Sales: Princess Beatrice and Sarah Ferguson at the Butterfly Ball charity function in South London on Thursday. The Duchess of York is said to have offered seats at their table, with Elton John, for sale to an undercover reporter
Prince Andrew, pictured addressing delegates at an Islamic economic forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was unaware of the arrangement
Tired and emotional: The Duchess of York arrives in Los Angeles last night after she was revealed to have offered access to her former husband for £500,000
The prince last night arrived back from a visit to Singapore for crisis talks with the Queen on how to minimise the damage.
Big day: Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson on their wedding day in 1986. Speaking of their relationship now, the Duchess said: 'We're the happiest divorced couple in the world'
Living the high life: Fergie checks her phone - for texts or to check the papers? - on board and is helped up the gangplank onto dry land
Say cheese: Fergie takes photos of Princess Beatrice and friends as they arrive at Eden Roc just days after she was filmed allegedly taking $40,000 from an undercover reporter
Eye of the storm: Sarah Ferguson (centre) and her daughter Princess Beatrice (right) arrive at the Eden Roc at Cap d'Antibes, France on Saturday, before the newspaper story broke
Barely recognisable: Fergie was bare-faced, with her hair scraped back as she arrived at the airport. She refused to answer questions about the scandal and was quickly ushered into the back of a Mercedes
He faces a dilemma. If he accepts Sarah's offer to move out, he has no idea where she will go or who will pay for her accommodation. There is also the risk that, outside the royal fold, she could be a loose cannon causing further mayhem. If she stays, he faces the humiliation of being under the same roof as a woman who has, not for the first time, brought shame on the Royal Family.
His 'penniless' former wife was said to be 'devastated and regretful' after being secretly filmed by an undercover reporter posing as a businessman. She was recorded greedily pocketing $40,000 (£27,600) in cash as a down payment for her grubby scheme.
Last night the revelations appeared to be taking their toll on the duchess as she flew in to Los Angeles.
She looked red-eyed and stunned as she arrived in the U.S. city on an American Airlines flight from Heathrow to attend an awards ceremony where she is due to be honoured for her work with disadvantaged children.
With her face bare of make-up and her hair scraped back in a bun she was barely recognisable as she walked through arrivals to be met by an American woman who attempted to shield her from the waiting press.
The 50-year-old, who wore a cream coloured trench with long green scarf, did not respond to questions about the scandal and was escorted from Terminal Four at Los Angeles International Airport around 2.15pm (10.15pm UK time).
Instead she was quickly ushered into the back of a black Mercedes town car where she looked close to tears and was seen nervously picking at her fingernails.
A Palace spokesman said Andrew 'categorically denies any knowledge of any meeting' between the duchess and a reporter from the News of the World.
He was said to have spoken briefly on the phone to his ex-wife.
And in a statement, Fergie apologised for a 'serious lapse of judgment' and admitted her financial situation is 'under stress'.
The Queen was dismayed by the conduct of her former daughter-in-law and the embarrassment it has heaped on her grandchildren Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie. The first item on the agenda of the talks with Andrew is whether the duchess's offer to quit Royal Lodge in Windsor should be accepted.
'We have been here so many times before with the duchess,' said one senior royal insider. 'She's offered to leave before but she never goes.' The 50-year-old duchess is also facing a tax investigation after being caught accepting a large cash gift.
Prince Charles, long a critic of the former Sarah Ferguson, is appalled by her latest errors of judgment. And, highly unusually, a government minister has publicly criticised the duchess, breaking the convention that controversies relating to the Royal Household should be above party politics.
Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, a Liberal Democrat, said Fergie's actions appeared 'shoddy and grubby'. She said: 'There she is saying "Give me money and I will give you access to Andrew". It's really depressing. Lord knows what the Queen thinks.'
In her taped indiscretions, the duchess claimed to be living off the trust funds of her daughters which were funded by the late Queen Mother - the last Duchess of York.
Friends of the duchess, who is in LA to receive the Catherine Variety Sheridan Award - presented annually to a person in recognition of his or her philanthropic achievements, primarily with underprivileged and disabled children - admitted she had been 'stupid and naive' because of the continuing 'perilous' nature of her finances.
During the undercover operation, she made a series of outrageous - and potentially damaging --boasts about her influence over Andrew and her relationship with the Royal Family.
'It is an appalling breach of trust,' said a source close to Prince Andrew. 'His reputation is being put at risk by a woman he still loves and has stood by for many years both emotionally and financially.'
The sting was set up by the News of the World's Mazher Mahmood - the notorious 'fake sheik' whose previous victims have included the Countess of Wessex and Princess Michael of Kent - posing as an international businessman.
The duchess offered to introduce him to the prince, who works as a UK trade envoy, and boasted that Andrew could help with his international business deals.
She was filmed accepting a briefcase containing the $40,000 and boasting: 'Look after me and he (Andrew) will look after you.......you'll get it back tenfold. I can open any door you want.'
Last night it was claimed that the duchess had offered to repay the money to the newspaper. But the Labour MP Ian Davidson said: 'The Inland Revenue should investigate her affairs. Her conduct is absolutely astonishing.'
A friend of Fergie said: 'There are no excuses and she knows it. She was suspicious about the set up but her desperation took over. Andrew will be apoplectic and she knows she will now have to extricate herself from the house and move elsewhere --although God knows where she will go. She hasn't a penny to her name.'
