Paddy McNally has died at 88, and questions about Sarah Ferguson‘s finances have followed within days. The F1 tycoon sheltered his former girlfriend through crises after crises across four decades, most recently at his Swiss chalet. He leaves a fortune that ranked him 240th on last year’s Sunday Times Rich List. Whether any of it reaches Ferguson is now the subject of open speculation.
Paddy McNally’s fortune is drawing attention as questions swirl around Sarah Ferguson
Ferguson, 66, and McNally dated between 1982 and 1985, despite a 22-year age gap. She turned to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after rumors that she expected a proposal came to nothing, yet she stayed close to McNally long after. She once called him her father figure, telling author Andrew Lownie, “He taught me so much about life. Whenever I wanted advice, I turned to him.”
His support was practical as much as personal. He bought her a villa in Geneva, hosted her and her daughters at his Verbier chalet in 1996 as her divorce broke, and gave her refuge at this Spanish villa in 2010 when she was £ 2 million in debt.
This February, after she left Britain and shut down six companies, he offered her his eight-bedroom chalet again. The pattern has fed the Sarah Ferguson inheritance talk. “Paddy always looked after Sarah,” says Andrew Lownie in his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of The House of York, adding that he never abandoned her and gave her sanctuary even in his final days.
Author Robert Jobson said: “I would not be surprised at all if he had taken care of her in his will or perhaps earlier. He was very, very good to her. He clearly had affection for her and kept in with her. But she often took advantage of his hospitality and, in many ways, played him.”
Others urge caution. McNally, who divorced years ago, leaves his son Rollo, after his son Sean died earlier this year. A source close to Ferguson was blunt about the rumors: “I have no knowledge of any expectation of any inheritance.”
McNally built the Paddy McNally fortune in Formula One. He started in the sport as a Grand Prix reporter, moved into advertising and by the late 1970s was managing world champion James Hunt and consulting for Marlboro. He founded Allsport Management in 1983 and sold it two decades ago for £350 million.
Ferguson lost her Duchess of York title and her home at Royal Lodge over her links to Jeffrey Epstein. Sarah Ferguson news has centered on her finances ever since.
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