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Fergie and Andrew's; She'supset at the drubbing herTV film got... He's got enough Air Miles and no business in Kazakhstan ... the kids are in Necker. So what could be better than a summer hol in 350 secluded Sotogrande acres - together?

Article Excerpt
Byline: by Angella Johnson and Gerard Couzens

Even by the standards of a woman whose reputation has never fully recovered from the embarrassment of her infamous toe-sucking scandal, the past week has been deeply humiliating for the Duchess of York. After her much-publicised attempt to give sage advice to a struggling working-class community for a TV programme attracted a barrage of criticism, the Duchess is said to be inconsolable.

Sarah's documentary, called Duchess On The Estate, featured her patronising attempts to improve the lives of the residents of Northern Moor, near Manchester. But not all the residents wanted her help - and a critical drubbing was the outcome.

So it can be seen as a measure of her distress that Sarah has turned, as she invariably does when things go drastically wrong in her life, to the one man upon whom she can rely for unwavering support and understanding - her former husband, Prince Andrew.

The divorcees have quietly slipped off together to a secluded mansion near Sotogrande in Spain, a coastal playground for the rich and famous (quite unlike Northern Moor), for what is believed to be their first holiday together without their children.

One stunned royal watcher says: 'It's really quite amazing to think that Andrew and Fergie have been holed up together in a six-bedroom house on their own. It is absolutely unprecedented. They have never gone away a deux before. This is very peculiar. I don't know what it means, but it will set tongues wagging.'

Indeed, it is an extraordinary situation, even for two people described as 'the world's happiest unmarried couple' by daughters Beatrice, 21, and Eugenie, 19. It is especially so given that Sarah is supposed to be in a two-year relationship with Findus frozen food tycoon Geir...