Here are more photos of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in Sandringham on Christmas Day. They were both allowed to walk with the royal family to and from the church on Christmas morning. This was the first time Sarah had been included on the Christmas walk in 32 years. She said afterwards that she felt “grateful” to be included. The British papers are full of stories about Fergie’s triumphant comeback after 30-plus years. There are lots of mentions of Prince Harry, because there’s a concerted effort to force the comparison between the Yorks and the Sussexes.

She was part of the Sandringham festivities last year but was kept out of sight. Her elevation to the church-going group was a clear statement that she was back in the fold of the extended family. She is not going to suddenly start taking on royal duties, but her presence in front of the cameras on Christmas Day was something that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, when Prince Philip was alive. He was regarded as her most implacable opponent within the family. A touch ironic then that last year she, Andrew and their daughters had the use of Wood Farm, the home on the estate where Philip spent time after he retired from public life.

“We are enjoying each other’s company and feeling grateful today,” she wrote on Instagram on Christmas Day, beneath an old picture of her with her daughters. “I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Happy Christmas to anyone who celebrates and season’s greetings to all.”

The King, whose broken relationship with his younger son, Harry, and daughter-in-law Meghan, has been further eroded by their insistence on telling their “truth” in unsparing detail, may simply have decided that he has little time for prolonging old feuds.

Andrew is a profound embarrassment to the family, but central to his unusual relationship with his ex-wife is that she is unwaveringly loyal to him. They still live under the same roof and are seemingly devoted to each other. Her most scandalous days occurred before some involved in this year’s Sandringham Christmas were born, or had married into the family. Perhaps the King, with so many other pressing concerns, thought it absurd that the mother of two of his nieces should not be there.

There has been speculation that the Queen has had a role in the warming towards the duchess. After all, Camilla knows a thing or two about rehabilitating a public image.

Compassion almost certainly also played a part in the decision to give Fergie the call-up. Earlier this year, after a routine mammogram, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. Afterwards she told a podcast that she had named her “perky” new breast. “I’m just coming to terms with my new best friend Derek, on my left,” she said. “He’s very important because he saved my life.”

The Yorks will be bracing themselves for a fresh development in the Epstein affair in the new year, after a judge in the US ruled that documents in a civil case naming Epstein’s associates will be unsealed.

Any attempt by Andrew to rehabilitate his reputation is likely to be a very long game indeed. But he seems likely to have his ex-wife with him in the enterprise. Could her appearance on Christmas Day indicate the beginnings of a royal strategy, desperate though it might be? She was once persona non grata, but it is not inconceivable that some in the Firm see this mother, grandmother and ex-wife as an antidote to relieve some of the toxicity around the Duke of York.

And perhaps there is a signal too to members of the family in California that reconciliations can be achieved, even if they sometimes take three decades.

[From The Times]

“And perhaps there is a signal too to members of the family in California that reconciliations can be achieved, even if they sometimes take three decades.” The Sussexes left and, despite the British media’s fantasies to the contrary, they are not begging and pleading to come back. Harry does want some form of reconciliation, but it will have to come on his terms. As for Fergie… yeah, I don’t know what’s going on there. It probably was about the Epstein “client list.”

Also: the Ephraim Hardcastle column in the Daily Mail reports that QEII gave her permission for Fergie to be buried at the Royal Windsor estate. QEII “sanctioned a St George’s Chapel Windsor funeral for Fergie followed by internment at the Royal Family burial ground at Frogmore.” This was done because Fergie is the mother of “princesses of the blood royal.” Still, Fergie will not be anywhere near the royal crypt where QEII and Prince Philip are interred.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.