Is Sarah Ferguson distraught? Last year she couldn’t restrain herself when invited to make her first Christmas appearance at Sandringham since divorcing Andrew.
She even live-tweeted from Sandringham after lunch, overwhelmed that she was finally back in the royal fold.
She told her followers: ‘We are enjoying each other’s company and feeling grateful today. I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Happy Christmas to anyone who celebrates and season’s greetings to all!’
The prospect of a desultory lunch for two at Royal Lodge next week will not have her chirping like the happy budgie she usually is.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York attends the Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church on December 25, 2023
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson Duchess of York at the Christmas Day morning church service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in 2023
Looking back on Christmases past with the late Princess of Wales, ubiquitous ex-butler Paul Burrell recalls how she’d celebrate with William and Harry the ‘weekend before’ they headed off to Sandringham to be with their father.
‘Of course, Diana was very jokey and she would put rude things in [the Christmas stockings] to embarrass them,’ he recalls.
‘William had a calendar one year with naked ladies on it just to make him blush and it worked.’ Is there no end to the embarrassing gossip from motor-mouth Burrell?
Looking back on Christmases past with the late Princess of Wales (pictured), ubiquitous ex-butler Paul Burrell recalls how she’d celebrate with William and Harry the ‘weekend before’ they headed off to Sandringham to be with their father
Embattled Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell first found faith as an Essex teenager while watching Robert Powell’s portrayal of the Messiah in TV-hit Jesus of Nazareth.
‘As I sat and watched it, I wept. My mum told me to pull myself together,’ he recalls.
Cottrell sensibly doesn’t mention any boyhood admiration for Robert’s other half, Pan’s People’s stunner Babs Powell.
Embattled Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell (pictured) first found faith as an Essex teenager while watching Robert Powell’s portrayal of the Messiah in TV-hit Jesus of Nazareth
Almost 25 years after making that widely ridiculed claim he used to knock back ‘14 pints’ of beer a day when delivering the stuff in South Yorkshire as a teenager, William Hague finally admits the truth to Times Radio: ‘It was one-and-a-half pints.’ Lightweight!
Former royal poobah Dickie Arbiter solves the mystery of how Mrs Keppel’s Faberge cigarette case became part of the Royal Collection.
Camilla’s grandmother gave the case to Edward VII in 1908. Following his death in 1910 and recognising its significance, Edward’s widow, Queen Alexandra, returned it to Mrs Keppel as a memento.
Twenty-five years later, in 1936, Mrs Keppel gave the case to Queen Mary and following the dowager Queen’s passing in 1953 it ended up in the Royal Collection.
A Faberge cigarette case given to King Edward VII by his favourite mistress – an ancestor of Queen Camilla - will go on display for the first time at Buckingham palace next spring. Pictured: Fabergé, Cigarette case, 1908
Christopher Biggins recalls his stint as artistic director of a Shakespeare opera season in Barbados when he was ambushed at The Ivy restaurant by Dames Maggie Smith and Joan Plowright, saying: ‘They were a bit tipsy and called me over to their table.
They said: “Now, Biggins, you’re going to Barbados to do opera and Shakespeare. Why haven’t you employed us? We’re bloody good Shakespearean actors!”’
Methinks if Biggins was in charge of a season in Scunthorpe, the boozy thespians would have slipped under The Ivy table cloth at the sight of beaming Biggins.