Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York still commands a strong presence, even when there are new duchesses like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle hitting the headlines. Unlike the younger duchesses, however, Ferguson is so confident of her status that she does not hold back her sharp tongue and her wicked sense of humor even in public.
According to a report by The Express, Sarah Ferguson, popularly known as Fergie, recently attended Hello! Magazine's first Star Women Award last week and received the award for Inspiration of the Year. In her speech, the Duchess of York pledged to help 2018 Star Mums winner Lisa Wells in raising funds for her advocacy of providing support for families of patients receiving the end of life care.
However, the Duchess, who was known for her dry wit and acerbic sense of humor, quipped: "Maybe you'd prefer one of the other duchesses?" clearly referencing the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton and the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle.
The joke did not seem malicious, and the women in the audience received it warmly as part of Sarah Ferguson's charm. The Duchess of York, who was once married to Prince Andrew, uses her celebrity as a former member of the royal family to advance advocacies and worthwhile causes.
Apart from writing her memoir My Story which detailed her life as an aristocrat, she also penned several children's books, headlined her reality show and helped shine the spotlight on women empowerment, given her experience of constantly being pitted against her fourth cousin Princess Diana back in the day. While the public perceived a rivalry between the sisters in law, later reports indicated that the two ladies supported each other in navigating through the rudiments of life as a royal.
"Women, in particular, are constantly pitted against and compared with each other in a way that reminds me of how people tried to portray Diana and me all the time as rivals, which is something neither of us ever really felt," Sarah Ferguson wrote for Hello! Magazine.
The Duchess of York also lends her voice to causes such as the passage of Natasha's Law, which is a bill introduced for more stringent laws in food labeling to protect allergy sufferers. Sarah Ferguson is supporting the bill after she learned of the plight of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse after the 15-year-old died on board a flight to Nice in July 2016 after she suffered allergies from an in-flight sandwich. The duchess encountered the teenager's grieving parents on the flight back from Nice.
