When it comes to the Epstein papers, the devil is in the detail. Sometimes literally. And so, among the hundreds of thousands of emails tossed into the public domain comes a revelatory exchange between Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and a Dubai-based investment banker called Terence Allen. This dates back to 2010, when the then-prince was a trade envoy for the British government, and suggests that he was passing on to Allen market-sensitive intelligence about the break-up of the Royal Bank of Scotland. This is shocking enough, but what I also found jaw-dropping was contained in a friendly to and fro between the two about Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s ex-wife with whom he was sharing a home.

The former duchess of York had run up debts of £6m and the then-duke was seeking financial assistance for her. Allen wrote: “With S I want to help — sincerely. I am barely acquainted with either of you, so a little lost at what to suggest. Financially I can help. But it seems more meaningful if we find a worthwhile business role within her capabilities. Will you allow me to find something?”

Finding something for Ferguson “within her capabilities” might have been a stretch even for a resourceful businessman like Allen, but, if one pauses on the details, the shocker is this: Six million smackers! That’s how much Ferguson was in hock. How is it even possible to get that much in debt without people calling in the men in white coats? Even at today’s prices, that’s a hell of a lot of hairdos, or holidays or handbags. Or, as the case may be, failed businesses ventures.

Didn’t anyone in the Royal Household notice what was going on, and take her into protective custody? Or did all those around her, and particularly her former husband, think that, as a member of the extended Royal Family, she was protected, like they are, from the financial exigencies of the real world, and that it would all work out in the end. Besides, wouldn’t that nice American who joins Andrew on his shooting weekends step in and stump up?

As we know, that didn’t work out too well, and the news comes that six companies linked to Ferguson are now being wound up, according to documents filed at Companies House. Heaven knows what the activities of businesses such as Philanthrepreneur Ltd and Solamoon were, but none appears to be commercially active. Ferguson is also listed by Companies House as an active director for three other businesses: Ginger and Moss, “a lifestyle brand” selling tea, jewellery and housewares, a “motion picture production activities” business called Coat, and Librasol, listed under “artistic creation” on the official register for private companies.

Through a certain prism, Ferguson can only be commended for her hard work and entrepreneurial zeal. In that respect, I came across her in 2000, when she was working as an ambassador for Weight Watchers in America. At that time, we were both working for Tony O’Reilly, who was the CEO of Heinz, which owned Weight Watchers, and also the proprietor of The Independent, which I edited.

O’Reilly spoke very highly of her – a “grafter”, he said, and he often told how she’d always turn up on time at any event in any city in North America, and be a winning presence. He said she was good value for her £1m annual salary, and asked me to meet her, in case there was a way she could contribute to The Independent. Over dinner at The Hilton in London, she told me in great detail about her weight-loss regime (it was all about counting units, as I recall), but she exhibited very little of what you might call a world view.

She seemed to think that it was enough just to be herself, and here of course lies the problem for the Royal Family with the promise of further revelations from the Epstein files. Exposure of how Andrew and Ferguson attempted to monetise being a royal, and were, to large extent, indulged while doing so, shows a hypocrisy at the heart of the House of Windsor. From Andrew’s Pitch@Palace enterprise to Ferguson’s Planet Partners Productions Ltd, it’s hard to view any of the ventures of this hapless couple as anything other than a shameless attempt to turn a position that invokes modesty and service into a way of amassing personal wealth.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have effectively been ex-communicated for adopting a similar approach although it seems to me that theirs is a much more honest – and indeed successful – route away from the Royal Family to the promised land.

In the end, Sarah Ferguson’s story – like Meghan Markle’s after her, and Diana’s before her – illustrates the hazard of inhabiting that limbo land between celebrity and royalty. Ferguson, also like the latter two, was welcomed into the Royal Family as a breath of fresh air, normal, relatable and open. Clearly, she got mixed up with a bad crowd, in which her husband has now been revealed to be knee-deep.

The smell of misconduct and duplicity will not go away any time soon. And until we are granted sight of the full, unexpurgated details of Andrew’s activities while a trade envoy, every day could get worse for the Royal Family.

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