There is no evidence to suggest that Andrew was aware of his ex-wife's shameless attempts to cash in on his name and reputation or that he would ever have abused his position as the UK's Special Representative for Trade and Investment.
Despite the parlous state of her finances, Fergie has refused to scale back her lavish lifestyle. On Friday, she was pictured drinking wine in the South of France before attending supermodel Naomi Campbell's 40th birthday party the following day on a yacht.
SEALED WITH A HANDSHAKE, FERGIE'S TREACHERY
THE sting was launched after a royal associate claimed the Duchess of York had been taking money for arranging meetings between businessmen and Prince Andrew.
The News of the World's infamous 'fake sheik', investigations editor Mazher Mahmood, infiltrated her circle posing as an international tycoon. At an initial meeting at a New York hotel, her aides allegedly asked for a $40,000 (around £27,600) advance for the duchess.
Last Monday, Fergie herself texted the fake sheik to arrange a dinner at Mosimann's Dining Club in Belgravia. The following evening, two of her aides arrived first and attempted to persuade the News of the World trickster to sign a seven-page confidentiality agreement.
He refused but the duchess, hungry for cash, ploughed on regardless.
Over pea soup at £12.50 a bowl, a £30 main course of lamb and vegetables and a £95 bottle of burgundy, their fateful meeting took place. Here, we publish the transcript.
FERGIE: I never talk about money ever, but since we've got business hats on I'm going to...
MAZHER MAHMOOD: Sure.
FERGIE: So I said to Andrew, well what do I do because really I think you two could really do some good business together and I think, I think what would happen is that you would. He never makes money because he's ambassador for trade.
MM: Of course, sure.
FERGIE: So he wouldn't want to.
MM: No of course, no, no.
FERGIE: But I can. So he would ... introduce you to whoever, but it wouldn't be about HIM it would be about ME ... I could bring you great business. I'd like to think that if I, for example, if I introduced you to...
MM: Andrew for example?
FERGIE: Andrew for example... and he opened up doors for you which you would never possibly do. Then, depending if it was a very big deal with I don't know, I can't imagine, then each deal you and I discuss the percentage of it ... Andrew said to me, 'Tell him £500,000'. He knows that he's had to underwrite me up to now because I've got no money. So if you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he'll look after you ... you'll get it back tenfold.
Told the fake sheik has the $40,000 in $20 bills at his nearby flat, the duchess then promises him a kiss upon payment. As conversation wanders, she tells the undercover man how her daughter Princess Beatrice recently completed the London marathon. Mahmood says he regrets not sponsoring her...
FERGIE: 'No, you're sponsoring the mother!'
After the News of the World man pays the dinner bill of £223.25 plus £50 tip, the pair travel in a limousine to what he claims is his flat in Mayfair.
FERGIE: I'm a complete aristocrat. Love that don't you? I love it. It's tremendously fabulous. But I've never admitted that to anyone by the way!
Sitting on the sofa sipping wine, she asks that one per cent of profits from any deals resulting from their arrangement should go to her charity for new schools in Asia. But then she returns to her favourite subject - her own kickback ...
FERGIE: ...Next! On to the next thing, £500,000, when you can, to me ... open doors.
MM: It would be Prince Andrew?
FERGIE: Yeah.
MM: Is that a deal?
FERGIE: Yeah (shakes hands firmly with the fake sheik, staring straight into his eyes).
MM: But I've got to give you $40,000.
FERGIE: Yeah.
MM: Which I've got now as a deposit. Which is in my safe. But how am I going to give it to you? I haven't got a bag.
MM: Is that a deal?
FERGIE: Yeah (shakes hands firmly with the fake sheik, staring straight into his eyes).
MM: But I've got to give you $40,000.
FERGIE: Yeah.
MM: Which I've got now as a deposit. Which is in my safe. But how am I going to give it to you? I haven't got a bag.
Duchess makes 'gimme' gesture with her left hand, opening and closing her fist as she beckons with her fingers to show she wants the cash ...
As the fake sheik produces the wads of cash from a safe, she gasps: 'Oh my God, you're a genius!', then sits staring at the pile of notes on a table in front of her, rubbing her eyes in apparent joyous disbelief.
FERGIE: Yeah OK but then if you want to go and do a big deal with Andrew, then that's the big one.
MM: I do. Of course. OK, no, of course. So you need 500,000 in pounds...
FERGIE: But that's in wire transfer.
MM: That has to be in wire transfer, I mean obviously.
FERGIE: (smoking cigarette) That's a wire transfer that's completely above board. And that goes straight to wire transfer.
MM: Who do we send that to?
FERGIE: You send it to the bank account that I tell you to send it to.
MM: If you give me the bank account details I'll arrange that, no problem at all.
FERGIE: (waving hands expansively) Then that, is then like, then you open up all the channels whatever you need, whatever you want, and then that's what and then you meet Andrew and that's fine. And that's, that's when you really open up whatever you want (her bank account, she adds, is with HSBC). And as Andrew said, 'Listen, if he's going to be kind enough to want to play, then Andrew will play'.
MM: Let's play!
FERGIE: And he (Andrew) says, '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.
FERGIE: You two talk.
FERGIE:Then I activate... he meets the most amazing people. And he just throws them my way.
MM: He throws them your way, fantastic. Well, and you throw them my way.
MM: OK.
MM: Right.
FERGIE: I listen.
MM: OK.
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