Sarah Ferguson has paid tribute to Princess Diana as the funniest person she ever met and said she was “too young” to die.
The Duchess of York, 63, was close friends with the late royal before she was killed at the age of 36, in an August 1997 Paris car smash, and told how their bond started when she was 14.
Ferguson, who divorced 63-year-old Prince Andrew 27 years ago, told Alan Carr’s “Life’s a Beach” podcast: “I miss her humour. She was too young. But also there is no other person that makes me laugh more than her.
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“She just was so funny. There is nobody else. And I’ve known her since I was 14. Absolutely loved everything about her.”
Ferguson, who stayed close to the late Queen after her divorce from Andrew, and also paid tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh, who died in April 2021, as a wise man.
She said when Alan asked about him: “Very wise. You had to be on your best. If you asked a silly comment, you were certainly told it was a silly comment. Terrifying: ‘Why are you asking me that? I do it every day. Why are you asking me that?’
“Ugh! Then you lose all your confidence: ‘Did you go driving today?’ ‘Car or horse?’ ‘Oh, God, sorry. Yes’.”
Ferguson also recalled Prince Philip gave her the advice: “‘Remember Sarah, you’ve got to be electable but never elected’,” adding: “Nice. Resonates, right?”
Ferguson was reportedly frozen out by Prince Philip after infamous intimate pictures emerged showing her and financial advisor John Bryan on holiday together in the summer of 1992.
His anger was said to be so intense he spent years being unable to bear being in the same room as Ferguson.
But decades later they came together when they attended the October 2018 wedding of her daughter Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank.
She said about the Queen: “When I think about the Queen, I feel very emotional and want to cry. When I think about (Diana), I smile, and I laugh – she was so funny.”