When Sarah Margaret Ferguson married Prince
Andrew in 1984, she became Her Royal
Highness The Duchess of York. But
after her weight ballooned to 220 lbs in 1988, the tabloids began to dub her
the "Duchess of Pork." Ironically, in 1988 the band Raven released
its seventh album titled Nothing
Exceeds Like Excess, a title that has
also described most of Sarah's subsequent life.
Sarah (or "Fergie" as she was now generally
called) was rumored to have fooled around with various men m while Prince
Andrew was away on royal duties. So Fergie And Andrew and they agreed to
separate in January 1992. Then in August 1992, photographs of John Bryan, an
American financial manager., sucking on the
toes of a topless Fergie in the south of France were published in the
British tabloid The Daily Mirror
and created a royal
scandal and Fergie and Andrew eventually were divorced.
But her excessive spending and self-indulgent
lifestyle put Fergie into continuous debt. She published a popular biography
and then lost more than 100 lbs to grab a lucrative contract as spokesperson
for Weight Watchers for several years. But she
continued to spend more then she made, and in in May 2010, she was filmed by
News of the World offering access to Prince Andrew for a bribe by an
undercover reporter posing as an Indian businessman.
On the video made as a documentary source for the story, Sarah is
heard to say that "£500,000 when you can, to me, open doors."
Her debts continued. So she published a second memoir
Finding Sarah: A Duchess’s Journey to Find
Herself, in which she shared her
soul-searching journey back from dfinancial ruin with her gullible fans who
bought the book. In an interview with Parade Magazine, Fergie said “I
think it saved me, because now I feel. Before, I was just on auto-drive,
running at huge speed in order to make sure everybody else was looked after.
I didn’t even stop for a minute, and now I feel as if I’ve got my life back.
When I look into the mirror now, I give myself a pat on the back and say,
‘Well done, Sarah. A year ago you couldn’t even look in the mirror, you
couldn’t even exist.’ I’ve come a long way.”
In March 2011, it was reported that Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier
and registered sex offender, had helped Fergie avoid bankruptcy by paying
off some of her debts. The payments were reportedly made after intervention
from Prince Andrew.
To celebrate Fergie's birthday, we originally
planned to feature a recipe for Pulled Pork. But since the former "Duchess
of Pork." is looking pretty good these days, we opted instead for a Royal
Scandal Cocktail since scandal seems to continually define her life, and
watching the TV documentary
Finding Sarah (2011). |
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