Queen’s former in-laws just won’t fade away

Diana and Fergie still making the headlines.

It’s now more than 17 years since two royal divorces rocked the royal family.

On May 30, 1996 the 10-year marriage of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson was formally ended, followed three months later by the more acrimonious one of Charles and Diana.

Yet in the past few weeks both royal daughters-in-law have once again hit the headlines with news reports that can only cause hurt and irritation to the Queen and her family.

Conspiracy theories on the death of Diana have once more resurfaced as a backdrop to the launch of a new movie on the princess’s life. And rumours abound that Andrew and Sarah are to remarry.

In her now infamous Panorama interview, Diana memorably said of herself, “She won’t go quietly, that’s the problem. I’ll fight to the end.”

But no one could have envisaged her words would take on a new resonance in the aftermath of her tragic death which came two years later.

For more than a decade every aspect of her life and death would be endlessly analysed by the media. Conspiracy theories abounded but two inquests one in France and a second in London and the major ‘Operation Paget’ police investigation all concluded that the cause of the car crash in Paris’s Alma Tunnel was nothing more than a tragic accident.

The new film, Diana, premiered in London on Thursday.

Naomi Watts heads the cast and the movie explores the final two years of the princess’s life.

The glitzy launch, on the day before the 16th anniversary of Diana’s funeral, was in many people’s eyes cynically timed to maximise publicity for the project. We still have to wait to see the public reaction to the film.

Interest in Diana has inevitably started to wane. You would have to be older than 20 to be directly aware of the day-to-day impact the princess had on people.

Unlike Marilyn Monroe, James Dean and Elvis, she has left no movies or songs for a new generation to discover to keep her legend alive. The lavish exhibition at her childhood home of Althorp House in Northamptonshire, closed at the end of August and 150 personal items, including her Emmanuel wedding dress, will be returned to princes William and Harry for storage at Kensington Palace.

The brothers spent the anniversary of their mother’s death privately as they always do. And poignantly last weekend, 16 years to the day since his mother died, William and Kate journeyed to the Lincolnshire village of Stoke Rochford to visit Spencer relatives, at the home of Diana’s sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, and to introduce them to baby George.

Prince Harry has said both brothers thought about their mother “whatever we do, wherever we are and whoever we’re with”, adding, “That’s what keeps us going.”

The new film and the rumours that the SAS had orchestrated their mother’s death can only cause the family renewed pain at an otherwise happy juncture in their lives.

In other family news, reports that Prince Andrew and his former wife ‘Fergie’ could remarry may be on the Queen’s mind.

The Yorks have remained close since their divorce and Sarah shares occupancy of the Royal Lodge, the Queen Mother’s former home on the Windsor estate.

A friend of the couple said: “Mark my words, they will remarry: It is only a matter of time.” Another said: “It wouldn’t surprise me at all. They are a wonderful couple together and, better still, pretty amazing parents.”

An interesting development came four weekends ago when the couple stayed with the Queen at Balmoral joining daughter Princess Beatrice who had arrived earlier. Fergie has stayed on the estate previously in 2005 and 2008 though she then slept in nearby cottages while this time she was under the same roof as her former mother-in-law.

It could be a prelude to a remarriage, but it’s more likely that the Queen, pragmatic as ever, realises Beatrice and her American boyfriend of six years, David Clark, are likely to be heading for the altar at some stage in the future and no one would want family tensions to ruin their big day.

There is, of course, one major stumbling block to an Andy and Fergie re-splicing.

One of my contacts in royal circles, told me on Friday: “There’s simply no chance Andrew and Sarah will remarry while the Duke (of Edinburgh) is around.

“He can’t stand her and what she’s done in the past!”

The impact two royal daughters-in-law made on royal life in the ’80s and ’90s may not be as strong today, but it shows no sign of going away any time soon.