Sarah Ferguson, Princess Diana's Complicated Friendship: How It Began And Ended

Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson were good friends, but they stopped talking before the former got into an accident.

Some have compared Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle's friendship to that of the Princess of Wales and Duchess of York's, so Town & Country recently revisited Princess Diana and Ferguson's complicated friendship.

According to the publication, Princess Diana and Ferguson have been friends even before they joined the royal family. In fact, they were fourth cousins. The People's Princess also invited her to her royal wedding with Prince Charles. Princess Diana also gave Ferguson a fabric for her dress for that event. However, the Duchess of York felt snubbed that she was not invited to the reception.

Princess Diana and Ferguson continued to meet weekly for lunch. The duchess was the princess' confidante especially when she struggled with her new role as a royal.

In her 1996, autobiography, Ferguson said that Princess Diana was like a younger sister to her. "She was two years younger than I, and I strove to support and protect her as I would a younger sister—as I still do today, as a best friend," she wrote.

Princess Diana was also the matchmaker behind Prince Andrew and Ferguson's royal romance. Ferguson and Prince Andrew had been seeing each other when they were younger as they grew up in the same circle. In fact, they were photographed when she was just 10 years old at the Guards Polo Club at Windsor. However, it was only after the late Princess of Wales re-introduced them to each other that their romance began.

When Ferguson joined the royal family, it was Princess Diana's time to guide her. In Ferguson's book "My Story," she admitted that she "always felt safe mimicking Diana."

The royal sisters-in-law had a great friendship until the rivalry started. According to Andrew Morton, there was a time when Prince Charles told Princess Diana, "I wish you would be like Fergie - all jolly."

Their friendship eventually ended when Princess Diana stopped talking to Ferguson. According to Isabella Sullivan, a journalist for Daily Express, it happened after the Duchess of York claimed that she got a verruca after borrowing Princess Diana's shoes.

In her 2011 book "Finding Sarah," Ferguson looked back at her friendship with Princess Diana again. According to her, she was sad about how their ties ended.

"Diana was one of the quickest wits I knew; nobody made me laugh like she did," Ferguson wrote. "We took vacations together with our children. Sadly, at the end [of the Princess's life] we hadn't spoken for a year, although I never knew the reason, except that once Diana got something in her head it stuck there for a while."