50 facts about Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

50 things you didn't know about Sarah, Duchess of York.

1. Sarah, Duchess of York (Sarah Margaret; née Ferguson) has been at various times a writer, charity patron, public speaker, film producer and television personality.

2. Popularly referred to as "Fergie", she is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

3. Sarah Ferguson is the younger daughter of Major Ronald Ferguson and Susan Barrantes (née Wright).

4. Her children, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York, are respectively seventh and eighth in line to succeed their grandmother as monarch of 16 independent Commonwealth realms.

5. Sarah Margaret Ferguson is the second daughter of Major Ronald Ferguson and his first wife, Susan Mary Wright.

6. Sarah's older sister is Jane Ferguson Luedecke, a public relations executive now living and working in Australia.

7. After Sarah's parents divorced in 1974, her mother married polo player Hector Barrantes and moved to Trenque Lauquen in the Argentine pampas.

8. Sarah Ferguson stayed at the 480-acre (1.9 km2) Dummer Down Farm at Dummer, Hampshire, her father's home since age 8. Major Ferguson married Susan Deptford and had three more children.

9. Sarah Ferguson attended Daneshill School, Stratfield Turgis and then Hurst Lodge School, Ascot.

10. After finishing a course at Queen's Secretarial College at the age of eighteen, Sarah went to work in a public relations firm in London.

11. Later she worked for an art gallery, and then a publishing company.

12. On 17 March 1986, Prince Andrew, (the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and fourth in line to the throne at the time) and Sarah Ferguson announced their engagement.

13. Prince Andrew had known Ferguson since childhood, and they had met occasionally at polo matches, and became re-acquainted with each other at Royal Ascot in 1985. He designed an engagement ring consisting of ten diamonds surrounding a Burmese ruby for her. He chose the Burmese ruby to complement her fiery red hair.

14. After securing the Queen's permission (which is required by a British law, the Royal Marriages Act 1772, for children of the monarch), Andrew and Sarah were married in Westminster Abbey on 23 July 1986.

15. The Queen bestowed the title Duke of York upon Prince Andrew, and as his new wife Sarah automatically assumed her husband's royal and ducal status and became Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York.

16. The couple became parents on 8 August 1988, with the birth of their daughter, Beatrice.

17. Their second child, another daughter, Eugenie, was born on 23 March 1990.

18. During her marriage, the tabloid press ridiculed the Duchess after her weight climbed to 15 stone 10 pounds (100 kg) (220 lbs) labelling her unflatteringly as the "Duchess of Pork".

19. By 1991, the marriage was in trouble, and the couple had drifted apart. The Duke and Duchess of York finally announced their separation on 19 March 1992.

20. After four years of official separation, the Duke and Duchess announced the mutual decision to divorce in May 1996.

21. In accordance with Letters Patent issued by The Queen in August 1996 regulating post-divorce royal titles, Sarah ceased being a Royal Highness, as she was no longer married to the Duke of York.

22. Her current name, thus, is Sarah, Duchess of York. Should she marry again, Sarah would lose the use of the style of "Duchess of York".

23. Since the divorce, Sarah still attends some functions with her daughters, such as the investiture of the Duke of York into the Royal Victorian Order, on which occasions she is afforded common courtesy as the mother of two Royal Princesses.

24. The Duchess's commercial interests have included an eleven-year endorsement with Weight Watchers, product development and promotion with Wedgwood and Avon.

25. Until 2004, the Duke of York and his former wife shared the family's home, Sunninghill Park in Berkshire.

26. In 2009, Sarah participated in a much-criticized ITV "experiment" in which Sarah joined families in a council estate (public housing) to provide advice to them on proper living. She stayed for ten days in Northern Moor, a suburb area in Wythenshawe, Manchester, England, and the result was The Duchess on the Estate, transmitted on ITV1 on 18 August 2009.

27. A previous, similar television venture, The Duchess in Hull in which Sarah advised lower-income families on proper diet and behaviour received similar criticism.

