Scandal-scarred duchess Sarah Ferguson whirled through New York yesterday in a desperate quest to generate much-needed cash.
The deep-in-debt duchess of York, reeling from a newspaper exposé in which she was caught offering to sell access to her ex-husband, British trade ambassador Prince Andrew, for $750,000, hit the town trying to drum up support for her new line of kiddie books.
Dressed in a black jacket and leopard-print skirt, Fergie, 50, emerged from the swanky Mark Hotel on East 77th Street — the very hotel where she first met the undercover reporter who exposed her outrageous offer — and was chauffeured to a meeting with bookseller Barnes & Noble in advance of an appearance at a Javits Center book fair today.
Her latest attempt to cash in on her name didn’t surprise one source who worked with her in New York several years ago.
“If you want a picture of her, it is the picture of a person who lived off of everyone, everywhere, all the time,” said the source, who helped Fergie try to sell luxury condos owned by restaurant mogul Giuseppe Cipriani at 55 Wall St. several years ago.
“All of her clothes and her cars were given to her,” the source added.
“It is the freebie lifestyle of living off of everybody.”
In exchange for wooing prospective buyers at “social” lunches, the duchess was given use of an apartment in the posh downtown building, private-jet travel and even an allowance, the source said.
At the same time, her association with Cipriani gave her a platform to promote her Sarah Ferguson Foundation as she tried to reinvent herself as an advocate for children.
A Cipriani spokesman denied Ferguson was paid.
Reportedly destitute, Fergie needs any cash she can get from her new book series. Sterling, her publisher, has ordered an initial printing of only 25,000 copies of her “Helping Hand” books, which will debut this fall, a publishing source said.
At just $7.95 a pop, she’ll need to sell a lot more copies than that to maintain her lifestyle of Bentleys and chambermaids.
Fergie, who has published more than a dozen kid books and autobiographies, also met with p.r. guru Ken Sunshine, although a rep said the meeting was purely social.
Ironically, the scandal may actually help her previously anemic book sales. Her appearance tomorrow at Book Expo America is sold out, the organizer told The Post.
Prince Andrew, who reportedly had no idea his ex was trying to cash in on his name, remained mum as he toured businesses in England yesterday.
He is expected to meet with his ex as early as tomorrow, sources told London’s Daily Mail. “He wants to have it out with Sarah face to face,” the source said.
Meanwhile, a member of Parliament called for Fergie to reveal any business contacts she introduced to Andrew or face a government probe, The Times of London said.
Additional reporting by Chuck Bennett and Keith Kelly