The British royal family shared tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II on her birthday – Sunday, April 21 – though one prominent royal was off on the queen’s age. Sarah Ferguson, ex-wife of Prince Andrew, made an Instagram post about the queen “on what would have been her 97th birthday.” Commenters were quick to point out that the queen would have been 98, not 97.
Queen Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, and she was 96 years old when she passed away on Sep. 8, 2022. This year, she would have turned 98, but Ferguson was off by a year. Her post included a photo of the queen smiling at Buckingham Palace, and the caption read: “Thank you for all that you have taught us, for being a steadfast leader and dear friend. You are sorely missed.”
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Commenters posted their own well-wishes to the queen and mourned along with Ferguson, but many were surprised that she had gotten the queen’s age wrong. One person wrote: “She would have been 98 today. She is greatly missed,” while another added, “98 surely?” Ferguson did not reply to these or any of the other similar comments, and most of them were relatively forgiving. Some even defended Ferguson.
“To all those correcting [Sarah Ferguson]… I’m sure she knows exactly how old HM Queen Elizabeth would have been. It can only be a typo,” one person wrote. Another added: “Yes, definitely. We all know. Very well said. It is not necessary. Some things aren’t necessary to point out.”
Ferguson – often referred to as “Fergie” in the press – joined the royal family in 1986 when she married the queen’s third child, Prince Andrew. They had two daughters together, Princess Beatrice and Prince Eugenie, then separated in 1992 after just six years of marriage. However, the two continued living in a royal residence together and co-parenting their children, apparently staying on good terms over the years. They even continued to work together, which proved to be an issue in 2010 when Ferguson was caught accepting bribes in exchange for meetings with her ex-husband.
Ferguson was also tied up in the prince’s association with Jeffrey Epstein, as Epstein reportedly helped pay off a sizable debt for Ferguson. However, Ferguson has not been implicated in Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking operations, which her husband was accused of participating in. In 2019, Prince Andrew’s royal duties were suspended and he stepped down from all of his patronages. After the queen’s passing, his police protection was removed as well, and in 2023 he was banned from his residence in Buckingham Palace. He remains one of King Charles III’s “Counsellors of State,” and he and Ferguson retain the titles “Duke and Duchess of York.”
