Fergie, the wayward duchess and her loyal prince (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Jun 1, 2010, 15:35 GMT

London - Britain's monarchy has had its fair share of scandals involving bitter divorces, infidelities and unsavoury friends.

Some thought that might be behind them after the scandalous decade of the 1990s - dominated by the tragic death of Princess Diana, the royals' most iconic and controversial figure. But, it seems, others are working to keep the soap opera alive.

Sarah Ferguson (Fergie), the 50-year-old Duchess of York and ex- wife of Prince Andrew, no doubt takes the biscuit when it comes to causing embarrassment for the royals.

In 1992, while still happily married, she was filmed topless while her financial adviser, Texan businessman John Bryan, sucked her toe on a Cote d' Azur holiday.

'Vulgar, vulgar, vulgar' was the unequivocal verdict of Lord Charteris, private secretary to Queen Elizabeth II at the time.

Prince Philip, the queen's husband, was always known to have had strong reservations about the 1986 marriage between the flame-haired, outspoken Ferguson and his second son.

When she divorced Andrew, fourth in line to the throne, in 1996, Ferguson described her generous settlement as 'not having a pot to piss in.'

In 2008, the duchess caused a diplomatic storm with Turkey for secretly filming a documentary in state-run orphanages, later shown on British television.

But, to the astonishment of many observers, the 50-year-old prince has remained loyal to his ex-wife, who rents a flat in the Royal Lodge, Andrew's private residence near Windsor Castle.

The couple have two daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice, who are both now at university.

For Prince Andrew, who travels the world as Britain's special representative for trade and investment, his ex-wife's latest faux pas could have been the most damaging yet.

On May 23, the duchess was filmed, by an undercover reporter, offering 'access' to her ex-husband for the sum of up to 500,000 pounds (723,000 dollars). She asked for a down payment of 40,000 pounds.

'I could bring you great business,' she promised the News of the World reporter, who was posing as a businessman. 'You'll get it back tenfold. I can open any door you want.'

The Duke of York, whom she referred to as 'Billy,' met 'the most amazing people' and would provide 'whatever you want,' continued the duchess.

But, apart from denying 'categorically' that he knew anything of her meeting with the fake reporter, Andrew has kept tight-lipped about the affair.

British tabloids said he had 'forgiven' the duchess and rejected her offer to move out of the Windsor flat. 'Don't be silly,' he told her, according to the Daily Mirror.

Friends told the paper: 'They will always be best friends and although the set-up seems weird to many people, it works for them.'

In an astonishingly frank interview on Oprah Winfrey's US chat show, to be aired Tuesday, Ferguson said she had been drinking ahead of her meeting with the fake reporter.

'I was in the gutter at that moment ... I'm aware of the fact that I've been drinking, you know, that I was not in my right place.'

The duchess, who has apologised to the royal family for her 'serious lapse of judgement,' also revealed that she had not been able to make herself watch the incriminating News of the World footage available on YouTube.

Since her divorce, Ferguson has turned her hand to such varied activities as writing children's book, being a representative for Weight Watchers and hosting her own chat show. Most of her business interests have been in the US.

Her books, Tea for Ruby and Little Red, were set to be turned into films by Handmade Films, which hit financial trouble earlier this year. A legal firm is suing her for 200,000 pounds in unpaid bills, but her total debt is believed to be much higher.

Ferguson's problem, according to the Daily Telegraph, is one often associated with 'minor royals.'

'They want to maintain a lifestyle into which they were born or married, but on increasingly slender means.'

According to Ingrid Seward, biographer of the duchess, Fergie's troubles were an accident waiting to happen. 'She's so profligate that she can't do anything on her own.'

Meanwhile, Emma Soames, royal watcher and editor of Saga magazine, believes that the British have a fascination with what she calls 'unpredictable loose cannons.'

'We do rather love them. While unpredictable, indiscreet and capricious, they are creative free spirits whose troublemaking is not born out of malice,' she wrote.