Sarah Ferguson snubbed for £1.5million book deal in America as no one wants her to ‘cash in on the Epstein scandal’
Sarah Ferguson has been snubbed for a £1.5million book deal in America as no one wants to enable her to ‘cash in on the Epstein scandal’, Hollywood sources say.
Fergie, 66, had pitched the idea of a tell-all memoir to major US publishing houses looking for a deal ‘in the region of $2million (£1.49million)’, but all of them have rejected her, the source said.
The former wife of the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been increasingly linked to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Emails in released files appear to show he was financially supporting her for 15 years and that she seemingly asked him to ‘marry’ her after he had been jailed for child sex offences.
Following these apparent revelations, sources say Fergie decided to cross the pond to try to publish her side of the story in a new book.
Hollywood sources told The Sunday Express: ‘She ended up with a string of rejections and zero response in a few cases.
‘It seems no one is remotely interested in being seen to be enabling her to cash in on the Epstein scandal that has torn her family apart and ruined her ex-husband.’
It’s a far cry from her previous foray in the States, where she has worked as a correspondent for NBC’s Today show and appeared as the face of Weight Watchers in adverts.
Sarah Ferguson with her previously published book A Most Intriguing Lady
Ferguson and Andrew at the funeral of Katharine, Duchess of Kent at Westminster Cathedral in September 2025
Ferguson has a history in the publishing sphere as well as a prominent children’s book author – most recently in 2024 with a kiddies’ book called Flora and Fern, following her 2023 romance novel A Most Intriguing Lady.
In her numerous mentions in the Epstein files, it appears he had been bankrolling her for over a decade and a half. In one 2009 email, she is thought to have said to the paedophile financier: ‘I urgently need 20,000 pounds ($27,521) for rent today.
‘The landlord has threatened to go to the newspapers if I don’t pay. Any brainwaves?’
The same year, emails suggest that the then-Duchess of York had been enthusiastically updating Epstein on opportunities for books and other brand deals opening up.
In one gushing message, she appears to say ‘Just marry me’ after a string of compliments to the paedophile who had been convicted of soliciting sex from a minor the year before.
Ferguson even seemed to involve her own children with Epstein, apparently talking of then-19-year-old Eugenie coming back from a ‘shagging weekend’ in 2010. She is also believed to have introduced her then-22-year-old goddaughter to Epstein following his release from prison.
On her apparent failed book deal, one Sunday Express source said: ‘Any notion she might have had about keeping her American dream alive now seems to have been killed off completely.
‘Commercially, as the failed book deal shows, she has become a pariah.’
Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, agreed. He said the former duchess ‘will find it very hard to come back’ last week after she has not been seen in public for quite some time.
Fellow British royal author Robert Jobson previously described her in a US interview as ‘desperate for money’ after getting a taste of the royal lifestyle.
The Daily Mail has contacted LA-based celebrity talent agency Artists First, who still represent her in the US, for a comment.
