Duchess of York scandal - what the media are saying

The British media are having a field day with the latest indiscretion by royal "rebel" Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.

When she tried to sell access to Prince Andrew to a News of the World staffer posing as a wealthy businessman, for many royal watchers it was the last straw.

From the News of the World, where it all started:

Revealing her divorce settlement was only £15,000 a year, Fergie bleated: "I have not got a bean to my name. I'm a taxpayer, a British taxpayer and I left the royal family for freedom and in freedom it means I am bereft. I'm hopeless."

Stephen Glover, writing in The Independent, notes the growing trend towards entrapment by the press, in order to secure precious 'scoops'. Remember snooker champ John Higgins and his alleged 'match-fixing bribes' last month?

"No one seems very upset about the News Of The World's entrapment of Fergie. The general view is that she, and probably her former husband, had it coming to them .... some may feel sorry for the Queen that she should be even distantly associated with her."

Telegraph royal blogger Christina Odone blogged:

"That's the last of her nine lives.

This really is the end for Fergie's claim to respectability.

It makes me sad. The Duchess, I know, was always over the top, a loud lively lass with a twinkle in her eye and an appalling taste in everything from men to clothes. But she was, undoubtedly, fun. She brought Diana down to earth, clowning about for the paparazzi at Klosters. She giggled at Buckingham Palace and showed too much leg at Clarendon House. Around her, Andrew beamed, Charles looked priggish, and the Queen looked like she was, for once, having a good time.

And when she fell, she fell so spectacularly, you kind of warmed to her...

Fergie, it seemed, was flawed, but human, and you couldn't help wish her well. But now, the cat has used up all her lives. The accusation of selling access to her (unwitting and innocent) ex is ugly, greedy stuff, which won't play well at the Palace, or in ordinary homes. Sarah Ferguson, the jolly Royal, is no more. The desperate Duchess has taken her place, and she's not a pretty sight."

From The Guardian's report:

"The duchess, who married Prince Andrew in 1986 and was divorced from him 10 years later, has a long history of excruciating misjudgments and has been in financial difficulties for some time. Her most notorious escapade occurred when she was pictured on a yacht, while still married, having her toes sucked by her then financial adviser Johnny Bryant. Famously, the Queen's former private secretary Lord Charteris summed her up as 'vulgar, vulgar, vulgar'.

Her £15,000 a year divorce settlement was meagre and she is known to be bitter that she was cut off by the royal family."

Many readers have been blunt in their comments, such as this one posted on the Daily Express website:

"The reason Sarah Ferguson hasn't re-married is probably because she would immediately lose the courtesy title of 'Duchess', something she has traded on with gullible Americans for years.

Similarly, 'Air Miles Andy' is wheeled out for gullible foreign businessmen like a Court Jester. For all his contribution is, he may as well be a stuffed monkey!"

The Mirror pointed out that Prince Andrew himself has some spendthrift qualities. Columnist Sue Carroll wrote:

"Let me get this right.

Prince Andrew spent nearly £5,000 taxpayers' money on a hired helicopter to Silverstone where he raced the circuit in a Formula 1 car and was then chauffeured back to his chopper to attend an urgent meeting at Buckingham Palace.

As an explanation we're told 'Air Miles Andy' "had" to hire a helicopter because the Queen's was not ­available and any other mode of transport would have required the resources of "at least" three police forces.

Why? Is he a wanted man?"

- NZHERALD STAFF