A royal biographer has placed the Duchess of York directly into the orbit of Sean “Diddy” Combs, alleging a years-long relationship that began at a party hosted by Ghislaine Maxwell. Andrew Lownie, author of “Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York,” makes the claims in an updated paperback edition due out on May 21. He says Ferguson and Combs first met in 2002 at a party thrown by Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking operation. According to Lownie’s sources, the relationship between Sarah Ferguson and Combs began around 2004, with alleged meetings at hotels across Africa and Europe, including one location reportedly costing £50,000 — roughly $65,000 — per night.
The book claims Ferguson brought her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, into Combs’s orbit. Eugenie was 16 at the time of an alleged 2006 yacht party meeting. Lownie said Ferguson took her daughters, then teenagers, to some of his parties. A former Bad Boy Records employee told Lownie’s research that Combs was obsessed with the British royal family and openly bragged about his connection to Ferguson.
The book also includes a quote from a member of Combs’s staff saying he boasted about Ferguson and anticipated her daughters coming of age. Lownie stressed these were boasts by Combs, who is now denying those comments. Ferguson has flatly denied the affair. Her representatives called the claims “absolute fabricated nonsense, blatantly untrue, and yet another false allegation.
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Lownie is not walking anything back, saying his sources on both sides are solid. He noted Ferguson’s camp had not previously raised objections to his research, adding she has “a long history” of denying things that were later found to be true. The alleged connections extend beyond Lownie’s book. Official DOJ Epstein files released by the Justice Department include private emails from Epstein’s circle.
In March 2010, Epstein emailed Ferguson about a trip to New York. She replied, mentioning she was waiting for her daughter Eugenie to return from what she called a “shagging weekend. ”
Eugenie was 19 at the time, an adult. The email is not evidence that anything improper happened to her, but the context matters.
Ferguson was writing to a man who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution — and she kept writing to him, kept asking for money, and kept calling him a friend years after his conviction. Other documented emails show Ferguson calling Epstein “the brother I have always wished for,” asking to borrow money, and requesting work as his house assistant. In April 2011, just one month after publicly saying she was horrified by child abuse, she emailed him calling him a “supreme friend. ”
The fallout from those emails was real.
At least six major charities dropped Ferguson as their patron, including the British Heart Foundation and the Teenage Cancer Trust. Her spokesman responded that Epstein had threatened to destroy the York family and that any kind words were said under that pressure. Lownie’s book has faced legal pressure before. An earlier edition contained a claim about Epstein, Donald Trump, and Melania Trump that reportedly led to a billion-dollar lawsuit threat from Melania Trump.
HarperCollins pulled that claim from all future editions. There is no clip, document, or public record confirming the alleged yacht party with Ferguson’s daughters took place. Combs’s representatives have not confirmed any connection. The yacht party claim remains an allegation from anonymous sources inside a book by a named author who says he will not retreat from it.
Combs is currently in federal prison. His earliest possible release date, after entering a prison drug rehab program, is now April 25, 2028. In April 2026, a federal appeals court questioned whether four years was too long or too short for his sentence. Combs has reportedly told other inmates he expects a pardon from Donald Trump.
Trump was asked about it directly and confirmed that Combs’s team did reach out to request one. Lownie places the alleged first meeting between Ferguson and Combs at a party thrown by Maxwell, connecting Ferguson’s documented social world with Epstein to her alleged world with Combs. The same names, the same network, the same circles.
