The former prince Andrew has suffered another embarrassing humiliation amid the fallout from his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, this time close to home.

The blow came as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former wife, Sarah Ferguson, was sighted in public for the first time in months.

Britain’s Sun newspaper published photos on Friday (Australian time) of Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, emerging from a $3800-a-night luxury ski chalet in the Austrian alps.

“The bespectacled mother of two looked stony-faced in a quiet Austrian ski village, which we are not naming, as she emerged from a blacked-out Mercedes people carrier near her chalet on Wednesday,” the tabloid wrote.

It said it was the first sighting of Ferguson in 213 days, amid increasing pressure for her to talk to US lawmakers about her long association with the paedophile investor.

Ferguson last joined the royals at a family event for the funeral of the Duchess of Kent in September.

She and Mountbatten-Windsor went to ground soon after, upon the emergence in files released by the US Department of Justice of damning emails between them and Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any wrongdoing in his long-running relationship with convicted paedophile Epstein. But he has lost all his royal titles and even his home of two decades in the ongoing fallout.

He is believed to have spent recent months settling into his comparatively humble new home on the King’s Sandringham estate after being evicted from the historic Royal Lodge that he previously shared with Ferguson.

This week, there was another hit when elected members of the City of London said they would ask Mountbatten-Windsor to give up his inherited freedom of the city.

“Elected members have today agreed to write to Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, inviting him to formally relinquish the Freedom,” a City of London Corporation spokesperson said.

The CLC said it would “consider the response received, if any, at a future meeting and determine what action may be taken”.

The title is one of the City of London’s ancient traditions, believed to date back as far as 1237. It allowed holders to carry out their trade – including the historic right to walk sheep over London Bridge without paying a tariff.

These days, the honour is awarded to people nominated by councillors. Actors Sir Lenny Henry and Cate Blanchett are among those to have received the honour.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson joined the royals in September last year. Photo: AAP

Mountbatten-Windsor received the honour in 2012 “by virtue of patrimony”, through his father, the late Prince Philip. His siblings, including older brother the King, all hold the same title.

The CLC has previously brushed off calls for Mountbatten-Windsor to lose his freedom.

“Applications via patrimony are not considered or endorsed by our elected members, and there is no effective legal mechanism to remove this type of Freedom,” a spokesperson said.

Mountbatten-Windsor also lost a similar title in 2022, when the City of York took back a similar freedom. It had been awarded to him and Ferguson on their wedding in 1987.

At the time, York councillors were told Mountbatten-Windsor was the first person to have it taken away.

In March, York took the same title from Ferguson, after councillors voted unanimously to remove it over her links to Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested in February, on his 66th birthday, on suspicion of misconduct in public office after allegations he shared sensitive information with Epstein during his time as a British trade envoy.

Earlier this month, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said it was providing guidance to police examining the former prince’s links to Epstein, who died aged 66 in his New York jail cell in 2019 after apparently taking his own life.

It said it was offering “early investigative advice” to both the Metropolitan Police Service and Thames Valley Police as inquiries continued.