Sarah Ferguson 'Constantly' Used Princess Beatrice's Credit Card, Forced Staff Use Their Personal Cards: Report

Sarah Ferguson was accused on Tuesday in a newly expanded royal biography of 'constantly' using Princess Beatrice's credit card and pressuring staff to cover her bills with their own cards as her spending allegedly spiralled out of control. The claims appear in a fresh chapter of Andrew Lownie's book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, published on 21 May.

The first edition of Entitled, released in August 2025, became a Sunday Times bestseller for its unflattering examination of the former Duke and Duchess of York, Prince Andrew and Ferguson. That original version chronicled the couple's financial woes, business ventures and public scandals. Lownie's new 41-page epilogue, titled 'The Reckoning,' attempts to draw the line from what he portrays as years of disorder to the pair's present standing, relying heavily on the testimony of people who say they worked for them at close quarters.

One former long-standing personal assistant to the former Duchess of York is quoted at length, describing life in Ferguson's orbit as 'chaotic' and professionally humiliating. According to the assistant, staff operated under a 'crushing sense of embarrassment 80% of the time,' largely because of the financial scrapes they were expected to help resolve or at least conceal.

Staff Allegations Over Spending

Ferguson's money troubles have been well documented over the decades, from unpaid debts to commercial deals that turned sour. Lownie frames the fresh allegations as part of that pattern, alleging that the York household lurched from bill to bill while clinging to the trappings of a high-end lifestyle.

In the new chapter, the former assistant claims that employees were routinely instructed to put purchases on their own credit cards, in order to keep the household and Ferguson's personal spending moving when cash was tight. One passage in the book states that 'the assistant and other staff members had problems getting paid and often had to buy things using their own credit cards.' That practice, if accurately reported, would place junior staff in a precarious position, exposed to debt in order to indulge their employer's tastes.

Lownie goes further, alleging that Ferguson 'drew on Beatrice's credit card constantly' as part of her efforts to sustain what he casts as an unsustainable, luxury lifestyle. The book does not specify whether Princess Beatrice was aware of the alleged pattern or had consented to such use of her card, nor does it provide documentary evidence in the excerpts released so far. One particularly odd detail claims that Ferguson paid one psychic in cigarettes, a flourish that feels almost designed to lodge in the public imagination.

Nothing in these new claims has been tested in court or subjected to any formal inquiry, and there is no independent confirmation beyond the sources cited by Lownie. As things stand, they remain allegations reported in a commercial biography and should be treated with caution.

Fresh Claims Revive Scrutiny

Ferguson has long cultivated a media persona that blends resilience, eccentricity and a willingness to discuss her own mistakes. Yet Lownie's account, if accurate even in part, suggests a private environment that former staff found demoralising rather than dashing. The former assistant describes working conditions where the optics of wealth mattered more than the reality of the bank balance, leaving employees to juggle overdue payments and uncomfortable conversations with suppliers.

Among the more striking details is a claim that the former duchess insisted on having a fresh cream cake baked every day, whether or not anyone had touched the previous one. On its own, that sounds trivial. Set against a background of unpaid bills and card debts, it starts to read as a small but telling act of denial, a refusal to let the surface glamour slip even as the costs piled up.

Entitled itself is no slim pamphlet. At more than 450 pages, it is the product, Lownie says, of four years' research and 'hundreds of interviews.' Admirers argue that his persistence has brought uncomfortable truths about the Yorks into the open. He has built a reputation on digging into the less flattering corners of royal life, and the commercial success of the first edition suggests a public appetite for that sort of scrutiny.

Critics, however, accuse Lownie of leaning too heavily on secondhand accounts from unnamed or partially identified sources. Some royal commentators argue that his books sometimes present contested anecdotes as settled fact, despite the absence of judicial findings or official investigations. That tension hangs over the new Beatrice credit card allegations as well, raising the familiar question of where insider testimony ends and gossip begins.

As of now, neither Ferguson nor representatives for Princess Beatrice have issued a public response to the latest claims reported by Lownie. Buckingham Palace traditionally declines to comment on unauthorised biographies, and there is no suggestion in the material released so far that any law enforcement or regulatory body is examining the alleged use of staff or family credit cards.

In the absence of corroborating documents or on-the-record confirmation from the people directly involved, the portrait painted in Entitled remains just that: a portrait, vivid and damning, but ultimately one artist's interpretation built on the memories and grievances of those willing to talk.

Nothing in Lownie's new chapter has been independently verified by this publication. Until that happens, every detail from Beatrice's supposedly overworked credit card to the uneaten daily cream cake should be taken with a generous grain of salt.