Astonishing moment Sarah Ferguson stormed out of TV interview after host quizzed her over Andrew cash-for-access scandal

This is the shocking moment Sarah Ferguson stormed out of a television interview after questions on her offering ‘cash-for-access’ to her former husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Ms Ferguson, 66, sat down for an interview with 60 Minutes Australia host Michael Usher in 2011.

But the former Duchess of York stormed out because she did not like the questions being asked, before finally returning to continue the interview.

She was forced to watch footage of her offering ‘cash-for-access’ to her former husband which was filmed by the now-closed News of the World newspaper.

In May 2010, Ms Ferguson was filmed offering access to Andrew for £500,000 to an undercover reporter posing as an Indian businessman.

She is clearly heard on the footage saying: ‘£500,000 when you can, to me, open doors.’   

In the interview the following year, Mr Usher asked: ‘Did you take the money? At one point you had $4,000 cash sitting in front of you, did you take that?’

Ms Ferguson replied: ‘Absolutely yes, it was given to me and I got it in the car and then returned it straight away.’

Michael added: ‘Once the scandal broke?’ Looking frustrated, Ms Ferguson added: ‘As soon as I knew it was a scandal not once it broke Michael. Don’t try and trick me now because I am not going to play this game. Delete that bit. I don’t want to go down this route.’

The then-Duchess then turned around to her Australian agent John Scott, who was off-screen, and said she did not want to continue with that line of questioning. 

After being pressed by the presenter to continue the interview, Ms Ferguson said: ‘OK thanks, moving onto the next question.’

When asked if the scandal helped her ‘review her life’, Ms Ferguson said: ‘I was very grateful for being in that position in a way because when I hit rock bottom it woke me up.’

Ms Ferguson then looked off camera again at her agent and said ‘remember, remember, Cindy, yeah.. I am going to take five minutes’.

She then stood up and walked out of the interview.

Though she returned later, the then-Duchess still appeared frosty with the host.  

The footage was reshared by 60 Minutes Australia on its Instagram in September last year after an email was released in which Ms Ferguson called the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein a ‘supreme friend’.

After the email came to light when she was dropped by charities including the Teenage Cancer Trust, which severed ties with her after 35 years as a patron.

During a radio interview in December 2024, Mr Usher spoke about his awkward interaction with Ms Ferguson.

He revealed on Nova 96.9’s Fitzy & Wippa with Kate Ritchie: ‘I had to call her Duchess. She wouldn’t let me call her Sarah, lots and lots of airs and graces.’

‘But she was fine, and she was relatively sweet. But then there was just this moment… she turned and getting her back into the chair, was crazy.

‘She came back and she continued the interview, and then it was like a different personality again,’ he added.

The reporter then claimed that after the awkward interview, him and his crew were walking outside when Ms Ferguson came running after them.

‘We walked outside, and the Duchess came running up behind me. She chucked her heels off and she’s in her stockings on the lawn. Going “Michael, how was that?”‘ he recalled.

‘By that stage, I just said, “Sarah, if I were you, I’d be asking to go back into the room and do that interview all over again, because I don’t know what happened.”

‘Then she goes, “Oh, well, anyway, who wants to sign some books? I’ll sign your book for you. And now, what are your kids names?” And off she went from there.’

The Duchess’s representative in Australia, Mr Scott, claimed at the time that the footage was cynically taken out of context and demanded the network withdraw its advertising of the programme and delete scenes from the interview.

He told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper: ‘We had gone through all the questions and subject matter beforehand and filmed all the walking in the park footage before we sat down. 

‘She did walk out when she was ambushed – no, it was entrapment – but after cooling down she said to me, “F*** them, let’s do this”, and she did, but it was a banal interview and her demeanour reflected that.’ 

Mr Scott said Ms Ferguson was shocked when asked to watch the News of the World footage again during the interview and claimed it was ‘unnecessary’ because she had obviously already seen it and had agreed to answer questions about it.

But a 60 Minutes producer said: ‘She agreed to talk about the issue, as she has already extensively done, so it certainly wasn’t entrapment.’

After recent revelations from the Epstein files, the Daily Mail revealed this week Ms Ferguson is plotting an astonishing comeback to public life without her ex-husband.

Currently lying low while she ‘gets her head together’, she is understood to be looking for a new PR team to represent her as she plans to return to the UK.

She spent a few days with friends in the French Alps recently before moving on to the United Arab Emirates, also attending an art fair with her youngest daughter Princess Eugenie, 35, in Doha, Qatar.

Ms Ferguson is said to be ‘deeply concerned’ about her two daughters, who have been dragged into the scandal around the late financier Epstein by their parents.

However, new emails showed Princess Beatrice had advised her mother on how to publicly backtrack when Ms Ferguson upset Epstein by calling him a paedophile. 

The former Duchess of York claimed her eldest daughter, then 22, agreed with her that it was ‘important’ to brief the press that Epstein had ‘done his penance’ in prison for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.

She also said Beatrice was present when she called a journalist in April 2011 to say it was ‘wrong’ to call Epstein a sex offender because he was now ‘moving on with his life’, according to newly unearthed emails.

He was released from Palm Beach County Penitentiary in September 2009 after serving 13 months of an 18-month sentence.

Ms Ferguson said she planned to tell the press: ‘He [Epstein] was sent to prison for sexual offending but that he had done his penance and was out of jail.’

Revealing her daughter’s support, she said: ‘Beatrice and I had a discussion and we agreed it was important.’

Other emails suggested Ms Ferguson was considering going bankrupt in 2010 when her finances were in peril.

Epstein was told that Andrew and his ex-wife wanted to hold a summit at Royal Lodge on September 1, 2010.

An unidentified person sent an email to Epstein two days earlier on August 30, which said: ‘F writes me below. It’s better if I do NOT go, correct? PA says its up to me.’

‘F’ is believed to be Fergie and ‘PA’ is thought to refer to then-Prince Andrew.

A message from Fergie, quoted by that person, said: ‘Can you come down to Royal Lodge on sept 1st .. Wednesday.. To a big meeting of the way ahead of ME! Prince Andrew is calling it for 10.30am and then lunch afterwards.

‘I would really need your help, not just then, but maybe we can talk today, tomorrow. I am worried I need a ceo to run me.. Cannot do this without you.’

Epstein replied to the email from the person, saying: ‘Ask Andrew what he wants.. she said they might suggest her going bankrupt. when i spoke to her last week. I think you need to go. otherwise, she will go after you.’

In the most recent Epstein files release there is evidence Sarah remained in close contact with the convicted paedophile after he was released from prison for sex offences against children, even taking her two daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, to have lunch with him five days after his release.

The latest release of files also led to police investigating allegations that Andrew shared confidential reports from his role as the UK’s trade envoy with Epstein.

Emails released by the US Department of Justice on January 30 appear to show the former duke sharing reports of official visits to Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore.

However despite the continued controversy Ms Ferguson is understood to want to return to public life, with sources saying she has openly told friends: ‘I need to get back to work. I need money.’

Unlike her ex-husband, Sarah has not been accused of any criminal activity, though Andrew has denied any wrongdoing.