28. Subsequent to the "Cash for access" scandal Sarah was not among the 1,900 people who received an invitation to the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

29. In August 2013, Sarah was invited to stay at Balmoral Castle with Andrew and their daughters as guests of the Queen, and in September 2013, in response to a question about the possibility of remarrying Andrew, Sarah said "He's still my handsome prince, he'll always be my handsome prince."

30. In the summer of 2011, Finding Sarah aired on the OWN network. One episode of the US-filmed reality series depicted Sarah meeting with Suze Orman, the internationally-known financial advisor, receiving from Ms Orman a strict lecture and practical advice on how to resolve her financial issues.

31. In 1990, The Duchess became patron of The Teenage Cancer Trust and has since opened most of the charities various units, including those at Middlesex Hospital, University College London, St James's University Hospital, Cardiff University Hospital and Royal Marsden Hospital.

32. In 1993, The Duchess founded Children in Crisis a children's charity focused on education and grant making to international programs.

33. The Duchess serves as Founder and Life President.

34. In 2003, The Duchess joined the American Cancer Society at a congressional briefing.

35. Sarah, Duchess of York, was a founding supporter of The American Cancer Society's Great American Weigh In, an annual campaign (modelled after the Society's Great American Smoke Out) aimed at raising awareness of the link between excess weight and cancer.

36. In 2006, The Duchess established The Sarah Ferguson Foundation based in Toronto, which derives funds from Sarah's commercial work and private donations with the aim of supporting charities internationally that serve children and families in dire need. Included under this umbrella organisation is her patronage of several British charities, including Mental Disability Rights International, the Teenage Cancer Trust, Tommy's, and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

37. In 2008, The Duchess became patron of Humanitas, a charity focused on providing children with education, healthcare and family support In 2010, The Duchess became a supporter of The Mullany Fund, whose aim is to support British students wishing to study medicine or physiotherapy.

38. In 2011, The Duchess became the global ambassador for Not For Sale, a charity focused on human slavery.

39. In 2013, The Duchess, along with her former husband, The Duke of York and their daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, founded Key To Freedom, a business structure for women in vulnerable situations in India who can sell their wares through the British retailer Top Shop.

40. In 2014, The Duchess was appointed an ambassador for the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.

41. In May 2004, Sarah hosted an eleven-minute production featurette on Universal's DVD 'The Legacy of Pan'.

42. Five months later, Walt Disney Feature Animation released a special DVD The Cat That Looked at a King, with Sarah's voice in the role of the Queen; the story is derived from the Mary Poppins books by P. L. Travers.

43. Sarah had a producing role (credited as "Sarah Ferguson") in the 2009 Jean-Marc Vallée film The Young Victoria, starring Emily Blunt and featured a background player role for Sarah's daughter Princess Beatrice.

44. Sarah once described her family as "country gentry with a bit of old money".

45. She is descended from both the Stuart and Tudor houses.

46. On her father's side, Sarah is a descendant of King Charles II of England via two of his illegitimate sons, Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, and James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth.

47. By her paternal great-great-grandfather Henry Brand, 2nd Viscount Hampden and her maternal great-grandfather Mervyn Wingfield, 8th Viscount Powerscourt, Sarah also descends from Lady Anne Palmer.

48. Lady Anne was the eldest child of Royal mistress Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland; she was acknowledged by King Charles II and adopted the surname Fitzroy.

49. She has aristocratic ancestry, being the great great-granddaughter of the 6th Duke of Buccleuch, a great-granddaughter of the 8th Viscount Powerscourt and a direct descendant of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn and of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire making her a distant cousin of her ex-husband Prince Andrew, Duke of York and also of Diana, Princess of Wales.

50. Her paternal grandmother was Lady Marian Montagu Douglas Scott, a first cousin of Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott, who married Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, an uncle of Queen Elizabeth II.

Source: Wikipedia.org