Sarah Ferguson has been missing from public life since December — disappearing at the same moment Andrew’s arrest for alleged misconduct in public office thrust the couple back into the spotlight.

According to reports, the former Duchess of York has spent those months on a “secret sofa-surfing world tour”, quietly moving through a network of wealthy contacts who have shielded her location from public view.

An insider who has allegedly spoken to Ferguson recently via video call painted a troubled picture, telling one paper the former royal appeared unkempt and was clearly not coping well. “She hasn’t been taking care of her roots or keeping up with her Botox,” they reportedly said, adding that paranoia had taken hold.

“She really is low. She seems nervy,” the friend is reported to have said. “She has three phones and she goes cycling through them because she’s afraid that she might be being tracked. She is convinced that a lot of people wish her harm.”

Ferguson’s vanishing act comes as her history with Epstein faces renewed examination, reports the Daily Mail.

Leaked emails show her describing the disgraced financier as a “steadfast, generous and supreme friend” — a characterisation that sat uncomfortably alongside her public admission, made around the same time, that their association had been a “terrible, terrible error of judgement.”

Separately, she wrote of Epstein as the “brother [I] have always wished for” in correspondence that followed his prison term, and is said to have taken her daughters along to visit him in person.

Away from the cameras, Ferguson has reportedly been finding ways to reach Andrew. Closer Magazine said she made clandestine trips to his Wood Farm home, with staff going to extraordinary lengths to keep the visits hidden.

“Sarah has been to Wood Farm on different occasions, and has been a rock to Andrew,” a source said. “On one occasion, she was brought in the back of Andrew’s car, hidden in the footwell and under a blanket. The second time, the staff said she came in via a removals van.”

When the Prince and Princess of Wales learned what had been happening, they were furious.

“William and Kate were absolutely furious when they found out. This wasn’t just discreet, it was covert. That’s what has really rattled William and Kate. They are livid because they feel like they’ve been trying to draw a clear line under this situation, and yet things like this are still happening behind their backs,” the magazine reported.

With Andrew’s legal jeopardy deepening and the Epstein question refusing to go away, the pressure on Ferguson to surface is unlikely to ease.