Word: duchess
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Then last week, on the sixth anniversary of their engagement, Buckingham Palace made it coldly official: the Duke and Duchess of York's marriage was for practical purposes over. They had agreed to separate formally, with the option of divorce after two years. According to scornful palace officials, the woman increasingly mocked by the press as Freebie Fergie and Duchess Do-Little was "unsuitable for public life, for royal life...
Though Britons relished Fergie's outgoing nature, they nonetheless expect members of the royal family to behave with dignity. The new duchess could never manage that for long. When the tabloids were not feasting on rumors of marital stresses between Diana and Prince Charles, heir to the throne, they were sniping at Andrew's spouse for her idleness, her "materialism" and, well, her behavior that was Not Quite His Class, Dear -- reproofs that were said to reflect Buckingham Palace's views. Britons high and low agreed: their revered sovereign and her family deserved better...
...royal family at first tried to patch things up but by last week was in high dudgeon. "The knives are out for Fergie at the palace," said Paul Reynolds, BBC Radio's court correspondent. "I have never known such anger here." Reason: suspicions that the duchess had engineered a leak of the separation story. Fergie's friends denied it, but the upstart had already angered the Queen by hiring her own lawyers. "Unheard-of impertinence," huffed a senior palace official...
...perhaps unprecedented, public apology to the monarch and Fergie. Anson was not the only insider to spill venom, but he accepted "full responsibility" for what some people had begun to call the "Mean Queen Machine." The next step in damage control was to negotiate a deal with the departing duchess: a possible $4 million-plus settlement, along with retention of a noble "courtesy title," in exchange for her keeping mum about life at court...
...duchess is expected to retain custody of Princess Beatrice, 3, and Princess Eugenie, who turns two this week. Andrew is to have unlimited visitation rights. Which partner would end up with the greater share of public sympathy remained unclear. Often regarded as a hero for his service in the 1982 Falklands war, the duke proved to be less than heroic to his wife. Frequently away on military duty, at home he began turning Fergie into a golf widow as he pursued his passion for the sport. Said Anne Fernley, a London housewife: "It's a pity, really. They...