How Sarah Ferguson’s Decision To Not Sign A Confidentiality Agreement Post-Divorce Cost Her Money

Sarah Ferguson seemingly made a wrong decision after her divorce from Prince Andrew. Instead of receiving a huge sum of money from her ex-husband’s trust fund, Fergie chose to do something else.

Following their divorce, the mom of two was given the option to either sign a confidentiality agreement or not. Signing the agreement would mean that she will never talk about the royal family or share details about her marriage to the Duke of York.

The other option, which was not to sign a confidentiality agreement, meant that she was free to publish books and talk about the royals. However, this also meant that she won’t receive a huge sum of money from her ex-husband.

Princess Beatrice’s mom went for the second option, and in 1996, she released her autobiography titled “My Story.” It has now been revealed that if Sarah signed the confidentiality agreement, she would have received £7 million in 1996, which is now valued at £14.2 million.

But since she went for the second option, Sarah Ferguson only managed to earn approximately £2.2 million from her three biographies. After “My Story,” she also released “What I Know Now: Simple Lessons Learned The Hard Way” in 2003 and “Finding Sarah: A Duchess’ Journey To Find Herself” in 2011.

Sarah’s former royal best friend, Princess Diana, also got a divorce from Prince Charles in 1996. But unlike the Duchess of York, the Princess of Wales signed a confidentiality agreement, which meant that she wasn’t allowed to publish her own books or share stories about Prince Charles and the royal family.

Princess Diana’s decision paved the way for her to walk out of her marriage with approximately £17 million at that time or £31 million in today’s money. The mom of two’s decision may also be regarded as a smart one because she already spoke about her marriage, her husband and the royals prior to her divorce.

This meant that before she signed the confidentiality agreement, Princess Diana already told Panorama that there were three people in her marriage. She also said that Prince Charles wasn’t suited to become the future king of the United Kingdom.