Flame-haired royal flake Sarah Ferguson, bragging that she and Prince Andrew are the “happiest divorced couple in the world,” got stung on videotape shamelessly shilling access to her ex for more than $750,000.
Andrew, the 50-year-old Duke of York, is Britain’s special representative for international trade and investment.
“Five hundred thousand pounds when you can, to me . . . open doors,” Fergie says in videotape of a meeting at a ritzy London apartment, according to the British tabloid News of the World.
“Then you open up all the channels, whatever you need, whatever you want . . . We can do so much.”
“If you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he’ll look after you,” the paper quoted her as telling an undercover reporter about Andrew.
In the astounding footage, which was recorded by the paper, Ferguson is heard laying out the terms for introductions to the prince, who knew nothing of her attempt to make money off her royal connection.
She appears to ask a reporter posing as an international tycoon for $40,000 in cash and about $720,000 by wire transfer “if you want a deal with Andrew . . and then you meet Andrew.”
A pile of money is eventually shown on a coffee table, and the ditzy duchess puts her head in her hands. It isn’t clear whether she’s smiling or crying.
Moments later, she hauls away a black computer bag stuffed with the $40,000 cash “deposit.”
She describes the fee as the price of “doing the big deal with Andrew” via wire transfer that’s “completely aboveboard.”
Ferguson is also heard falsely claiming the prince knows about the shady deal — and she boasts about her special bond with her ex, according to a transcript of the meeting printed by the newspaper.
“And as Andrew said, ‘Listen, if he’s [the ‘tycoon’] going to be kind enough to want to play, then Andrew will play.’ ”
The reporter then chirps, “Let’s play!”
She told the reporter that Andrew’s reaction would be, “Let’s play, we’ll play as long as it’s nothing to do with him . . . But you will be his friend.
“I will listen to the friendship talk between you two. And then I do it . . . You two talk. I listen. Then I activate.
“He meets the most amazing people. And he just throws them my way.”
She also coos of her prince, “He’s so amazing. We’re the happiest divorced couple in the world,” according to the transcript released by the paper.
Puffing away at a cigarette, flailing her arms dramatically and sitting in front of a coffee table with a glass and bottle of wine, Ferguson makes it clear her ex doesn’t dirty his hands with cash — although she has no such compunctions.
“He never does accept a penny . . . does not and will not,” Fergie insists. “Never does accept a penny for anything.”
The tabloid also reported that Fergie, whose New York-based promotional company, Hartmoor, folded last year, blathered on about how she was a “complete aristocrat.”
In an earlier meeting, according to News of the World, she said she did not have “a pot to piss in.”
She and Andrew were divorced in 1996.
The prince, the second son of Queen Elizabeth and fourth in line to the throne, knew nothing about Ferguson’s claims, News of the World reported.
The royal family was unavailable to comment.
Fergie said in a statement that she had financial problems but “that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment, and I am very sorry that this has happened. I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused.”
The sting was the latest scoop for News of the World reporter Mazher Mahmood, who has been dubbed the “Fake Sheik” for his signature ruse of posing as a rich Gulf businessman to dupe celebrities, politicians and suspected criminals.
The reporter was never vetted before his meeting with Ferguson was set up. And although she asked for a confidentiality agreement, she still babbled on after he wouldn’t sign it.
Flighty Fergie prefers a chauffeur-driven Bentley, first-class air travel and lavish gifts, but she’s lost millions in business ventures. Hartmoor, where she put $2 million, encompassed all her various enterprises. It went bust last year with debts of $933,000.
Her nearly $3 million contract with Weight Watchers ran out in 2007. And plans for her 50th birthday had to be scaled down to a family meal because of money concerns, according to The Times of London.
Fergie received an award last night in LA for her work with underprivileged children, at a ceremony organized by the charity Variety. She landed at LAX yesterday afternoon, looking dazed and near tears.
The tough-talking Fergie shook up the sedate royal scene in 1986 — the picture of a confident young career-minded woman who defies convention.
She often refused to let protocol get in the way of a good time, but she also suffered unrelenting ribbing by the British press, which never took to her like it did her popular sister-in-law, Princess Diana.
Fergie and Andrew have two daughters, Beatrice, 21, and Eugenie, 20.