Sarah Ferguson may have taken part in several tell-all interviews in the past, but her mother once warned that the former Duchess would be willing to spill unpleasant royal secrets if she needed to.

Speaking to Italian magazine Gente, Sarah's late mother, Susan Barrantes, shared her view on her daughter's separation from Andrew. As well as telling the publication that her former son-in-law didn't have "any character," she said that Sarah was worried about her two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, being taken away from her.

She said: "Sarah will not accept easily losing her children, and if she does, she is prepared to tell stories that are not very pleasant about the English Crown."

Referencing the interview, author of bombshell book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, Andrew Lownie said: "Fergie was determined to avoid the fate of her mother and sister Jane who had both lost custody of their children when their marriages broke up," adding that "her trump card" was that she "could always sell a kiss-and-tell memoir."

Mr Lownie went on to claim that for Sarah's former mother-in-law, the late Queen Elizabeth, "the threat was ever present, and the Royal Household knew it always would be."

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