Duchess of York tried to date Tiger Woods, new book claims

Sarah Ferguson alleged to have confided to Piers Morgan that she found pro golfer ‘gorgeous’ and flew 1,500 miles to meet him

The Duchess of York pursued Tiger Woods romantically, a new book has claimed.

The book, called Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, claims the ex-wife of the Duke of York confided to her friend Piers Morgan that she found the pro golfer “gorgeous” and flew 1,500 miles to meet him.

In extracts serialised in the Daily Mail, Andrew Lownie, the author, claims that the Duchess had a list of men whom she was keen to be romantically involved with after separating from Prince Andrew, including the late son of John F Kennedy, the former US president.

Lownie writes: “On a trip to New York, Fergie asked her staff to find out if John F Kennedy Jnr… was in town and, discovering where he was, she invited him for drinks or dinner at her hotel, which he accepted.”

While the meeting with “America’s prince” never took place, the Duchess did meet Woods and has since maintained a friendship with him.

The Duchess was pictured hugging Woods in 1997 following his win at the Byron Nelson tournament in Texas, one of his early PGA Tour victories, and more recently publicly congratulated him on his 2019 Masters victory.

“Never have I been more proud,” she wrote about the golfer on Instagram, adding: “Good days and bad days, Tigers’ heart is loyal, steadfast and he is an amazing friend.”

The new book, which promised “extraordinary revelations” about Prince Andrew and the Duchess, claims she told Morgan that she would “follow him around the [golf] course for a bit and see how I get on”.

The broadcaster reportedly suggested that the athlete might not have the “schedule for dating royals”, concluding: “Poor old Tiger isn’t going to know what’s hit him.”

Lownie suggests in the book that the Duchess “plagued” Kevin Costner, the American actor, with “raunchy phone calls” and was interested in George Clooney at one point.

The Duchess, who has remained close to her former husband and shares a home with him in Windsor Great Park, was subject to a series of tabloid stings after her separation from the Duke in 1992.

The most infamous incident included a photograph surfacing of the Duchess sunbathing topless while having her toes sucked by her financial adviser in St Tropez. It was an image that at the time was credited for her ejection from the “Firm”.

‌Penny Junor, the royal biographer, said of the event: “She was at Balmoral when those photographs came out. The family came down for breakfast and there was Fergie in this shocking scene and that was the end.”

The Duke and Duchess were pictured driving together in Windsor near their 30-room property Royal Lodge over the weekend amid the fallout from the headlines generated by Lownie’s book.

Elsewhere, Lownie claimed the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of York got into a heated argument in which “punches were thrown” in 2013, an allegation that Prince Harry has denied.

‘He’s mine!’

The book also alleged that Diana, Princess of Wales, the Duchess’s sister-in-law, met John F Kennedy Jnr to discuss potentially doing business together.

The late John F Kennedy Jr and his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in 1999 Credit: Getty Images North America

Their encounter was in New York City’s Carlyle Hotel in 1995, according to a former executive assistant to the scion of American political royalty. It is claimed Kennedy asked the late Princess to pose for the cover of George, his political magazine.

Diana agreed to hear him out after he sent her a letter and they ended up meeting for half an hour, though she did not pose.

Lownie writes of the Duchess discovering the meeting between Kennedy and the Princess: “The Duchess was not to be discouraged, especially after learning that Princess Diana had met Kennedy for 30 minutes at Christmas 1995 at a New York hotel.

She was furious: “He’s mine! Why can’t she just leave him alone?”

A representative for the Duchess of York declined to comment.