Sarah Ferguson embarrassment: Royal Family tradition broken with brazen hen party
SARAH FERGUSON, Duchess of York broke with Royal Family tradition when she chose to throw a rather brazen hen party ahead of her wedding to Prince Andrew.
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Sarah Ferguson signalled from the early days of her relationship with Prince Andrew she would not submit to the strict behavioural expectations the Royal Family had for royal brides. Fergie had previously been considered too rebellious of a character to be included in the household of Princess Diana as lady-in-waiting but as a future member of the family she soon showed she would not be changed. Glynis Barber, the narrator of Channel 5's documentary "Royal Wives at War", said: "In the lead up to the wedding, Fergie made it clear that fitting in with royal convention was not a priority and she immediately started to encourage Diana to follow suit."
Commentator Ayesha Hazarika pointed out Sarah had immediately broken away from royal tradition when she decided to have her own hen party, a first for the Royal Family.
Ms Hazarika said: "Fergie was the first person to ever have a proper hen party or a bachelorette party, to which Diana was invited.
"They had a lot of fun, they dressed as policewomen and they caused a bit of a scene at the Palace."
Details of the brazen night out would later be reveled in the autobiography the Duchess of York wrote following her divorce from Prince Andrew in the mid-1990s.
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Lizzie Cundy, a friend of Fergie, said the evening had reportedly degenerated as Fergie and Princess Diana continued to celebrate around London.
Ms Cundy reported: "These two apparently got put into a police van where the policemen recognised Diana and said, 'oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry.'
"And they all fell in fits of laughter."
Reports at the time suggested Sarah and Diana had donned fake police uniforms to crash Prince Andrew's stag do celebrations and reunite with their respective partners.
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But a last-minute change of plans saw the two royals go to London nightclub Annabel's, where they were mistaken for kiss-o-grams - girls paid to dress up as character and attend parties to kiss people.
The manager of the club, Lewis Louis, said customers had originally thought of a police raid but then concluded the two women in fancy costumes were kiss-o-grams.
Mr Louis said: "For a moment it must have seemed like a police raid, then guests obviously decided they were ‘kiss-o-gram’ girls.
“One of the staff told them that one or even two ‘kiss-o-gram’ girls might be alright but four of them was a bit of an embarrassment to others."
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He continued: "One of the four apologised for the fact that there were so many of them and promised, ‘We’ll be leaving soon’.
“They were perfectly disguised and certainly had us fooled.″
Additional reports claimed the Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana were later confronted again near Buckingham Palace as they were informed it was a criminal offence to impersonate police officers.
Despite the unprecedented hen party she had, Fergie went on to marry Prince Andrew as scheduled on July 23, 1986.
The pair would divorce ten years later after welcoming two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.