Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana were not only sisters-in-law, but fast friends. While their relationship went through a strain before Diana's death in 1997, with the two not even on talking terms, the late Princess of Wales had a heartbreaking final message for her dear friend that was later passed on to Sarah.
"Sadly, at the end we hadn't spoken for a year, though I never knew the reason, except that once Diana got something in her head, it stuck there for a while," the former Duchess of York wrote in her 2011 autobiography, Finding Sarah: A Duchess's Journey to Find Herself.
"I wrote letters, thinking whatever happened didn't matter, let's sort it out. And I knew she'd come back. In fact, the day before she died she rang a friend of mine and said, 'Where's that Red? I want to talk to her'," Sarah revealed the royal had apparently said before she tragically passed away in a car crash on 31 August 1997, hinting at a desire to reconcile with her long-time friend.
© GettyThe pair's fallout has been traced back to when Sarah wrote in her 1996 book that she contracted plantar warts (verrucas) from shoes she had borrowed from Diana. However, the former Duchess of York claimed in her biography that she did not know why their friendship broke down at the end.
Sarah and Diana's sister-in-law bond
© Getty ImagesSarah and Diana became sisters-in-law when the former married Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Diana's brother-in-law, in 1986. Diana had been married to Andrew's brother Charles since 1981. The pair actually already knew each other before Sarah married into the royal family, and were actually fourth cousins.
Throughout the 80s, they had a close friendship, enjoying days out at polo matches and joining the rest of the royal family at Christmas Day in Sandringham and on the balcony at the annual Trooping the Colour.
Speaking exclusively to HELLO! in 2021, Sarah remembered her friend as "such an angelic, beautiful, tall, stunning woman".
© Getty"I think about her most days because she's the only other person who knew and was around at that time in the 80s, when we all wore those very strange clothes. She was in the family before me and we had such fun."
The former Duchess said Diana "never really understood how many people loved her" and "never really understood how beautiful she was – which she fully admitted publicly." Sarah added: "She was so funny. There's nobody like her. I'll always remember her tinkling laughter and her being so naughty with her jokes."
She continued: "I love her. So I always say, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, if you love them, you love them. So my heart is always with her. I think she would be very proud of her sons and their wives, and the grandchildren."
