How man at centre of Fergie toe sucking scandal was secretly drafted in to advise Prince Andrew over Epstein scandal
SARAH Ferguson's toe sucking ex-lover held crisis talks with Prince Andrew following his disastrous Newsnight interview.
John Bryan was famously pictured kissing Fergie's feet back in 1992 while she was separated from Prince Andrew.
The scandal, which features in the latest series of The Crown, drove the Duchess of York from the Royal Family and was partly to blame for the Queen's "annus horribilis".
Now Mr Bryan has revealed how was smuggled into the Royal Lodge at Windsor to help Andrew after his 2019 BBC interview.
The Duke attracted more outrage following the car crash chat, which came in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and amid claims Andrew had sex with Virginia Giuffre.
Andrew vehemently denied the allegations but was still stripped of his patronages and beloved military affiliations.
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Mr Bryan told the he received a call from Fergie asking him to the come to the royal residence ten days later.
He said: "Andrew's television interview had been a catastrophe so they needed an honest strategic plan that everyone could buy into.
"She invited me to come over. She was desperate. She told me that Andrew was in terrible shape.
"He was distraught. They were distraught.
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"She reached out to me because that's what I do. I reconstruct failed businesses, I reconstruct people, I rebuild families."
The financial advisor said he was driven into Windsor in a blacked-out Range Rover before entering via a "secret entrance".
He claimed he helped the desperate family come up with a "long-term strategy" they branded "House of Kroy" - York spelt backwards.
Mr Bryan returned to the home the next day where he was met by Andrew, Princess Beatrice, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank.
He said the Duke was "downcast" and shouting: "I don't care any more, I don't care. I am being treated unfairly."
The advisor also claims Princess Beatrice told her dad "You've hurt our family" during the tense meeting.
Mr Bryan said: "In the four years I dated Sarah I never once heard him raise his voice or lose his temper.
"It showed what strain he was under, how much he cared about the damage this was doing to the Royal Family."
'I BELIEVE HIM'
Mr Bryan said he was "blown away" by how much pain Andrew was in and "how much suffering he was enduring".
He came up with a five page strategy for tackling the crisis and how to recover from it.
Mr Bryan said he believes the Duke is telling the truth and explained he only ever saw Andrew with women in their mid-20s while he was dating Fergie.
He said: "I truly believe if there was anything untoward going on I would have known about it, Sarah would have known about it.
"But there was never a hint of that. I remain and will always remain an outsider, so let me be the first outsider to say that I believe Prince Andrew – and I don't say it lightly. This outsider has a lot of inside knowledge."
The financial advisor also expressed his sympathy to Epstein's victims and said he wonders whether Ms Giuffre was "mistaken" in some parts of her story.
It comes after King Charles and Andrew had a tense chat about the Duke's future within the Firm.
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Andrew was left when told by his brother, then Prince Charles, he would not be welcomed back to royal duties.
Mr Bryan said he advised the royal on what to say but ultimately Andrew "was distracted back into the system which has often failed him and so many others".
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