Sarah Ferguson is believed to have spent part of the summer at the Swiss home of her late former boyfriend Paddy McNally, offering a possible explanation for her prolonged absence from public life as renewed scrutiny of her past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein continues.

Royal commentator Richard Kay said he understood that Ferguson had been staying at McNally's property in Verbier, the Alpine resort where the pair first became close more than four decades ago.

Ferguson has not publicly confirmed the arrangement, so the chalet should be treated as a reported retreat rather than her officially established residence.

The location would fit a longstanding relationship between Ferguson and McNally that continued long after their romance ended.

McNally, a wealthy entrepreneur who helped transform the commercial and hospitality side of Formula One, died in July at the age of 88 after a long illness.

His death has prompted separate speculation that Ferguson could benefit from an estate widely estimated at about £600 million, although no public evidence currently confirms that she is a beneficiary.

McNally and Ferguson met before her marriage to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Ferguson, then in her early twenties, worked as a nanny for McNally's two young sons after the death of his wife.

They subsequently became a couple and were together for roughly three years in the early 1980s, despite an age difference of more than two decades.

The relationship ended in 1985, before Ferguson married Andrew the following year, but McNally remained an important figure in her life.

Their friendship endured for decades, and he was known to make properties available to Ferguson and her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

Ferguson has previously described him as an important source of advice and support.

McNally's Verbier property was one of the best-known symbols of his wealth.

The substantial chalet became associated with the glamorous Formula One social world surrounding him and has been valued in recent accounts at approximately £15 million.

Verbier is crowded with international visitors during the ski season but considerably quieter in summer, giving Ferguson a location where she could remain relatively secluded.

Her absence from public life has become increasingly conspicuous in 2026. Ferguson has kept a low profile since the release of millions of additional documents connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein brought renewed attention to her past communications with him.

The documents included messages indicating that Ferguson maintained warmer contact with Epstein after his 2008 conviction than her earlier public account had suggested.

The fallout had tangible consequences.

Sarah's Trust, the charity Ferguson founded, announced in February that it would close for the foreseeable future.

Applications were also filed to wind up several companies linked to her.

Ferguson has not been accused of participating in Epstein's sexual crimes, but the disclosures severely damaged attempts to distance her public reputation from the scandal surrounding Epstein and her former husband.

Ferguson has made very few public appearances during this period.

She was seen in the Austrian Alps in April, but otherwise has largely disappeared from the public engagements and media appearances that once formed a regular part of her life.

Friends have described her as maintaining contact with Beatrice and Eugenie while deliberately keeping a low profile.

Her absence was especially noticeable after McNally's death.

Princess Beatrice attended his private funeral in Wiltshire on August 13, effectively representing her mother's side of the longstanding relationship.

Ferguson herself was not seen at the service.

A larger memorial is expected later in the year, providing another possible occasion on which she could reappear publicly.

Attention has meanwhile shifted to McNally's fortune.

He became one of the richest figures associated with Formula One after building Allsport Management, which developed lucrative trackside advertising and corporate hospitality businesses around Grand Prix racing.

He sold the company in 2006 in a transaction worth hundreds of millions of euros and accumulated an extensive property portfolio alongside his other wealth.

Estimates have placed his estate at around £600 million, although the precise value and structure of his assets have not been publicly established.

That distinction is important because wealthy estates of this scale are often held through companies, trusts and other arrangements rather than passing entirely through a conventional will.

There has been speculation that Ferguson could receive part of McNally's estate because of their exceptionally long friendship and the financial and practical assistance he provided during his lifetime.

No will or probate documentation has been made public confirming such an inheritance, and neither Ferguson nor representatives of McNally's estate have announced that she will receive money or property.

Kay has expressed doubt that Ferguson will receive a substantial new windfall.

He suggested McNally may have regarded the assistance he provided over the decades as having already taken care of her to a considerable extent, while also indicating that the businessman had been interested in directing significant wealth toward charitable causes.

Until the estate's arrangements become public, those assessments remain informed speculation rather than confirmed inheritance terms.

The reported Verbier stay and the inheritance question are therefore separate stories connected by the same man.

There is credible evidence of a decades-long friendship in which McNally gave Ferguson access to his properties and provided support, making a stay at his Swiss home plausible.

There is not yet equivalent evidence that he left her a share of his fortune.

For Ferguson, the chalet also represents something more immediate than a possible inheritance: privacy.

After months in which newly released Epstein correspondence revived damaging questions about her judgment and relationships, the quiet summer season in Verbier offered exactly what her public life in Britain could not — distance from photographers, royal scrutiny and the daily attention surrounding her former husband.

Whether that retreat becomes more permanent has not been established.

What is confirmed is that Ferguson remains largely absent from public life, McNally's estate has yet to produce verified evidence of any inheritance for her, and his planned memorial later this year could become the next significant public moment linking the former couple's four-decade friendship.