Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, is said to have left the royals stunned with her decision about Princess Beatrice.
The former Duchess of York reportedly declined a lavish multimillion-dollar property gift from the monarch for her eldest daughter.
The 66-yea-old reportedly turned down the offer of Birch Hall, a Grade II-listed Georgian mansion in Surrey, after the late Queen purchased the estate in 1997 as a future home for Beatrice, then nine, and her sister Princess Eugenie, then seven.
The seven-bedroom property was offered to Fergie after her split from the then-Prince Andrew, 66, the previous year.
It was the late monarch’s deeply personal gesture toward her granddaughters during a turbulent period for the family. It was reportedly a way of creating a stable family base for the York sisters and their mother after the upheaval and embarrassment surrounding Andrew-Ferguson divorce, an insider has claimed.
“She was deeply conscious that the girls were growing up in the middle of intense public scrutiny and wanted them to have somewhere private, secure, and permanent where life could feel normal again,” aosurce revealed to Radar.
It was a clear move to give the family a clean emotional reset away from the chaos of the separation.
Behind closed doors, she was said to be genuinely anxious about taking on a house that could end up draining her financially and becoming a constant source of stress rather than stability, according to the insiders.
However glamorous Birch Hall appeared publicly, she worried it could easily turn into an unsustainable burden.”
2026-05-18 13:06:00
