Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Sarah Ferguson news: Reason behind odd living arrangement

Despite a divorce in 1996, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor raised eyebrows when he asked his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson to live with him after being granted permission to live in the 30-bedroom Royal Lodge in Windsor in 2008.

But what raised even more eyebrows was that this arrangement continued for eighteen years, ending only when Andrew himself was kicked out and stripped of his royal titles.

Many have wondered what the first one could have created Duke And Duchess of Yorkboth 66, stay together even after divorce.

Royal author Andrew Lownie, who wrote the book Titled: The Rise and Fall of the House of Yorksays it was doable because the pair didn’t have much contact, it seemed.

“Sarah had her own apartment on the other side of the house, and although they did meet and talk on the phone, I don’t think there was much contact,” he wrote in the book. Hello!

“There was always the rather cynical idea that he was her calling card for business and meetings with members of the royal family.”

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Fergie has long called herself and Andrew the ‘happiest divorced couple in the world’, in an interview with USA today where she explained, “We live in the same house, but it’s a big house, so that’s okay. But I think it’s really good that we believe in compromise, communication and compassion. And family.”

But Lownie says: “I don’t see any future in that relationship now. They had a bit of a connection – them against the world – and that’s clearly broken now.

“I think she feels like he’s toxic and he’s going to destroy her branding opportunities, so it’s time to strike out on her own.”

While Andrew has been “exiled” to Marsh Farm, in a converted farmhouse on the edge of his brother, King Charles III’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, Fergie’s whereabouts are unknown.

She was last seen in April, a few months after Andrew’s arrest in February, in a £2,000 ($3,740) per night apartment at the Mayrlife wellness spa in Altaussee, Austria.

Sarah Ferguson’s life in photos