Fergie's Extravagant Spending and Excess Luggage Fine
Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, was well-known for her lavish spending habits, including an astonishing £515 purchase of a teddy bear she couldn’t technically take home on a flight.
The Excess Luggage Incident
Shortly after marrying Prince Andrew, Fergie was fined nearly £1,000 for carrying over fifty pieces of excess luggage on a first-class flight from New York. The bags contained an estimated £33,000 worth of items bought during her trip, including the expensive teddy bear.
“Not even Joan Collins has this much,” said a Heathrow baggage handler at the time.
The palace did not disclose who covered her expenses for this incident.
Financial Spending Revealed
Sarah's financial advisor, John Bryan, revealed she was spending over £860,000 a year. This amount included:
- £150,000 on gifts
- £50,000 on flowers
- £50,000 on parties
Sarah Ferguson’s Early Work Background
Before her marriage, Sarah had a typical upper-class girl’s work history. She shared in a Swedish TV interview on the show Skavlan some of her early jobs:
“I cleaned lavatories when I was 18 and graduates' bedrooms; they all left it very messy. And then the waitress in a strudel house.”
Her employment also included cleaning ski chalets and working at a publishing company.
Summary: Sarah Ferguson’s spending habits were famously extravagant, culminating in a costly excess baggage fine and an annual expenditure exceeding £860,000, reflecting a sharp contrast to her modest early jobs.