The coronation is almost upon us, with a nation preparing to watch the historical event from home accompanied by the traditional booze and bunting. And it looks like Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson will be stuck celebrating the same way as she confirmed last week that she’s not invited. And despite insisting publicly that she’s fine with the snub, insiders tell Closer, behind closed doors, the Duchess is understandably upset and struggling to understand why she can’t join Prince Andrew and their daughters at the momentous event.

‘Sarah claims to be taking the Palace’s decision in her stride,’ says an insider close to the Duchess of York, who is mother to Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice – both of whom made the guestlist. ‘She’s telling anyone who’ll listen that it’s perfectly fine for her to take a back seat and watch the event on TV with a cup of tea and her feet up – just like everybody else. She’s being very jovial about it all, insisting it saves her fretting about an outfit or worrying she might say the wrong thing or put her foot in it if she’s had one too many champagnes. But anyone who really knows Sarah knows this is a huge snub for her. However polite or magnanimous she chooses to be in public, there’s no doubt she’s upset, embarrassed and confused about being left off the list. It’s not the time now, but she will get her own back on those she feels have humiliated her.’

The royal favourite – who remains close, live-in friends with Andrew, despite their divorce in 1996 – confirmed the rumours last week when asked if she was going to the huge event on Saturday 6 May. Sarah revealed, ‘No, I’m not, because it’s a state occasion and being divorced you can’t have it both ways.’ Good Morning Britain’s presenter, Kate Garraway pushed harder, asking, ‘You don’t mind, you don’t feel sorry? You have grown up with them and you’re very close to Charles.’ Keeping things vague, the Duchess replied, ‘The great thing about this moment in time is the unity of family. I think they’re doing a great job of unifying the family. I’m not there in the state occasion but that doesn’t mean I’m not there privately. You can’t sit on the fence, you’re either in or out.’ It was revealed that she will instead be a ‘VIP attendee’ at the coronation concert at Windsor Castle the following day – a move some royal fans labelled a pity invite. Others slammed the decision not to include her with one comment reading, ‘They will be inviting far worse and total celeb nobodies. She is the mother of two princesses, so why not?’ Another added, ‘I think Charles is being incredibly mean by not inviting her.’ Royal commentators disagreed, with Tom Bower insisting Sarah her presence ‘would provoke critical comment which Charles doesn’t need’. Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams agreed, calling the new King’s decision ‘extremely wise’ and slamming Sarah as an ‘embarrassment to the royal family for many years’.

Right or wrong, it looks like the 63-year-old is one of the only royals not to have received an invite to watch King Charles III and Queen Camilla be crowned. As well as her ex-husband and two children attending, Prince William, Kate Middleton and their three children, Prince George – who plays a starring role as page of honour – Prince Charlotte and Prince Louise will all be there. Also set to attend are Prince Edward and Sophie, Princess Anne, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra, as well as Zara and Mike Tindall. Even black sheep royal rebels Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got an invitation, with the Duke of Sussex leaving it until last week to finally RSVP – confirming he’d be there, but his wife would not.

Charles and Sarah have known each other practically their whole lives, and are actually distant cousins, having both descended from King James I, King Charles I, King Charles II, and Mary Queen of Scots. They were family friends from a young age, with the Windsors and the Fergusons playing polo together. Sarah’s dad – army major Ronald Ferguson – was even Prince Charles’ polo manager. Charles and Fergie got even closer as adults, after Charles married Sarah’s best friend, Princess Diana in 1981. They became the original Fab Four, doing engagements as a foursome, taking holidays and regularly going skiing together. But after Sarah’s divorce from Andrew, 64, she became a source of controversy for the royals. She was criticised for taking on an eleven-year brand partnership with Weight Watchers, as well as other sponsorship and endorsement deals. Things got worse when her debt problems spiralled, with a £4.2million ‘deficit in her bank account’. In 2010, it was reported that the Duchess was again on the road to bankruptcy, owing around £5million, and it was later revealed how paedophile Jeffrey Epstein had helped pay her loans – a decision she later called a ‘gigantic error’. Fergie was soon in trouble again after offering ‘cash for access’ to her ex-husband, telling an undercover reporter, ‘£500,000 when you can, to me… open doors.’ Royal biographer Jane Dismore once commented how, ‘She’s the one person that Prince Philip would not have anything to do with. He didn’t like Fergie.’

But over the last ten years, the Duchess has worked hard to rebuild relationships and trust with the Palace, focusing her energy on charity work and writing a series of best-selling novels. Unfortunately, as Closer recently revealed, she’s rocked the boat again in recent weeks, with comments made during publicity events promoting her new novel A Most Intriguing Lady. She called her disgraced ex a ‘good man’, adding that she is ‘really pleased and proud’ to be financially supporting Andrew, despite him recently paying a reported £12million to Virginia Giuffe following accusations of sexual misconduct which he has strongly denied. In yet another chat, Sarah added that she would ‘always be there’ for her ‘poor’ former spouse. Our insiders said the comments had her close to getting kicked off the guestlist for the streamlined event, with room for only half that of the coronation hosted for the late Queen Elizabeth II. Sarah made things even worse as she shared wild stories about growing up with Princess Diana, revealing an anecdote from her hen do, when she and Diana dressed up as police officers and ended up getting arrested for ‘impersonating police officers.’ She explained how they were put in the back of a police van where Diana found some ‘smoky bacon flavoured crisps’ and started eating them.

None of it went down very well with the notoriously private royals, as our source explains: ‘It’s such a shame for Sarah because she’s spent years steadily working her way back into favour with the royals. She was invited to Sandringham over Christmas, which was a huge deal for her, and she’s struck up a very close rapport with Camilla recently as well. She knows the King is trying to keep a lid on the guestlist, but at the end of the day, everyone knows they could have made room for her. She’s known Charles her entire life, she’s still best friends with Andrew, and it would have been so much nicer for Beatrice and Eugenie to have their mother there with them at such a special event. The whole family feel pretty stung by the fact Sarah’s been snubbed like this and very sorry for her. Andrew and the girls will just have to get through the event without her and make the best of it together.’