🔗 Share this article

The Duke's removal from the last vestiges of royal life has not only altered his path - it's sending ripples through his immediate relatives too.

Sarah Ferguson's New Status

The former spouse has now lost her duchess title and will now be referred to as Sarah Ferguson.

For Sarah, sixty-six, the change will be the most visible.

Throughout this period, she has maintained the honorary royal post-marital designation Sarah, York Duchess. Currently, she returns to her maiden name of Ferguson.

"She will have lost a certain prestige over this," said one monarchy expert. "She definitely does use the title – even her Twitter bio is @SarahTheDuchess."

But the loss of her title may affect her much less than the scandal she's facing separately about her own links with Jeffrey Epstein.

Last month, several charities dropped her as ambassador after an email from over a decade ago revealed that she called Epstein her "greatest ally" and seemed to apologise for her negative comments of him.

Business Ventures and Charity Work

Away from her charitable activities, Ferguson also has multiple commercial enterprises.

And these, too, are more probable to be affected by the Epstein controversy than any change in title, says one royal commentator.

But Ferguson has been a remarkable endure in monarchical networks. She's kept recovering strongly.

"She's the supreme perseverer and master of reinvention," said one royal author.

The Daughters

For the couple's two daughters, Beatrice, thirty-seven, and Eugenie, 35, there's no formal change.

They will still be known as royal princesses, which they have been entitled to since birth.

Additionally there is no modification to the line of succession.

Andrew remains eighth position to the crown, succeeded by his children Beatrice and Eugenie, in ninth and twelfth place respectively.

But in practice their standing are "low down" and will probably become much further down as time goes on.

Future Prospects

The princesses are also presently non-working royals, and while they occasionally take on roles – Princess Eugenie was recently named as a mentor for the monarch's charity network – experts also suggest they "can't see a world" in which they would step up into official responsibilities.

"Regarding Beatrice and Eugenie go, I think there's an appreciation of the reality that this scandal doesn't involve them, and it's unjust for it to impact them directly in the independent lives they are carving out for themselves," says one monarchy analyst.

"The princesses are particularly unlucky affected parties, they've had to suffer in silence and have been composed in their silence," adds another monarchy writer.

Ultimate Consequences

In the end, there seems to be little doubt that the person who will be most impacted by these developments will be the Duke himself.

For someone who always liked the royal privileges, the pomp and the pageantry, the relinquishment of his honors is deeply humiliating.

Therefore lacking those, on a personal level, will significantly count.