In 1986 Sarah Ferguson And Princess Diana Played A Prank On Buckingham Palace

Nov 18, 2019 by apost team

It's good to know that royalty and the elite can display a sense of humor every now and again. It happens. Of course, the fact that it happens is never quite as surprising as the ones we find caught up in the mischief. There have been many interesting stories throughout the years, but maybe not quite as amusing as a story that involved two of history's favorite royal family members.

While Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, were known to have had issues between them in Diana's last year or so, there was a time they were actually very good friends. In fact, they had been close childhood friends prior to reestablishing their friendship when Diana married into the royal family.

At a time when both of these young women were the rising stars in the royal family, they were full of themselves and energy. They were both also known to not always be fond of royal protocols. That's why it didn't seem all that unusual when Fergie and the Princess decided to have a bachelorette party or as they called it, a hens party if you will. It made perfect sense that these two, in particular, would be the first royal family members to throw such a party for the ladies.

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The year was 1986. Princess Diana had already settled into life in the palace with husband Prince Charles while Fergie was in the process of planning her beautiful wedding with Prince Andrew, Duke of York, which took place in April of that year.

Word had gotten out of the hens party that was to coincide with Prince Andrew's stag do to be held at the Aubrey House a week later. The ladies were a little put off that they weren't invited given that none other than Elton John and Sir David Frost were expected in attendance. What no one knew but a few of the participants was that the ladies had instead planned to play a prank on the palace.

As Fergie described in her book, "My Story: Sarah the Duchess of York", the following is what really went down: "With a few co-conspirators in tow, we donned grey wigs and dressed up in authentic policewomen’s outfits, down to our regulation dark stockings and lace-up shoes. After assembling just outside the Palace, we pretended to arrest one of our friends (chosen for her fabulous legs), who was playing the promiscuous lady. The duty police at the gates thought this very strange. They called out the park police, who proceeded to arrest the lot of us – even our protection officer, who played along – for causing a scene outside Buckingham Palace. They ushered us into their police van, [and] Diana and I had no intention of resisting. We thought it hysterically funny."

Indeed, the two ladies had managed to go unrecognized, pulled off the prank and had legitimately gotten themselves arrested. How had they managed to pull off this ruse? According to Fergie's book, "We’d turned our engagement rings wrong side around, and it had worked, they hadn’t recognized us. By the time we reached the end of the Mall, our cover must’ve worn thin – we heard one of the policemen say, ‘Oh my heavens, it’s the Princess of Wales in drag!’"

It's a cute story of fonder times before the Princess and Duchess stopped talking. This had occurred when Fergie made some comments about the late princess in that same book, comments that didn't sit well with Princess Diana, who felt she had been slighted and embarrassed. The hurt must have gone deep given the fact the former good friends and mischievous counterparts did not speak during the last year of Diana's life as Sarah told Harper's Bazaar.

What do you think about Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana's friendship? Let us know in the comments and be sure to let your family and friends have a peek at this story.