face of numerous products from a lucrative Weight Watchers contract (which she said her daughters asked her to give up) to Wedgewood china and Avon. She has also written twenty-six books including an autobiography.

 

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson on their wedding day in 1986. Speaking of their relationship now, the Duchess said: 'We're the happiest divorced couple in the world'

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1280619/Duchess-York-filmed-offering-access-Prince-Andrew-500-000.html#ixzz0okZJXzfJ