She’s been frozen out by the majority of the royal family after spending the past few years slating her in-laws but it seems Meghan Markle has a new fan in the shape of fellow royal rebel Sarah Ferguson. The pair have always had a hot and cold friendship ever since Meghan met Prince Harry back in 2016, but now the Duchess of Sussex finds herself under fire again after her $25m podcast deal with Spotify was mutually ended earlier this month and while the rest of The Firm are keeping their distance from Meghan, Fergie is attempting to woo her so they can join forces. Most recently she seemed to call Meghan and Harry “brave” for quitting royal life back in 2020.

“Sarah’s not winning any friends inside Buckingham Palace with these gushing statements about Meghan in particular, but Sarah doesn’t care. She truly thinks they’ve had a raw deal and deserve admiration – especially now they’ve made such a huge success of their new lives and are in with the cool crowd over there in Hollywood. Sarah wants in, she figures the Sussexes’ close ties with her daughters makes this a slam dunk. And if it ruffles a few royal feathers in the process, then so be it. She also sees it as a great time to pounce after Meghan has been left humiliated following the dropping of her podcast and the fallout over that. Sarah feels she needs that extra support right now.”

Sarah – who has two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie with ex-husband Prince Andrew – is no stranger to a royal fallout and was shunned by many members following her behaviour during and after her marriage to Andrew. Although relations are improving, she recently said of Meghan and Harry’s decision to leave, “I would never be one to make a comment on any other member of the royal family or anybody who does that. I just find anyone that stands very tall about their own beliefs is very brave, whoever it is.” And in March the Duchess of York said, “I don’t believe that any single person has the right to judge another person. I’m not in a position myself to make any judgments. I have been judged all my life, and I have no judgment on the Sussexes.; I think that Diana would be incredibly proud of her grandchildren. And not just the Sussex grandchildren, but Will’s children.”

While Sarah, 63, is keen to keep relations between her and the rest of the royals amicable, she doesn’t hold the same grudges towards Meghan and Harry and thinks they would be good to get onside, especially as they are still close to Beatrice and Eugenie.

“Sarah has no dog in this fight between the Sussexes and certain members of the monarchy like William and Kate,” Closer’s source says. “Her loyalty is to her own immediate family first and foremost, including Andrew of course, and she has a do unto others type of mentality whereby she tries to be positive and friendly to everyone – whilst staying squarely out of politics and away from petty feuds. As she’s said numerous times now, it’s her belief that Meghan and Harry are a lovely couple who have been misunderstood and treated appallingly at times – she gets that they put certain noses out of joint but believes it’s been blown way out of proportion and they deserve to be forgiven and embraced, not raked over the coals and cast aside like these two terrible ingrates. She’s proud of Eugenie and Beatrice for staying on good terms with them and stays in touch herself, though nowhere near as frequently. That’s something she’d like to change.”

Harry, 37, and Meghan – who now live in California with their two children, Archie, four, and Lilibet, two – have both spoken out about their relationship with Sarah and how she was one of the first royals Meghan, 41, met.

Speaking about her first meeting with the late Queen, Meghan recalled, “I didn’t know I was going to meet her until moments before. We were in the car and we were going to the Royal Lodge for lunch, and he [Harry] was like, ‘Oh, my grandmother is here, she’s gonna be there after church.’. Right in front of the house we practiced and ran in. Fergie ran out and said, ‘Do you know how to curtsy? Apparently I did a very deep curtsy, I don’t remember it, and then we sat there and we chatted.”
And in his tell-all book Spare, Harry said he had actually hoped Fergie would be the first member of the family Meghan would meet as his girlfriend, explaining: “First stop, Royal Lodge. To meet Fergie, because Meg already knew Fergie’s daughter Euge, and Jack, so this seemed a logical baby step.”

Since then, the relationship between the Sussexes has been strained at times, although she was invited to their wedding back in 2018, after being snubbed from Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton in 2011. She said, ‘I felt like I was really happy for my friend Diana, who I love, and my mum and dad, and I felt honoured and grateful for Harry and Meghan to invite me. It was very kind of them and I think I can’t thank them enough for doing that because it was nerve-wracking but I knew I was ready.”

And now she wants to get that closeness back with them and team up with Meghan as she believes they could be a real force together.
“In an ideal world Sarah would visit them in Montecito and, yes, see where they could team up together,” the insider adds. “She’s got a ton of contacts in the American business world and believes that she and Meghan would have great synergy if they put their heads together. One thing Sarah’s always been great at is sniffing out an opportunity, and this would be a win-win for herself as well as the Sussexes. It’s just a question of seeing if Meghan and Harry are open to the idea and going from there if so.”