Life Of The British Royal Family: Queen Elizabeth Still Makes Fergie Nervous, Charles Denies Princesses Expanded Roles

Even though she's known the Queen for more than 30 years, and called her mother-in-law for a decade, the Dutchess of York evidently still gets nervous around Queen Elizabeth.

Sarah Ferguson said Monday in a radio interview that she still gets nervous around Queen Elizabeth, according to News.au. She added that the feelings go away pretty quickly.

“I always get really nervous before meeting the boss,” the Duchess of York told KIIS-FM morning show in Sydney, Australia, as she toured the city this week. Ferguson added: “Oh, of course, she’s brilliant. She makes you feel comfortable within the first five seconds.”

She was also asked about her relationship with her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, and Ferguson didn’t exactly deflect the possibility of a reunion in the future. Ferguson married Prince Andrew in 1986 and the couple had Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York before their much-publicized divorce in 1996.

“Well, I always think — we’re divorced to each other right now ... so we never really left each other,” Ferguson said in the interview. “In the fairy tales that we’re brought up on, a prince comes along on his white charger ... but what if the real true thing is to find peace and happiness in yourself? Then after that, see what happens.”

Ferguson’s remarks came one day after Express reported Prince Andrew had penned a request to his mother asking for his daughters to be given “taxpayer-funded royal roles,” like Prince Charles’ sons Harry and Charles, and the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton. Andrew wanted his daughters, who are seventh and eighth in line for the crown, to have better accommodations at Kensington Palace and to receive funds from the Sovereign Grant, the public fund that supports the royal family.

But Prince Charles nixed any chance of any expanded role for the princesses. Instead, the focus will remain on William and Harry since they are well ahead in the line of succession.

“The Prince of Wales is already conscious that he divides opinion more than his mother,” a source told Express. “The last thing he wants is additional criticism by keeping peripheral royals on the public payroll.”