THE DUCHESS OF DISASTER

The latest tranche of Epstein emails have left Sarah Ferguson's reputation in tatters. Deputy Royal Editor REBECCA RUSSELL asks whether there is any way back for her

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FOR YEARS, she has been the Royal Family’s ultimate survivor — weathering storms, facing financial ruin and dancing on the edge of social exile.

But after a week of unedifying revelations, has the door finally been slammed shut, locked and bolted for a humiliated Sarah Ferguson?

The lies, the deception and the vulgar, crude comments that surfaced in the latest avalanche of documents related to paedo-phile Jeffrey Epstein gave a darker look at the woman who has maintained her ties to the British Royal Family for four decades.

Ever since the email in which she called Epstein “a supreme friend” emerged in September, Ferguson has been invisible. Her social media sites are neglected and her Sarah’s Trust charity has been shut down.

Friends say she has gone “overseas”.

The only glimpse of her came when she was rushed in to attend the christening of her granddaughter, Athena Mapelli-Mozzi, in a blacked-out Range Rover.

Previous decades have seen Teflon-coated Fergie, now 66, emerge from scandals, including the infamous “toe sucking” photograph in France and a cash-foraccess sting by the Fake Sheikh.

However, PR expert Chad Teixeira believes that while the door “is barely open”, the former Duchess may not have given up on the hope of a future return.

“The reality is that public tolerance for appearing tone-deaf or dismissive on this subject is extremely low,” he explains.

“Any attempt to reappear too quickly risks reopening wounds rather than moving the narrative on. Silence, in this moment, is not weakness — it is in fact a strategy.

“When a story is this emotionally charged, absence allows public anger to cool — the worst thing she could do is try to talk her way through it.

“The public does not want explanations, and it certainly does not want justifications.”