Sarah Ferguson's reckless spending - 'Henry VIII feasts and plane luggage for coat hangers

Sarah Ferguson is navigating a fresh scandal over her email exchange with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, just as a bombshell biography has laid bare her apparent love of cash and excess.

Sarah, best known as Fergie to royal watchers, is no stranger to controversy and has previously opened up about the eye-watering debt she's accumulated, despite living what from the outside appears to be a gilded life of palace invitations and society events.

Now, Andrew Lownie's book, Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York sheds some light on the allegedly frivolous spending habits of the Duchess of York, who was reportedly bailed out by the late Queen Elizabeth II on "several occasions" after running up staggering debts.

According to the book, which was published just last month, this included a payment of £500,000 in April 1994 when the bank Coutts "demanded £500,000 within 14 days". But how did somebody born to such wealth and privilege end up in such financial peril?

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Lownie claims Fergie spent wildly during her marriage to Prince Andrew, splurging on staff, holidays, parties and flowers, in what he has described as a life of "opulent excess". Worst of all, he claims no thought was given as to how bills would be settled.

Lownie detailed excesses such as paying £65,000 to have a personal trainer on permanent standby despite using their services on just two occasions in one year. Meanwhile, the big spender also allegedly ran up a bill of £51,000 at the luxury department store Selfridges, where she would make purchases through the firm's personal shopper and her old school pal, Pandora Delevigne.

The Christmas before, two Selfridges staff members reportedly spent almost a full day in the VIP section, selecting hundreds of pricey items ahead of a decadent festive party. One source recalled: "Someone was dispatched every three or four days to pick up tights, face creams and expensive hair products".

Naturally, Fergie's lavish spending caught up with her. After a bill of £500 went unpaid, a newsagent reportedly refused to supply the Duchess, while a local butcher, dry cleaning company and car hire firm are also listed among her creditors.

Even the BP card used at petrol stations was allegedly confiscated due to unpaid arrears. Fergie amassed a £6,500 bill through using Queen Elizabeth's special mail service on "an almost daily basis". As well as mailing out letters and photographs, the Duchess would also send out opulent gifts, including silver letter openers, cufflinks and money clips.

When it came to property, Fergie also made some unwise decisions, according to Lownie. Back in May 2009, the mother of two apparently signed a year's lease on a £3million mansion on Surrey's swish Wentworth Estate, at £8,000 per month.

However, after the owners chose to move back in sooner than anticipated, while holding her to a six-month payment, the Duchess reportedly decided not to move in after all, setting up home at Windsor's Royal Lodge with ex-husband Prince Andrew instead. The result was, as Lownie put it, "£50,000 on a house she never lived in".

Unfortunately, Fergie's spending habits had consequences for others too. After Prince Andrew and his deputy private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, assessed the Duchess's overheads, twelve members of staff were made redundant, Lownie claims. Shockingly, some of these hadn't been paid for as long as six months.

Those who got the chop included her loyal driver of 10 years, Colin Tebbutt, her dresser Jackie McLeod, and her "right-hand woman" of 15 years, Sally Fish.

A sacked staff member told Lownie that "greed and wastefulness that contributed to the duchess's financial downfall", claiming: "Every night she demands a whole side of beef, a leg of lamb and a chicken, which are laid out on the dining room table like a medieval banquet. It's a feast that would make Henry VIII proud."

They added: "But often there is just her and her girls, Bea and Eugenie, and most of it is wasted. There is no attempt to keep it to have cold the next day. It just sits there all night, and the next day it's thrown away."

Lownie also claims Fergie "would regularly miss flights that were not refundable", totting up thousands of pounds in unnecessary costs.

One source also revealed that Fergie "thought nothing of arriving at an airport with 25 cases and paying between £800 and £4,000 in excess baggage. At least five of those cases were packed with toiletries and make-up. Another would be used solely for clothes hangers."

Meanwhile, "personal trainers, hairdressers and Pilates instructors were paid hundreds of pounds an hour to wait for her to emerge for the day in the late afternoon. Her butler had to get in at 4.30am to put watercress on ice".

Ferguson reportedly had debts that exceeded £3.7 million by 1994, with Lownie claiming that her life as a member of the Royal Family was "marked by ambition and financial recklessness". He wrote: "She needed bank approval to pay even modest cheques. But even then, according to a member of her staff, she always believed there would be 'a deal around the corner' that would solve all her problems".

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