Sarah Ferguson loses her ‘tripod’ with Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie are distancing them themselves from mother Sarah Ferguson.

The York sisters, who have also been named as Fergie’s friendship to Jeffrey Epstein was dissected, are laying low for security reasons.

Royal expert Phil Dampier told Hello! magazine: "Friends tell me they have both been to see her at her new house in the past couple of weeks.”

He added: “I don't think they want to be seen with her in public at the moment, and she probably realizes it's not a good idea either, but behind the scenes they are talking and trying to be supportive."

"They're very embarrassed and are obviously sort of reevaluating their own lives and their own contacts and the things they get involved with because they don't want to be tainted by scandal,” Dampier said.

Dampier added: “I don't think the relationship is quite as close as it used to be, certainly.”

The former Duchess of York is reportedly crying in silence after losing her ex-boyfriend Paddy McNally, with a royal author claiming he was the "real love of her life."

The 67-year-old dated the Formula One tycoon in the 1980s and was staying at Paddy's £15 million ski chalet in Verbier, Switzerland, at the time of his death in July, at the age of 88.

Royal commentator Phil Dampier told HELLO!: "She's still grieving for Paddy, who was her closest friend for 40 or 50 years."

He added: "She certainly always went back to him when she needed financial help or a shoulder to cry on, and she always remained in contact with him. She had been living with him in Switzerland up until his death."

Phil claims the pair's connection ran so deep that Fergie was desperate to marry the multimillionaire racing tycoon prior to her romance with Andrew.

"He was definitely the real love of her life. They would have got married had it not been for the fact that he was a philanderer and he didn't want to settle down with her, but she would have married him," he explained.