'A huge show of support': Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson join King Charles III at Balmoral despite explosive new revelations in bombshell York tell-all
The Yorks, both 65, are understood to have been invited by the King, 76, to spend part of the summer holiday with him in the Scottish Highlands.
The disgraced Duke and his former wife are believed to be staying at the seven-bedroom Craigowan Lodge, half a mile from Balmoral's main house and one of the late Queen's favourite retreats.
The invite is being seen as a major gesture of good faith from Charles, and likely a surprise to many, given the relentless controversies surrounding Andrew and his estranged wife.
The Balmoral gathering will soon be swelled by the Prince and Princess of Wales and their three children, along with the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and Princess Anne.
Andrew and Fergie's daughters, Princess Beatrice, 37, and Princess Eugenie, 35, are also expected to arrive with their young families.
For the royals, Balmoral has long been their most private sanctuary, purchased by Queen Victoria in 1852 and treasured by Queen Elizabeth II until her death at the estate on September 8, 2022.
But this year's invite comes just days after royal biographer Andrew Lownie released 'Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York' on August 14.
The bombshell book lays bare decades of scandal, from Andrew's sex life and murky business dealings as a trade envoy to Fergie's spiralling debts and portrayal as a liability so risky the monarchy keeps her close to protect itself.
Andrew and Fergie married in 1986, split in 1992, and divorced in 1996 - yet nearly thirty years on, the pair still live together at Royal Lodge in Windsor.
The Yorks' inclusion at Balmoral is particularly striking given their exclusion from last year's Christmas gathering at Sandringham amid reports of Andrew's ties to an alleged Chinese spy.
"The Balmoral invitation is a huge show of support," an insider told The Sun on Tuesday.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are expected to remain at Balmoral for three weeks, though it's not known how long Andrew and Fergie will stay.
After the holiday, the pair are set to return to their home on the Windsor Estate - a crumbling 31-bedroom mansion the King has long wanted them to vacate.
The reclusive Andrew, who now rarely leaves Royal Lodge, made headlines again last week after an altercation with a road worker installing speed bumps on the property.
It is understood that the Prince was riding horseback during the incident.
"The worker was just going about his job when Andrew, on one of his regular rides round the estate, came along and looked down from up high and said, 'What the f*** are you doing now?'" a source told The Sun.
"Andrew likes to drive his car out of Royal Lodge quite fast and is obviously a bit peeved as one of the speed humps is right by the gate out of the park."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
11 hours ago
- Sky News AU
'No knowledge of music or singing technique': Explosive row erupts at King Charles III's Sandringham church as choir torn apart in bombshell 16-page review
King Charles III has become embroiled in an unholy row at his local Norfolk church, where a bitter feud between the vicar and choirmaster has spiralled into a damning 16-page report accusing the parish choir of falling well short of royal standards. The review, commissioned by the King's chaplain Reverend Paul Williams, claimed there was "no knowledge of music or singing technique" at choir practice sessions and urged the group to "aspire to higher standards" if it wished to perform for royalty, according to The Sun. It went further, criticising the singers' "limited repertoire" and calling for a "musical vision" led by someone with "outstanding skill set, dynamic risk-taking, motivation and aspiration". Despite the blistering findings, the report acknowledged the 25-strong volunteer choir was "extremely dedicated" and full of enthusiasm. The inquiry, carried out over 18 months by Tansy Castledine, director of music at Peterborough Cathedral, comes amid a deepening clash between Reverend Williams and the choir's director of music, Dr Claire Stewart, over the direction of the 500-year-old St Mary Magdalene Church, where the Royal Family traditionally gathers on Christmas Day. The King's chaplain is understood to have ordered the audit as part of a push to "modernise" the church and even floated the idea of creating a social media account for the choir. Dr Stewart, who has led the choir for 12 years, was said to be furious at the investigation and retaliated with her own 28-page grievance dossier against Reverend Williams in July. The row has stirred fierce reactions in the parish, with the Bishop of Norwich reportedly bombarded with letters of complaint. Locals, meanwhile, have rallied around Dr Stewart, who is currently on stress leave. "Dr Stewart has been an amazing teacher and choir mistress who has supported the children through the years immensely, helping to shape them into the incredible young ladies they now are," one parent told the Eastern Daily Press on Wednesday. "She's been such an asset, and the choir is a close-knit, happy, dedicated, loyal group." Another parishioner was less forgiving of the review, branding it "a hatchet job filled with corporate jargon". "This is a Norfolk village church – not Westminster Abbey," they told The Sun. The 76-year-old monarch, who regularly worships at the church near his Sandringham estate, is said to have taken a keen interest in the dispute, even lingering after a June service to speak with parishioners. Reverend Williams, who arrived from Tewkesbury Abbey last year, remains in post and is frequently seen alongside the King before and after services. He was even pictured walking with His Majesty during his first public outing after announcing his cancer diagnosis in February.
