The Prince and Princess of Wales sent a clear message to Sarah Ferguson with a very public snub - and she later confessed it made her feel ' hurt' and 'worthless'
07:30, 06 Dec 2025Updated 07:49, 06 Dec 2025
Sarah Ferguson's once close ties with the royal family have spectacularly unravelled in recent months as a result of her connection to Jeffrey Epstein. Stripped of her Duchess title, Sarah has also been told to leave Royal Lodge, the home she has shared with her disgraced ex-husband Andrew since 2008.
Her very public fall from grace seems complete. But it's by no means the first time she has fallen foul of her former in-laws. Fergie was once on the receiving end of a brutal snub by Prince William and Princess Kate - something she later said made her feel 'totally worthless'.
When the royal couple tied the knot in Westminster Abbey on 29 April 2011, there was a notable absentee - Sarah. She had not been invited to the big day, and the decision hit hard. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey a short time after the royal wedding, Sarah said: "I was not invited, and I chose to go and be in Thailand in a place called Camelia and... the jungle embraced me."
She continued: "It was so difficult. I wanted to be there with my girls, and to be getting them dressed and to go as a family. And also, it was so hard because the last bride up that aisle was me."
"When Andrew went with the girls, we were talking all morning and he was saying, 'It's OK. Just remember we had such a good day. Our wedding was so perfect,'" she added. "He made me feel very part of the day on April the 29th."
Sarah said she had to live with to William and Kate's decision, having previously been caught offering an undercover reporter access to her former husband for £500,000 - a scandal that pushed her into a negative spotlight once again. But she said she still felt hurt and 'worthless' by the snub.
"I went through the phase of feeling so totally worthless and that [it] was quite right they didn't invite me," she told Oprah. "Why would they - why would they invite me?
"I felt that I ostracised myself by my behaviour, by the past, by living with all the regrets of my mistakes, that I sort of wore a hair shirt and beat myself up most of the day thinking and regretting why did I make such a mistake? Why have I made so many mistakes?"
Sarah also drew comparisons between herself and Princess Diana, explaining they had both missed out on William and Kate's wedding day. "I really love the feeling that sort of Diana and I both weren't there," she said. "But I'm here to say how proud she would have been and Kate looked utterly beautiful."