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Original poster

What was the toe sucking scandal?

106 replies

justthingse · 30/12/2023 19:14

I am in my mid 20's so was not alive during the 90's when The Duchess of York was apparently seen as a disgrace by the public and media. Can someone who remembers that period tell me about the toe sucking scandal and whether the royal family banishing her for many years was seen as an appropriate response or if the tabloids over sensationalised her antics at the time?

OP posts:
Klcak · 30/12/2023 20:17

She got her toes sucked by an American in the early 90s when her youngest princess was a toddler. Still married to the queen’s son. I think it was a bit more scandalous in those days than it would be now.

Nanny0gg · 30/12/2023 20:18

Endoftetherweather · 30/12/2023 19:50

Seems like a non-event in 2023. Honestly, if a Kardashian did something like this now I’m sure it’d barely make the promo for the next tv show.

You only have to look at Kanye and Bianca to see that

Maireas · 30/12/2023 20:19

Nanny0gg · 30/12/2023 20:18

You only have to look at Kanye and Bianca to see that

Show quote history

It still made headlines and was quite shocking.

LuluBlakey1 · 30/12/2023 20:20

When she was pregnant with Eugenie she had an affair with a Texan 'millionaire on the make' in London, named Steve Wyatt. Photos emerged, supposedly left ontop of a wardrobe when he left his rented flat in London of them on holiday- her pregnant, him holding Princess Beatrice who was about 2, all 3 of them in swimsuits.
She then had a friend of his as her supposed 'financial advisor', John Bryan(t?), another Texan on the make who had no track-record of successful financial advice. Photos were taken of them somewhere in the Med at a villa, Beatrice and Eugenie as toddlers playing near by while she lounged on a sun bed near a pool, topless having her feet kissed and massaged and ties sucked by John Bryant and there were shots of him lying ontop of her.
The photos appeared on the front page, and about 6 pages inside, of The Sun while she was at Balmoral- where all of the newspapers were, as usual, put out on a table at breakfast. She left a couple of hours later on a plane to London.
Just one of her awful errors of judgement.

Room2move · 30/12/2023 20:21

SoSad44 · 30/12/2023 19:28

Don’t you use google or google images?

That wouldn't get posters talking in detail about toes being sucked though.

ginslinger · 30/12/2023 20:24

i understand there was some discussion that she and Andrew would reconcile but then these photographs appeared which put the kibosh on that

Atethehalloweenchocs · 30/12/2023 20:26

She was officially still married, but had gone from being presented as a breath of fresh air to a stuffy family to being called a disgrace to the family. In reality she seems a bit clueless, naive and perhaps not very bright - but probably no worse than anyone else in the family and considerably better than some. At the time, the royal family was still being presented as the epitome of respectability and since Victoria had been presented as a paragon of family values and all the virtues really. So it was shocking for the fact that it dented the royals by association (although they distanced themselves from her pretty damn quick) but it was also shocking in that the tabloids were in a period where they were out of control - the fact that they would publish such a thing felt like a major line being crossed. And we know that fleet street editors will do deals to suppress some stories in return for others - so it would see pretty obvious that she was the sacrificial lamb - probably to draw fire from Charles and Diana, but who knows what else was going on. It did feel shocking at the time. With the tell all books and interviews, it would be less of a shock now.

LuluBlakey1 · 30/12/2023 20:30

I think it would sill be a scandal now if it was a member of the Royal family- if Megan and Harry had stayed and she had been photographed like that - topless with a financial advisor sucking her toes and lying ontop of her- with her two small children near by, the papers would have had a field day and comments sections would be up in arms.
It would be considered now, as it was then, grubby, sleazy and that she was unsuitable as a Royal family member. At the time Andrew was second son of the monarch, as Harry is now. The Daily Mail would be on the moral high ground and Piers Morgan would die of apoplexy.

StartupRepair · 30/12/2023 20:31

The photos were shocking as she was topless and frolicking with this guy with her toddler daughters in the pool. I remember the conversation being about that rather than the invasion of privacy. The Queen apparently was upset that the little girls were there.

LakeTiticaca · 30/12/2023 20:38

Press behaviour came under heavy scrutiny ofter Diana's death. It wouldn't happen now, photographers with long lenses intruding on a private holiday, and more so as her daughters were present. Not condoning Fergies behaviour though, she brought all her troubles upon herself.
I do admire her for rehabilitating her reputation, and now Prince Phil and HMQ have passed away and Charles is the boss and he has started to invite her to Royal gatherings. Good for him, I say 😉

ChampagneBlossom44 · 30/12/2023 20:39

I remember this well. I was quite young & at a family wedding / holiday in Europe where my relatives lived & an uncle flying in later than us from UK picked up a copy of news of world (I think) & everyone was just gobsmacked, it was all people were talking about & looking back I’m surprised all the Dutch / Italian / French relatives were so invested in British royalty. I think it was the whole fergie lounging topless with the 2 little princesses playing nearby & her boyfriend all over her, it’s not something you’d ever seen a royal doing. I did feel sorry for her even then, it was probably one of those things which wouldn’t have mattered if it hadn’t ended up in the tabloids. I’m sure prince Andrew was no saint at the time himself

LardoBurrows · 30/12/2023 20:52

I remember it and how shocking it was to see it in glorious technicolour on the front page of the tabloids and everyone was talking about it.

