After their chummy appearance together at Wimbledon over the weekend much was made of Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton’s apparent bond.
The two duchesses were watching the Ladies’ final from centre court in the royal box (where else?) and seemed to get on like a house on fire.
But before Kate and Meghan there was Fergie and Diana – the original ‘Merry Wives of Windsor’.
Both young twenty-something women when they were hurled into royal life – and the limelight – the Duchess of York and the Princess of Wales had a clear rapport in the early years of their marriages.
They even holidayed together and were infamously pictured at Ascot poking Fergie’s schoolfriend Lulu in the bottom with their umbrellas.
Fergie has frequently described Diana as her “best friend” and has often spoken of her devastation at her tragic death, made all the more painful as the two were not on speaking on terms at the time.
The Duchess of York never got to reconcile with her friend.
Their fall-out was touched on in Fergie’s tell-all book, “Finding Sarah”.
“Diana was one of the quickest wits I knew; nobody made me laugh like she did,” she wrote.
“We took vacations together with our children. Sadly, at the end [of the Princess’s life] we hadn’t spoken for a year, although I never knew the reason, except that once Diana got something in her head it stuck there for a while.”
However, the reason is believed to be very well known, the Mail Online reports.
Not only did Fergie allegedly break her promise to her friend to not talk about her in a previous book, My Story: by Sarah, the Duchess of York, but she also included a very unflattering anecdote about her.
The Duchess was quoted as quoted as saying she got a verruca after wearing a pair of shoes she borrowed from Diana.
A livid Diana ceased all contact with her, and despite Fergie’s attempts to make amends, she never spoke to her again.