LONDON, (Reuters) – Britain’s Duchess of York, caught on camera apparently offering to sell access to her ex-husband, UK trade envoy Prince Andrew, said yesterday she was sorry for her “serious lapse in judgment”.
According to footage on the News of the World newspaper’s website’, Sarah Ferguson appears to ask for $40,000 in cash and 500,000 pounds ($718,500) by wire transfer, claiming she could introduce the undercover reporter to the prince.
Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth and fourth in line to the throne “categorically” denied any knowledge of the meeting that took place between the Duchess of York and the News of the World, Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
The Duchess, known as “Fergie”, who is no stranger to controversy, said she deeply regretted the sting and admitted her financial situation was “under stress”, British media reported.
“I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused,” Ferguson said in a statement.
“It is true that my financial situation is under stress however, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment and I am very sorry that this has happened,” she added.
In the tape filmed on Tuesday, flame-haired Ferguson, over a glass of red wine and a cigarette, makes it clear that her former husband “never does accept a penny for anything”.
The sting is nonetheless likely to cause embarrassment for Andrew, who divorced Ferguson amicably in 1996 after a decade-long marriage, and Britain’s austere royal family.
The 50-year-old prince, also known as the Duke of York, acts as Britain’s special representative for international trade and investment, augmenting work by the business ministry.
“Five hundred thousand pounds when you can, to me … open doors,” she said in the film the newspaper said was shot at a plush London apartment, before shaking hands with the reporter who had posed as a wealthy businessman.
“Then you open up all the channels whatever you need, whatever you want … We can do so much.”
The newspaper reported Ferguson, whose New York-based promotional company Hartmoor folded last year, saying she was a “complete aristocrat” and that she and Andrew were the “happiest divorced couple in the world”.
