Did the Media Create Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson’s Feud?

With reports circulating almost daily about feuds going on within the royal family, many have wondered if what’s out there is factual information or completely overblown.

Supposedly, there has been bad blood between royal duchesses Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle for months now, however, the palace has denied this. Still, the claims that the sisters-in-law are at odds haven’t stopped which has us wondering about the two women who were in their same positions years ago and how much of what we heard about their rift was true. Here’s what Sarah Ferguson has revealed about her relationship with Princess Diana and whether or not they were speaking at the time of the princess’ death.

Reports that the princess and duchess were feuding

The Princess of Wales and Duchess of York were fourth cousins and knew each other since they were children. Within five years, the women married into the royal family and appeared to be extremely close. But several reports began to emerge that behind palace walls things weren’t what they seemed and that they had been feuding.

Based on the reports, it only appeared that they had a few tiffs here and there but were never rivals at any point.

In 1996, both of the ladies had divorced the princes and Ferguson released her book titled My Story. In it, the duchess wrote that Diana gave her several pairs of shoes and “plantar warts.” This led to speculation that the princess was so upset over what Fergie shared that it may have been the reason she stopped talking to her.

Did they speak before Diana’s death?

Although the women did not speak for some time after the book came out, the Duchess of York told Harper’s Bazaar that she got word that the princess had planned to reach out to her before she passed away.

“I really miss Diana. I loved her so much,” Ferguson said. “And the saddest thing, at the end, we hadn’t spoken for a year, though I never knew the reason, except that once Diana got something in her head …I tried, wrote letters, thinking whatever happened didn’t matter, let’s sort it out. And I knew she’d come back. In fact, the day before she died she rang a friend of mine and said, ‘Where’s that Red? I want to talk to her.'”

Those reports of a rivalry were exaggerated?

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Recently, Fergie claimed that any reports of a feud or rivalry between her and Diana were totally overblown by the media. The Duchess wrote about this in an open letter last February for Hello Magazine’s #HelloToKindness campaign.

“Women, in particular, are constantly pitted against and compared with each other in a way that reminds me of how people tried to portray Diana and me all the time as rivals, which is something neither of us ever really felt,” she said.

Read more: Why Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ sister Princess Anne Didn’t Get Along

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