Sydney Morning Herald
a day ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
What literary satires reveal about the state of the publishing industry
I've been reading two very different novels with a lot in common. They are sharply satiric, highly entertaining black comedies about the business of writing books. And they are both narrated by literary fraudsters. The American writer Rebecca F. Kuang's novel Yellowface is about literary theft. Her heroine June Hayward, a not-very-successful novelist, is jealous of her friend Athena Liu's stellar rise to fame with her tales drawing on Chinese history. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June nicks the manuscript of her next book and claims it as her own. She uses a new pen name, Juniper Song, and is not above allowing her readers to assume that she too is of Asian origin. We're not meant to like June, but boy, does she cop a hammering from the social media crowd. The book is a huge success, but as new facts emerge, she's attacked, cancelled and haunted by what appears to be Athena's ghost. She is permanently glued to her phone to see whether she's up or down, and it's a constant seesaw ride for the reader too. Kuang is a bestselling writer of fantasy tales drawing on Chinese history (there's a new one out, Katabasis), but wrote Yellowface as a response to her worst nightmare: becoming a 'token Asian writer'. 'I hate the feeling of being read just because somebody's trying to tick off a diversity check box,' she told the New York Times. Her agent warned her that nobody would want to publish the book. But despite (or perhaps even because of) her scathing views, HarperCollins acquired it, and it's become a monster international hit. My second fraudster is an ambitious but as yet unsuccessful Australian novelist, the hero of Dominic Amerena's debut novel I Want Everything. One day, he spots an elderly woman he recognises as Brenda Shales, who caused a literary sensation in the 1970s with two extraordinary novels (think Helen Garner or Elizabeth Jolley) but then disappeared. He wrangles his way into her trust by pretending he's her grandson and records her long confessional tales of her life and how she came to write those novels. This, he believes, will give him the foundations for an autobiography that will make his name. It's a tangled web he weaves… but the outcomes are far from predictable. This is not a satire of the publishing industry because our hero doesn't yet have a book contract, but it's certainly a comment on how fearfully difficult it is to scratch a living as a writer waiting for the big break. Like June, he goes through much anguish, but he's still hopelessly dazzled by his own ingenuity and luck and not much troubled by ethics. I read on, hoping that his more successful writer girlfriend Ruth and the caustic Brenda would bring him down a notch and teach him a lesson or two. Ultimately both these books are a grim insight into how untrammelled ambition, and the panicky feeling that you'll never make it, can compromise writers' dreams, with a publishing industry that does them no favours even when it seems to reward them.
The Age
a day ago
- The Age
What literary satires reveal about the state of the publishing industry
I've been reading two very different novels with a lot in common. They are sharply satiric, highly entertaining black comedies about the business of writing books. And they are both narrated by literary fraudsters. The American writer Rebecca F. Kuang's novel Yellowface is about literary theft. Her heroine June Hayward, a not-very-successful novelist, is jealous of her friend Athena Liu's stellar rise to fame with her tales drawing on Chinese history. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June nicks the manuscript of her next book and claims it as her own. She uses a new pen name, Juniper Song, and is not above allowing her readers to assume that she too is of Asian origin. We're not meant to like June, but boy, does she cop a hammering from the social media crowd. The book is a huge success, but as new facts emerge, she's attacked, cancelled and haunted by what appears to be Athena's ghost. She is permanently glued to her phone to see whether she's up or down, and it's a constant seesaw ride for the reader too. Kuang is a bestselling writer of fantasy tales drawing on Chinese history (there's a new one out, Katabasis), but wrote Yellowface as a response to her worst nightmare: becoming a 'token Asian writer'. 'I hate the feeling of being read just because somebody's trying to tick off a diversity check box,' she told the New York Times. Her agent warned her that nobody would want to publish the book. But despite (or perhaps even because of) her scathing views, HarperCollins acquired it, and it's become a monster international hit. My second fraudster is an ambitious but as yet unsuccessful Australian novelist, the hero of Dominic Amerena's debut novel I Want Everything. One day, he spots an elderly woman he recognises as Brenda Shales, who caused a literary sensation in the 1970s with two extraordinary novels (think Helen Garner or Elizabeth Jolley) but then disappeared. He wrangles his way into her trust by pretending he's her grandson and records her long confessional tales of her life and how she came to write those novels. This, he believes, will give him the foundations for an autobiography that will make his name. It's a tangled web he weaves… but the outcomes are far from predictable. This is not a satire of the publishing industry because our hero doesn't yet have a book contract, but it's certainly a comment on how fearfully difficult it is to scratch a living as a writer waiting for the big break. Like June, he goes through much anguish, but he's still hopelessly dazzled by his own ingenuity and luck and not much troubled by ethics. I read on, hoping that his more successful writer girlfriend Ruth and the caustic Brenda would bring him down a notch and teach him a lesson or two. Ultimately both these books are a grim insight into how untrammelled ambition, and the panicky feeling that you'll never make it, can compromise writers' dreams, with a publishing industry that does them no favours even when it seems to reward them.
