Royal biographer Andrew Lownie has told TalkTV that Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, will receive nothing from the estate of Paddy McNally, the Formula One entrepreneur who died aged 88 after a prolonged illness.

Lownie, appearing on Jeremy Kyle's TalkTV show, said he had changed his view after speaking to sources close to the matter. He had previously suggested Ferguson might benefit from McNally's will. He now believes she will not inherit anything from an estate widely reported at around £600 million.

McNally, who created the F1 Paddock Club — the premium hospitality operation that transformed grand prix weekends for corporate guests — sold his company Allsport Management in 2006 for £262 million. His fortune was built on that sale and the decades of motorsport rights and hospitality revenue that surrounded it.

According to Lownie, McNally was keen for his money to go to good causes so that it would not be "tarnished" by association with Ferguson. The word is Lownie's, relayed from his TalkTV appearance. No will has been publicly released, and the estate's executors have not commented. The claims rest on Lownie's attributed sources rather than a published document. (Hello! Magazine)

The relationship between McNally and Ferguson dates to the 1980s and began in unusual circumstances. Ferguson was hired as a nanny for McNally's two sons, Sean and Rollo, after the death of his wife, Anne Downing. McNally was 22 years older than Ferguson. The couple dated for three years before splitting at the 1985 Italian Grand Prix, where McNally declined an ultimatum to marry her.

The timing of the inheritance claims carries an additional thread. Ferguson was evicted from Royal Lodge — the Windsor Great Park residence she shared with Prince Andrew — in February 2026. Following that eviction, McNally reportedly offered her refuge at his £15 million Swiss chalet in Verbier. The offer, as reported, would have been made before McNally's death.

What gives the story its edge is the gap between the reported offer of shelter and the claimed terms of the will. A man said to have opened his chalet to a former partner in a housing crisis is, according to Lownie's sources, the same man who directed his fortune away from her entirely. Whether those two positions reflect McNally's settled view or the biographer's interpretation of his sources is a question the paperwork, if it surfaces, would answer.

For now, the record is this: a biographer on a talk show, citing unnamed sources, saying a fortune will go to charity rather than to the woman he once employed and dated. McNally's estate has not confirmed the figures, the beneficiaries or the terms. Ferguson's representatives have not publicly responded.