Fergie, Andrew Divorcing

Prince Andrew and his flighty Fergie are divorcing, long after the British public itself fell out of love with the flamboyant duchess.

Tuesday’s announcement that the divorce was already well under way was discretion itself compared with the years of high-profile antics that preceded it - most notably the former Sarah Ferguson’s topless cavorting with another man, caught by a photographer in the act of sucking the duchess’s royal toes.

In a tersely worded statement through their lawyers, the Duke and Duchess of York said simply that “they have agreed, after more than two years’ separation, that their marriage should be formally ended.”

The 36-year-old duchess would give up the title of Her Royal Highness and keep the children, Princess Beatrice, 7, and Princess Eugenie, 6, the statement said.

There were no details about money. She will remain the Duchess of York. The divorce is expected to become final next month.

The reaction in Britain: Good riddance.

“The duchess turned out to be a person of sheer unabashed vulgarity, not in keeping with Britain’s royal traditions,” Conservative legislator Toby Jessel said.

But if the romance between Fergie and the public ended soon after the 1986 marriage, for Andrew - it seemed - the flame burned steady.

Despite constant newspaper criticism of her extravagance, her sometimes plump figure, her taste in clothes, her trading on her royal status, the handsome Royal Navy pilot remained loyal.

On occasions after they parted ways, he was pictured smiling by his wife’s side, and tabloids have dug up no hint of a new love in Andrew’s life.

Theirs becomes the second tottering royal marriage to collapse in two months, following that of Andrew’s older brother Prince Charles and his wife, Diana.