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Back in August of last year, Sarah Ferguson announced that she was moving full-time to Switzerland. She and her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, had bought a $20 million “ski chalet” together and she was going to make the chalet her permanent home. The whole thing seemed shady as hell, for financial reasons (where did either of them get the money?) and for romantic reasons (were Andrew and Sarah basically back together?). But throughout the shadiness, there were also rumors that Sarah was quite seriously involved with Manuel Fernandez, a 48 year old “internet entrepreneur,” and that she was moving to Switzerland to be closer to him. Sarah is 56, eight years older than Fernandez. Allegedly, they’d been dating since 2014. And now it’s over?

The Duchess of York is said to be ‘devastated’ after being dumped by her partner Manuel Fernandez. Sarah Ferguson, 56, was reported to have been dating the half-Irish half-Spanish internet entrepreneur since being introduced by a mutual friend in early 2014 and, despite the eight-year age gap, insiders say she was ‘besotted’ with him.

They made several public appearances together at a string of high-profile events and, last September, the pair attended Sir Bob Geldof’s wedding in the South of France. People close to the pair insisted they were just friends, even after they were spotted holidaying in Cannes together last May, followed by a trip to Asturias, Spain in June.

A source told The Sun: ‘Manuel’s not been around for several weeks and apparently he finished it with her. She’s been very tearful and weepy.’

She recently applied for permanent residency in Switzerland, where it was revealed she and Andrew had bought a luxury chalet as a ‘family investment’ for their two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, last year. Manuel was understood to have stayed more than once with Fergie at the £13 million chalet.

In an interview earlier this month, she told Swiss newspaper Le Nouvelliste: ‘I find here a positive energy that allows me to focus on new philanthropic activities. Furthermore, I have begun the process of officially becoming a resident of Valais. The administrative procedures are underway.’

A spokesperson for the Duchess of York told The Sun that she and Manuel were always good friends and continue to be so.

[From The Daily Mail]

I wonder… it will be interesting to see if Fergie goes through with the citizenship thing in Switzerland or if she changes her mind and wants to go back to England permanently. Just in the past few months, it has felt like there’s some general “thawing” within the royal family towards Fergie. While I didn’t write about it at the time, the Daily Mail had a big exclusive a few weeks ago about Fergie being “brought in out of the cold,” and a lot of credit was given to the Duchess of Cornwall, of all people. As for Fergie’s breakup… this has nothing to do with her age, because I’ve honestly never understood why any man with any kind of profile or legitimacy would go with her. She’s sort of a trainwreck-personality, just my opinion.

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