Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Princess of Wales, were left “appalled” when Sarah Ferguson claimed that the late Queen Elizabeth II was communicating from beyond the grave through her corgis.
To William and Catherine’s intense irritation, Ferguson started telling friends and family that she and the dogs could feel Elizabeth’s presence when she walked them near the late queen’s favorite spots in Windsor Great Park. This is where Fergie and Andrew lived, in Royal Lodge, the 10-bedroom former home of the Queen Mother.
The Royalist can exclusively reveal that people who cared for and spent time with the queen in her final months, such as her oldest friend and dresser, Angela Kelly, thought it was a bizarre and tasteless way for Ferguson to boast (erroneously, in their opinion) of her spiritual closeness to the queen.
They also found it distasteful that Sarah told friends that she had been “left” the dogs in the late sovereign’s will when, in fact, they were simply returned to Andrew and Sarah, who had given the queen the dogs—called Sandy and Muick—in 2021.
The queen had been an enthusiastic breeder and owner of corgis and dorgis (a corgi/dachshund cross created after an unplanned pregnancy between one of her dogs and one of Princess Margaret’s dachshunds) since her teenage years.
However, like many conscientious pet owners, she did not want her animals to be orphaned after her death, telling friends that her last dog would be the dorgi Vulcan, who died in late 2020, during the COVID pandemic.
By the time Muick and Sandy arrived in 2021, the queen was already severely ill with bone cancer and increasingly reliant on a wheelchair behind closed doors. Less than a year after their arrival, in February 2022, her office announced that she was struggling with “episodic mobility problems.”
She died in September.
The Royalist understands that she never walked the dogs. One friend said, “They were an unhelpful and unasked-for gift from her son. She took her responsibilities to dumb animals very seriously. She knew Charles and William didn’t like corgis, and she made it very clear she did not want the dogs on her conscience. The sight of them being walked round Wood Farm by a footman is tragic, and it shows just how prescient she was.”
Every dog has its day
Today seems to be a big day for corgi gossip, as the Sun and the Mail both have an amazing story that Fergie was involved in talks to clone the late queen’s beloved corgis for an extraordinary TV show.
“She was pushing to get back into TV and make some money,” a source told the Mail, adding, “She came up with the idea of featuring the queen’s corgis in a show. And that included the idea of breeding them. Bizarre as it sounds, the idea of cloning them was discussed.”
A TV source told the Sun: “It was very bizarre. There were meetings in L.A. over lunch and dinner.”
A memo just months after the queen’s funeral set out how Fergie would create a company called The Queen’s Corgis to clone and sell the dogs while managing her already “strained relationship” with the royal family.
It read in part: “When Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, is bequeathed two of the Queen’s beloved corgis, she decides to embark on a bold and controversial business venture—cloning the royal pups.
“But as she navigates the complex world of genetics and royal protocol, Sarah must also grapple with her own personal demons and strained relationship with the royal family.”
The Royalist has reached out to Sarah’s last known reps for comment.
Want more royal gossip, scoops and scandal? Follow all Tom Sykes’ reporting at The Royalist on Substack or listen to The Royalist podcast on YouTube.
