Prince Andrew was persuaded by Sarah Ferguson not to join the royal family at Sandringham on Christmas Day, sparing the Windsors further embarrassment amid allegations of his close friendship with an alleged Chinese spy.
The Duke of York is at the centre of fresh controversy after Yang Tengbo, one of his former confidants, was barred from the UK for “covert and deceptive activity”.
The Chinese businessman, named on Monday after a judge lifted a court order, is said to have leveraged his friendship with Andrew to gain access to Buckingham Palace and secure meetings with former prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May.
In the wake of the revelations, the duke had faced calls to withdraw from a Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace on Thursday and to avoid appearing with the royal family at Sandringham next week.
It is understood that his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, convinced him to step away from the celebrations, giving up her own chance to return to Sandringham for Christmas again having spent many years spent out of the royal fold.
She is believed to have come to the royal family’s rescue after King Charles and Queen Camilla privately urged Andrew to “see sense” and withdraw from next week’s public gathering, as the spy controversy continues to escalate.
The decision for the pair to stay put at the Royal Lodge is thought to have been made easier by Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie’s plans to spend Christmas with their respective in-laws this year for the first time.
Fergie made return to the royal fold last December, joining the family for their annual Christmas Day walkabout for the first time in 30 years – a significant moment after her high-profile divorce from Andrew in 1996.
Her attendance marked a departure from decades of exclusion following the infamous 1992 “toe-sucking” furore, which led Prince Philip to bar Beatrice and Eugenie’s mother from the royal occasion.
But last year, Charles softened his stance, inviting the Duchess to join the family at Sandringham for the first time in decades, though she did not accompany them to church.
The duke, meanwhile, has been drawn into court proceedings surrounding the alleged spy, whose appeal against exclusion from the UK was dismissed by a specialist tribunal last Thursday.
Yang, a director of a Chinese investment consultancy firm, was barred from Britain in 2023 after authorities deemed he posed a likely threat to national security.
At a hearing in July, the tribunal was told that an adviser to Prince Andrew claimed he could act on the Duke’s behalf when engaging with potential investors in China. Yang, who was reportedly invited to the Duke’s birthday party in 2020, denied any wrongdoing, stating: “The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.”
The case only became public after Yang challenged his exclusion at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.
On Friday, a statement from the Duke’s office said: “The Duke of York followed advice from His Majesty’s Government and ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised. The Duke met the individual through official channels with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed. He is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security.”
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
