EXCLUSIVE: How Prince Andrew's Wife Sarah Ferguson Defied Queen Elizabeth's Wish Over Her Beloved Corgis Before Monarch's Death

Sarah Ferguson ignored Queen Elizabeth's final word on her dogs – and RadarOnline.com can reveal former royal butler Paul Burrell has told how upset the late monarch was about it.

Burrell, 67, who served the Queen as a footman before becoming Princess Diana's butler, recounts in his new memoir The Royal Insider that Elizabeth had made a firm decision in her nineties: no more corgis.

He said: "The Queen had decided not to have any more corgi puppies. She said, 'Who's going to look after them when I'm gone? It's unfair.'"

But in 2021, during lockdown, Sarah, 65, and Prince Andrew, also 65, presented the monarch with two puppies – Muick, a dorgi, and Sandy, a corgi – in an attempt to cheer her up in her final days as she secretly battled cancer.

But Burrell has revealed the gesture hugely backfired.

He said: "The Queen was not happy. She said, 'What did I tell you all? I said that I didn't want any more dogs.'"

For Elizabeth, the decision was about responsibility rather than affection.

A royal commentator said: "She adored her dogs, but by then she was a widow in her mid-90s.

"She knew the risk was leaving them behind. That was her clear wish – and it was defied by Sarah."

The Queen's passion for corgis was lifelong. She received her first, Susan, for her 18th birthday in 1944, and owned more than 30 of the animals across her reign.

They were also immortalized in palace portraits, Christmas cards and even the London 2012 Olympics sketch with James Bond.

A royal watcher said: "Lunch was at 1, tea at 5, dinner at 8.15 – and the dogs fitted that rhythm. They were fed from silver bowls and rode in lifts, but there were rules."

By rejecting her 'no more' instruction, Ferguson and Andrew caused private frustration, even if the puppies later brought the Queen comfort during her final years.

A palace insider said: "It was seen as overstepping – kindness, perhaps, but also ignoring the monarch's explicit wishes, and it enraged her."

After Elizabeth's death at Balmoral in September 2022, Sandy and Muick remained at Royal Lodge with Andrew and Sarah.

Some courtiers privately felt that outcome underlined the awkwardness of the original gift.

One royal watcher said: "The dogs became a living reminder that even the Queen's personal commands could be overridden inside her own family."

Burrell describes the corgis as both her joy and her burden in old age, inseparable from her image yet tied to her concern about succession and legacy.

A source said: "She told us it was unfair to take on more. But others decided differently – and that tells you everything about the tensions around her in her last years."

Sarah has now claimed the ghost of her late mother-in-law Queen Elizabeth is speaking to her through her pair of pet pooches.

As RadarOnline.com has revealed, the duchess, who still shares the massive Royal Lodge on the Windsor palace grounds with her ex-husband Prince Andrew, believes the corgis named Muick (pronounced 'Mick') and Sandy, which she looked after following the Queen's death at the age of 96 in September 2022, are channeling the spirit of the late royal.

"I have her dogs. I have her corgis, so every morning they come in and go, 'Woof, woof' and all that and I'm sure it's her talking to me," Ferguson said.

The duchess' "haunting tale" drew laughter from the audience when she recently recounted it at the Creative Women Platform Forum in London.