Sarah Ferguson’s new childrens book ‘being pulped’ after Epstein scandal

Thousands of copies of Sarah Ferguson’s new children’s book are being destroyed in the latest blow to the former royal.

According to the Daily Mail, publishing sources have said that 10,000 copies of ‘Flora and Fern: Kindness Along The Way’ are ‘being sent to the recycling center’.

It comes after suggestions that the book had been delayed in light of the latest scandal involving Ferguson, 66, and her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, 65.

But a source told the Mail last night: ‘It’s not been delayed, it’s being pulped.

‘It’s an acknowledgement of the inevitable. No-one is going to want to buy it.’

The £12.99 book was long scheduled to be published on October 9 but then mysteriously delayed to a November 20 release.

A synopsis reads: ‘Flora and Fern are having a great time playing hide-and-seek in the woods with their friends. When Fern gets lost and eventually finds himself in the BIG City … will he know what to do and how to find his way home again?’

In-person signings and talks in bookshops by Ferguson were also pulled, but there has been a deafening silence from the ex-duchess or her publishers about her future as an author.

One local bookshop that planned a meet and greet with the ex-royal but has now been forced to refund tickets to the public said: ‘It’s a mess. The book is unsalvageable.’

One industry source told BBC News that the decision to withdraw it from sale ‘makes total sense commercially’.

‘You have to imagine it’s to do with the current controversies,’ said Neill Denny, from the book trade news website Book Brunch.

‘It’s not the right time to release a book by Sarah Ferguson.’

In September the Mail on Sunday published emails sent by Ferguson in 2011 to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein in which she called him a ‘supreme friend’ – despite publicly distancing herself from him.

Ferguson ‘humbly apologized’ to the convicted sex offender for letting him down and said she had been told to speak out if she wanted to save her career as a children’s author. 

She sent the grovelling message ‘from the truth of my heart’, less than two months after telling journalists: ‘I will never have anything to do with [Epstein] again.’

Those comments came on March 7, 2011, amid mounting pressure over the links she and her ex-husband had to Epstein – and the £15,000 bailout he gave her.

Ferguson was subsequently dropped by numerous charities with whom she had long-term associations.

Earlier this month she lost her title Sarah, Duchess of York when the King stripped his brother of his own remaining titles, leaving him as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The ex-royal is also set to lose her home, having lived with Mountbatten-Windsor for decades at Royal Lodge despite their divorce.

A spokesman for Ferguson declined to comment. New Frontier Publishing did not respond to a request for comment.

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