Philip Snubbed My Father's Dying Wish

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Fergie: Philip Snubbed My Father's Dying Wish

By Robert Jobson, Evening Standard
19 June 2003

Prince Philip refused Major Ronald Ferguson's attempt on his death
bed to end the royal rift with the Duchess of York, she revealed
today.

Fergie said her father wrote to Philip asking to see him to discuss
their problems but his final wish was not granted.

She revealed: "He had written to the Duke of Edinburgh asking to see
him. He wanted to talk to him about me."

But Philip, who had known Major Ferguson for years from their polo-
playing days, did not agree to the meeting to resolve their
differences.

She said that Prince Charles showed more kindness to her father as he
battled with prostate cancer.

"Charles was very good. He called Dad, had him and Susan [his second
wife] to stay at Highgrove. And he came to the funeral. The Queen
sent a representative."

In an interview in the Daily Telegraph to promote a new charity
photograph book, she also denied that her father, who died in March
this year, wanted her to get back together with Prince Andrew.

She insisted there was no possibility of her ever moving back with
Andrew when he moves into the Queen Mother's former home, Royal Lodge
in Windsor, because she would not be "allowed".

She said: "Andrew and the girls will be going to Royal Lodge. I'm
not. I wouldn't be allowed. The girls will be boarding at school in
September, so they'll probably be wherever I am."

She says she is now enjoying the freedom of living in a rented house
near her former marital home, Sunninghill Park, after 16 years of
living at royal residences.

But despite her business interestsin America, where she has a
lucrative contract with Weight Watchers, she has no plans to quit
Britain.

"The reason why I go down very well in America is because Americans
are very open about themselves and their problems because it helps
people to change their lives or reinvent themselves.

"Goodness, if I can do it, a lot of people can. I went through
bankruptcy, divorce, mistakes, humiliation. But no, I don't want to
live there. I like Britain, I like everything it stands for, I like
the people, I'd like to spend more time here and I think I will."

At 43, the Duchess has not given up on the idea of finding a new man,
although her fame makes forming a lasting relationship more
difficult.

She said: "It's a brave man that would take on this bouncy ball of
energy. Anybody who was photographed with me would have their privacy
invaded, and not many people want their face on the front page of
newspapers. But we'll see. There may be somewhere who might just pick
up the gauntlet."

She also spoke of the last time she saw her father alive just before
she left for Australia on a business trip and said his parting words
to her were typically upbeat. She said: "He told me that he was the
reason why all our family had such good legs."

When she questioned whether she should still go on the trip, he
said: "You have to do your work, I'll see you when you get back."

She begged him to keep fighting and he replied: "What do you mean?
I've got to get home to look after the horses." He died a few hours
later.

Throughout her problems she said her father was her chief supporter
and adviser.

"He was very stoic, very strong. 'We've been through worse', he would
say, and he promised me that wherever he was, whatever happened to
me, he would find and look after me.

"After I was married, whenever I went to a hotel, he would always
have flowers put in my room."

But she admitted that they fell out over the publication of his
memoirs, The Galloping Major, when he revealed how he had suffered at
the hands of the royal family as she was going though her divorce
from Prince Andrew.

"He should have asked me more about the book and maybe he could have
got the facts right," she said.