In Finding Sarah, Ferguson confirmed she and Diana had not been in touch for a year before the Princess of Wales died in a high-speed car crash in France on August 31, 1997. She reportedly never understood the reason behind the estrangement, adding Diana was someone who would remain upset about an issue for an extended period.
“I wrote letters, thinking whatever happened didn’t matter, let’s sort it out,” she further claimed. “And I knew she’d come back. In fact, the day before she died, she rang a friend of mine and said, ‘Where’s that Red? I want to talk to her.'”
Ferguson wrote, “In any sibling relationship, there are ups and downs and peaks and troughs, but we were always steadfast in our friendship. We never let the sun go down on too many heated discussions. Our bond was never broken.”
In the 2007 book The Diana Chronicles, journalist Tina Brown noted Ferguson’s memoir was “full of nice comments about her sister-in-law… but goddesses don’t get warts.”
According to Brown, Diana never spoke to Ferguson again despite the latter’s “pleading apologies.”
Meanwhile, Burrell said Ferguson’s suggestion she had contracted verrucas from shoes given to her by Diana was not the cause of the breakdown.
“Diana felt used and refused to speak to Sarah,” he claimed in The Royal Insider. “For the last six months of Diana’s life, Fergie had no contact with Diana – and that was a shame, because they’ve been through so much together. Something happened in their personal lives which they found was impossible to hurdle.”
Lownie shared the same opinion in a video, saying the reality was Diana “was very concerned that Sarah Ferguson might well be selling stories about her, and that relationship was never repaired, though Sarah Ferguson pretended it had.”