I remember that there was a lot of condemnation of the paparazzi using powerful long lens cameras to spy on Fergie and the girls from the moment they arrived in the south of France; they were camped outside the villa the whole time Fergie was there. However, popular opinion was that she was a fool not to have realised that the paparazzi were out in force and that she was a loose canon who had no idea how to conduct herself in public. The fact that she was topless and that Beatrice and Eugenia were playing close by while a strange man was sucking their mother's toes meant that she was deemed persona non grata to the Royal Family and others for many years. She only had herself to blame

doggiedude · 30/12/2023 21:08

I was in Australia and was totally oblivious to the scandal!!

WinnieTheW0rm · 30/12/2023 21:19

Press behaviour came under heavy scrutiny ofter Diana's death. It wouldn't happen now, photographers with long lenses intruding on a private holiday

Duchess of Cambridge, topless, 2012, France

Or the Sussexes - pix of the DC - earlier this month, Costa Rica

easylikeasundaymorn · 30/12/2023 21:33

EternalHeadache · 30/12/2023 19:31

I don’t know why people have to be rude to the OP. Sometimes even if you google, it is helpful to talk to people who were around at the time. To get an idea of the vibe and atmosphere at the time. OP it did like feel like a very big deal from what I can remember. The behaviour was seen as very disrespectful. It seemed predictable and almost acceptable that she should be exiled from the royal family.

I would like to think things have changed a bit since then. Who knows.

exactly this. OP didn't ask 'what was the toe sucking scandal', they made clear they obviously knew WHAT happened, they were asking about public perception at the time.

If they did as twatty posters have advised and googled the only first hand sources would be from newspapers, which wouldn't help their aim in trying to establish whether the newspaper accounts were accurate! I can think of loads of topical issues from the last few years where the accounts in newspapers were nothing like what I or anyone I knew was experiencing in real life - how often do posters on here refuse to trust the daily mail?

IMO OP's question is exactly the sort of thing that discussion forums are most useful for!

Neriah · 31/12/2023 11:03

WinnieTheW0rm · 30/12/2023 21:19

Press behaviour came under heavy scrutiny ofter Diana's death. It wouldn't happen now, photographers with long lenses intruding on a private holiday

Duchess of Cambridge, topless, 2012, France

Or the Sussexes - pix of the DC - earlier this month, Costa Rica

I was in the UK and equally oblivious. It isn't "the media", it is certain sections of the media, that thrive on gossip, invasion of privacy, scandal, and, if all seems fails, completely made up rubbish. You know... the Sun, the Mail, and Mumsnet...

Zanatdy · 31/12/2023 11:05

Fergie seems to be forgiven now, judging by comments I see online. I don’t think she was ever a nasty vindictive person, maybe just naive. I did wonder if Andrew and Sarah would remarry after Philip died but seems not. Not sure if they are just platonic friends or if anything there

LlynTegid · 31/12/2023 11:18

At almost the same time there were allegations about a cabinet minister (David Mellor) and the same thing.

LadyBird1973 · 31/12/2023 11:18

The cynic in me thinks she would have remarried him prior to the Virginia Roberts situation becoming public, but is being wise and seeing how things pan out before irretrievably linking herself again.

WinnieTheW0rm · 31/12/2023 11:31

Fergie traded on her royal connections and the way the press had (cruelly) mocked her ("the Duchess of Pork" is what got her the Weight Watchers gig), and though I suspect her financial affairs were sailing close to the wind, she was never disloyal to the Queen, or bubbled family secrets (other than those which were directly her own, such as how much she had been alone during the early child-rearing days when Andrew was off with the Navy), and any affairs after Mr Toe-Sucker were very much under wraps. She also never complained about being excluded from family gatherings - and facilitated the princesses contact with the wider family (to the extent of staying at another property, I think on the Sandringham estate itself, at Christmas so they could see both sides of the family conveniently - even though that was seen as a snub to her). And on the rare occasions she did turn up, she dressed the part and looked happy.

It's a version of the "keep your head down and carry on" with very little complaint, and that has I think been key to her partially restored reputation. And keeping her gob shut about the family (except when she had something nice to say) has paid off with greater inclusion now

Also, the weight issues, the single parenting and her recent breast cancer made her a bit more relatable. Especially as those old enough to have seen it, remember how utterly shitty the press was to her

WandaWonder · 31/12/2023 11:38

Probably sponsored by a verruca removal company

RoseMarigoldViolet · 31/12/2023 12:05

Apparently, he was actually kissing her foot in some sort of prince Cinderella way as a joke between them. So maybe not so inappropriate in front of the little girls.

At the time, I think that part of the shock was that Beatrice and Eugenie were there, but actually it does show her to be a good mother. She hadn’t left the kids with a nanny and gone off without them. She was parenting!

RoseMarigoldViolet · 31/12/2023 12:06

Do you think that Sarah and Andrew are together as a couple? Not platonic.

Maireas · 31/12/2023 12:07

RoseMarigoldViolet · 31/12/2023 12:05

Apparently, he was actually kissing her foot in some sort of prince Cinderella way as a joke between them. So maybe not so inappropriate in front of the little girls.

At the time, I think that part of the shock was that Beatrice and Eugenie were there, but actually it does show her to be a good mother. She hadn’t left the kids with a nanny and gone off without them. She was parenting!

The nanny was with them. After the separation, the late Queen provided nannies until the girls went to boarding school.
Bryan pretended it was a Cinderella story. Who knows.

curtaintwitcher78 · 31/12/2023 12:28

Another bullshit 'I'm so innocent and don't have Google' post.
And if the OP ever returns to answer why they're being so wide eyed, it's either 'English isn't my first language' (that explains nothing) or 'I am only in my 20s'.
What is it really? Journalists looking to guage opinions?