Saturday 19 November 2022 10:17 PM John Bryan claims notorious Fergie toe-sucking pictures were part of game with ... trends now
The setting is the drawing room at Balmoral. A flustered Prince Andrew bursts in to tell his mother, the Queen, that his estranged wife has been photographed in St Tropez 'doing something unmentionable' with her financial adviser.
Despite the Queen insisting she doesn't want to know, Andrew exclaims: 'Sucking Sarah's toes, Mummy! Can you imagine? An actual foot. If he was that hungry he could have just ordered a sandwich.'
'Or some sole,' quips the Queen.
The scene, a jokey interlude in the latest season of The Crown is clearly intended to titillate and amuse viewers.
But one man is not laughing.
John Bryan is the financial adviser at the heart of the 1992 'toe-sucking' scandal, and he has just two words to say about The Crown's version: 'Total fabrication.'
'I have a sense of humour about this but it's based on a lie,' he says. 'These lies go back three decades.'
This weekend, speaking to The Mail on Sunday in his plush office in one of LA's most prestigious buildings and later at his home high in the Hollywood Hills, Mr Bryan broke a 30-year silence to talk about the infamous incident and to lambast The Crown for its inaccuracy.
John Bryan (pictured) claimed the toe kissing was part of a game him and Sarah were playing with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie
'Of course it didn't happen that way,' he says, rolling his eyes.
'My phone has been ringing off the hook with friends calling to tell me I'm in The Crown. In a weird way it's a great honour to be in the show. But if you go back 30 years, it's all based on lies. It's more serious. That's where the lies started.
'I don't want to be for ever known as "Fergie's Texan toe-sucking financial adviser". For starters, I'm from New York.'
The notorious photographs were taken in August 1992 at a secluded private villa in the South of France, a few months after the Duchess of York had officially separated from Prince Andrew.
Mr Bryan, a multi-millionaire businessman, had met Fergie through mutual friends in London where he cut a swathe as a dashing man about town.
'The attraction was mutual – and instant,' he grins. 'I loved her then and I adore her now.
'We were in a private villa with seven acres of land surrounding us to ensure our absolute privacy. The girls [Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie] were tiny, just four and two. We were out by the pool and I was practising swimming with the children.
'Yes, Sarah was topless, but this was the South of France for heaven's sake. And we were in private – or so we thought. We're with the kids, having a great time. We used to play fun games, make-believe games. On this day we were playing Cinderella and I said, "Look, let's kiss Mummy's toes". It was part of the game. I did it first and then I think one of the girls, probably Beatrice, did it.
'It was totally innocent; a beautiful family moment of love.'
Mr Bryan, a multi-millionaire businessman, had met Fergie through mutual friends in London where he cut a swathe as a dashing man about town (pictured together in 1992)
But a paparazzi photographer had crawled through undergrowth surrounding the villa and was lurking in the bushes with a long lens.
The subsequent photographs prompted a global bidding war with UK rights being acquired by a national newspaper for a reported £8 million. 'I went to the High Court to try to stop publication but I lost,' Mr Bryan says. 'That's when the nightmare began.'
At 67, he still has the roguish good looks which captivated a Duchess. Impeccably turned out, he favours slick Savile Row business suits and 'dresses down' in designer Yves St Laurent jeans and a leather Prada jacket.
He fields constant calls and is one of those people who bubbles with what he jokingly calls 'massive positive energy' – something he still uses to reassure a sometimes troubled Sarah, who remains a friend, that 'life is going to be OK'.
When the photos appeared, Mr Bryan said he was initially relieved that they were not worse.
'When I learned there were pictures out there and there was a bidding war, my fear was that someone had put cameras inside the house. I was thinking, "What in God's name could we have done
