The inside story of Sarah Ferguson’s ‘toe sucking’ scandal: ANDREW LOWNIE reveals pictures of Duchess of York with ‘financial advisor’ lover were taken over THREE days and royal party was warned about lurking photographers

On August 9, 1992, the Duchess of York flew by private jet to the French Riviera with her “financial advisor” John Bryan and her young daughters Princess Beatrice and Eugenie.

Sarah Ferguson, who recently split from Prince Andrew, is said to be enjoying a week-long summer holiday.

Nanny Sally Hughes and police officers Graham Ellery and John Hodgkinson were also with her on the trip to La Mole, a tiny airport 25 minutes’ drive from St. Tropez.

The group had rented Le Mas de Pigerolle, a five-bedroom, pink stucco farmhouse set in ten acres of land, four miles from the pretty village of Bormes Les Mimosa, before Ferguson and the children joined the royal family at Balmoral.

What they didn’t know was that a French photographer, Daniel Angeli, was watching them. He had crawled through a mile of undergrowth.

He was about to create a scandal that would be compared to the abdication crisis of almost sixty years earlier.

Sarah Ferguson seen with her ‘financial advisor’ John Bryan at the wedding of Lord Weidenfeld and Annabelle Whitestone, 1992

The group had rented Le Mas de Pigerolle, a five-bedroom, pink stucco farmhouse set in ten acres of land, four miles from the pretty village of Bormes Les Mimosa (above)

Sarah Ferguson flew with her party by private jet to a tiny airstrip, La Mole

On Thursday 20 August the Mirror, which had paid £60,000 for his photographs, published them under the headline: ‘Fergie’s stolen kisses: the truth about the Duchess and the millionaire of Texas’.

The 55 photos, spread over nine pages, showed a topless Fergie smearing sunscreen on her balding financial advisor’s head, kissing him, lying beneath him and letting him kiss or lick her toes – the actual activity has since been disputed.

It proved that, despite his denials until that same week, he was more than just an advisor. The photos were distributed around the world.

It was later discovered that a large ditch had been dug a hundred meters from the villa and the swimming pool.

The photos confirmed that they were not grainy photos taken from a great distance, but rather close-up photos. The photos had been taken over the course of three days, given the multiple changes of swimsuits in the photos.

Rangers had warned the royal party about the presence of photographers, but it appears no action was taken.

A video was also recorded, which was later distributed by Dutch filmmaker Joost Kraanen.

There are mixed memories of the events at Balmoral after the story broke.

The Duchess wrote in her memoirs that she had stayed up all night drinking brandy with one of her nannies, Alison Wardley, and then had breakfast upstairs. She claimed that Andrew had taken the breakfast papers upstairs.

But royal journalist James Whittaker claimed, based on interviews with Balmoral staff, that she entered the breakfast room and saw everyone reading the story.

Sarah was summoned at 9.30am to provide an explanation to the Queen, who had received a press conference fax that morning from her deputy press officer John Haslam.

Contrary to popular belief, the Duchess left Balmoral immediately and spent the next few days holed up in a cottage on the Balmoral estate.

Sarah spent much of her time on the phone with Diana, the Princess of Wales, and a healer, Madame Vasso, before catching a scheduled flight home on Sunday, while the others were in church.

There is speculation about how the story got out.

Journalist and author Tina Brown suggested that Diana was the one who informed the press, as she was the only one – apart from the police officers – who knew about the holiday.

And the Mail’s Richard Kay said that Diana messaged him the night before the photos were published, saying cryptically: “The redhead is in trouble.”

But because the Duchess and her daughters were being taken abroad, the Queen and her staff would have been informed of the holiday.

The night before the photos were published, there was no secret about what had happened.

The Duchess’s mother, Susan Barrantes, later claimed that the holiday had been leaked by Buckingham Palace as part of an intelligence campaign to discredit Sarah and give Andrew custody of the children.

Sarah in her first public appearance after the ‘toe sucking’ scandal

The Duchess left Balmoral after meeting the Queen, while the rest of the family were in the church

Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew later that year at Princess Beatrice’s nativity play

In her book My Story, Sarah wrote: ‘My suspicions also told me that The Firm was colluding with the press by leaking details of my whereabouts.’

This view was shared by the Duchess, who wrote in her memoir, My Story: ‘My suspicions also told me that The Firm was colluding with the press by leaking details of my whereabouts.

‘The press then tipped off the French photo agency and the deal was closed.’

The holiday was certainly no secret. French police had tipped off two local photographers, and photos of the party’s arrival were printed in the Nice-Matin newspaper the next day.

The two rented Mercedes were followed to Le Mas de Pignerolle and news of their presence spread quickly after a dinner in St Tropez.

On August 13, the Sun published photos showing Fergie entering wearing a large headscarf and dark glasses.

A few days later the Mail on Sunday published pictures of her ‘pink palace…holiday hideaway’.

But that doesn’t explain how Angeli had such advance warning. Bryan even claimed that “they actually came to the pool to measure where they were going to take the pictures. They had been there for days, scouted the location and built a little fort.”

So it remains a mystery who tipped off the paparazzi.

Andrew Lownie is currently writing a joint biography of the Duke and Duchess of York.

He is the author of books such as Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.