‘The Crown’: Sarah Ferguson Once Said the Toe-Sucking Scandal Was Really a ‘Cinderella’ Moment
When pictures of Sarah Ferguson being affectionate with a man other than her then-husband, Prince Andrew, emerged, a royal scandal erupted. But she claimed what many spectators believed to be an image of her so-called financial adviser sucking her toes was a “Cinderella” moment.
When those pictures hit the newsstands, the press created a narrative that the involved parties denied to be true. But the transgression and the story told in headlines was so memorable, it received mention on The Crown.
Sarah Ferguson said her royal life was hardly a ’Cinderella’ story
Prince Andrew married Ferguson in a lavish 1986 ceremony. They announced their separation in March 1992, and a scandal ensued when photographers snapped her in a compromising position months later.
She was caught on camera with John Bryan, her alleged financial adviser, and some of the pictures showed him lavishing attention on her feet. Based on the images, many observers thought he was sucking on her toes.
Ferguson was at Balmoral Castle visiting Queen Elizabeth II when the photos emerged. But she quickly departed with her children and nanny when the news broke (per the Mirror).
While Prince Andrew and Ferguson eventually divorced in 1996, she said the photo scandal was not the only catalyst. “What I got was not the man,” she explained after their marriage ended (the Mirror). “I got the palace and didn’t get him.”
How the scandal was really a ‘Cinderella’ moment for Sarah Ferguson
Though the press had a field day with the photos, and even Princess Diana supposedly had thoughts, Bryan and Ferguson denied that they showed what so many people believed them to be. They insisted he was kissing the top of her foot.
“He was pretending to try the slipper on my foot, and I was Cinderella,” she once explained (per Express). “And I said, ‘Oh, ha, ha, it doesn’t fit because you are not the prince.’”
Ferguson reflected on the events in her memoir, My Story, “The shot that caused the most furore — the one that would define me for years to come — showed John [Bryan] planting his mouth on the top of my foot. Toe Sucking!, went the tabloids refrain, and you could almost hear the grown men giggling.”
She reiterated the fairy tale claim, writing, “John and I were actually playing Cinderella when the picture was snapped.”
“The whole scene was not nearly as intense as it was made to look,” she insisted.
Sarah Ferguson thought the royal family might have been close to people behind her scandal
This note in the royal family’s history keeps coming up, and is even touched on in the fifth season of Netflix’s The Crown. It was dubbed the “Fergie foot job” and became part of Queen Elizabeth II’s famous “annus horribilis,” or year of misfortune (per Newsweek).
Ferguson eventually shared suspicions of a possible conspiracy against her involving people close to the royal family in My Story. She wrote that she thought courtiers in the Firm “colluded with the press by leaking details of [her] whereabouts,” leading to the photographs.
