'Blood is thicker than water': The royal offering Sarah Ferguson refuge during 'self-imposed exile'
Sources tell royal expert Duncan Larcombe the latest on the disgraced former Duchess of York
Disgraced Sarah Ferguson has taken refuge in another secret bolthole - this time at the luxury Portuguese mansion owned by her daughter Princess Eugenie and her son-in-law Jack Brooksbank.
The 66-year-old has barely been seen in public since the release of papers earlier this year linking her to her friend Jeffrey Epstein, even after he was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in 2008.
Fergie jetted off to Switzerland in January to spend time at the £13,000-a-day Paracelsus wellness retreat, amid the fallout from the so-called Epstein Files.
She was pictured wearing sunglasses and covered up outside the resort, in what were the first shots of her to be taken for many weeks.
In the months since then, almost nothing has been known about her whereabouts.
However, my sources have confirmed that since early August, the former Duchess of York has lain low while staying at her daughter's home in Portugal, far away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi.
Eugenie, 36, welcomed her third child and first daughter, Adelaide Elizabeth Annina Brooksbank, on 3 August while living near the Costa Terra Golf and Ocean Club on the Alentejo coast.
The plush pad provides excellent cover for the former Duchess of York, who is understood not to have been there in time for the birth of her grandchild.
One source told me, ‘Sarah is still very keen to keep her whereabouts a secret. She has technically been in self-imposed exile since further details came out about her friendship with Epstein at the start of this year.
‘There'd been reports that Eugenie was angry with her mother, but these seem to have been wide of the mark.
‘Blood is thicker than water, and Eugenie had few reservations about throwing her mother a much-needed lifeline.’
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