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Sarah Ferguson has claimed the late Queen Elizabeth communicates with her through the royal corgis - and was linked to a plan to clone the dogs for a reality television show - leaving key royals "appalled," a royal expert has revealed.

The Prince and Princess of Wales in particular are understood to have grown increasingly frustrated with Ferguson's repeated attempts to monetise her connection to the late monarch, according to royal correspondent Emily Andrews, who says the former Duchess of York's behaviour has become a source of genuine anger within the palace.

The schedule facing William and Kate is relentless - wet afternoons in Wales with schoolchildren, bar shifts in south London, a temple in Leicester, a Cornish bakery. The kind of visible, unglamorous work that holds a monarchy together when others are pulling it apart.

William's irritation at his Saudi diplomatic mission being knocked off course earlier this year - buried under a fresh wave of Epstein coverage involving his uncle - was considerable, sources say. Andrew maintains he has done nothing wrong. The headlines did not reflect that.

The Sussexes added to the frustration. Harry and Meghan's overseas appearances - a visit to Jordan, then a trip to Australia planned for later this month - have the look of royalty without the accountability, and those around William have been left asking whether the institution is inadvertently amplifying a couple it has tried to distance itself from.

None of it, however, compares to what is said to be the Royal family's deepest irritation: Sarah Ferguson's repeated attempts to monetise her connection to the late Queen, and the royal corgis she and Andrew have been keeping since Elizabeth's death.

Key Royals are understood to be "appalled" by Ferguson's public claim that her former mother-in-law sends messages through the dogs, reports Andrews on Woman and Home. At a gathering of the Creative Women Platform Forum, Ferguson described her mornings with Muick and Sandy in terms that left royal insiders wincing.

"I have her [the late Queen's] dogs... so every morning they come in and go 'woof woof' and I'm sure it's her talking to me," she told the audience.

Andrews writes that beyond the public stage, Ferguson had been telling those in her circle that she felt the late Queen's spirit during walks around Windsor Great Park, drawn to the spots Elizabeth had loved. "Members of the family, thought it a crass and bizarre way in which to boast of her closeness to the late Queen," she says.

The dogs themselves became a separate flashpoint. Ferguson gave the impression among friends that the corgis had been left to her in the Queen's will. Those familiar with the situation tell a different story: the animals were purchased by Andrew in 2021, a decision taken unilaterally and without family discussion, and simply came back to the Yorks by default when the Queen died. The misrepresentation, sources say, did not go unnoticed.

What followed was more extraordinary still. Ferguson became linked to a Hollywood-backed proposal to clone the royal corgis and build a reality television series around the process. The pitch framed her as a sympathetic protagonist navigating financial difficulty in later life, with the show tracking her attempts to produce genetic copies of the dogs and sell them to wealthy buyers internationally.

Producers attached the label of a "bold and controversial business venture" to the concept. Their treatment put the financial logic plainly: that Ferguson, like many people, found herself having to generate income in circumstances she had not anticipated. The cloned animals, had the project gone ahead, would reportedly have been marketed to buyers prepared to pay sums that can reach £75,000 for a replicated pet in the American market, where the practice operates legally.

Scientists have long flagged the ethical and biological problems with animal cloning, including the risk of serious physical abnormalities in the resulting creatures.

The show was never made. Ferguson subsequently pushed back against the coverage, denying she was ever involved in the project.