The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Wednesday 7 July 2004

Reconstructing Fergie

I am sure that I would not have been the only one happy to see Sarah, Duchess of York mixing publicly with the Queen recently.  If ever there was a tragedy in the Royal Family, the failed marriage of the Queen’s handsome, second son, to Sarah (Fergie) Ferguson, was it.  While the Wales’ marriage was pitiful and Diana’s death shocking, I have always felt that the ending of the York marriage was, in it’s own way, sadder. 

Here were two people who, from the start, seemed perfectly matched.  Both were fun, good looking, slightly wild and, at the time, appeared to be very much in love.  It seemed like Prince Andrew had found the perfect partner. In many ways, Diana was suited to the heir to the throne and the effervescent Fergie seemed a perfect match for Prince Andrew.  It looked like the British Royal Family was about to sail through the next sixty years. 

Almost twenty years later, the memory of that royal wedding is a blur.  It’s as if they animatedly galloped down the aisle, smiles ablaze and out to the cheering crowds, hopped into the carriage, which dropped them straight off at the divorce court.  If you had turned the television off too soon, you would have missed it!  What began as a union that looked set to do as well as the one of the last bearers of the York title, soon turned out to be the party that finished before the champagne ran out. 

Very few relationships end because of only one in the party’s faults.  However, Prince Andrews’s contributions to the demise of their marriage were greatly overshadowed by his wife’s public decline.  It seemed to me a few times during Fergie’s spiral to Earth, that she might have been able to teach a thing or two to Marie Antoinette about self-indulgence.  Her press was beyond bad; it was utterly embarrassing. If there was ever an example of someone consistently taking the wrong road, it was HRH The Duchess of York. 

She is the first to admit that she was her own worst enemy.  Certainly, if most of us found ourselves involved in the same antics, we would hide away cringing, too terrified to surface, but not this ex royal lady. As she has said, she had two options; the first was to do what was easiest, to hide and not resurface and the other option, far harder, was to face the tirade of bad press and feeling head on and work to rebuild herself.  This, in itself, to me, indicates the depth of Fergie’s character.  It may be that finding herself single, with two young daughters gave her the impetus to go on and change her life, but whatever the stimulus, she went out and did just that. 

As for her husband, he realised too late that his long stints away, early in their marriage, allowed the relationship to fall apart.  Perhaps, saddest of all, is that neither gave the marriage a chance to work through this hurdle, although in fairness, the relentless bagging from and intrusion of the press, prevented any possibility of the two being able to work out their problems.  Other people, in the outside world, can often do this but I can only imagine how hard it must be when one’s character is slammed and punched daily, in newspapers. 

What I can’t even begin to imagine, is how it must feel to be completely ostracised by one of the most illustrious families in the world, be the brunt of countless jokes in the public and thought of, more or less, as a frivolous tart.  How does one even get up in the mornings?  But that is exactly what the flame haired Duchess finally did.    Where the media had completely given up on her, and after being used by the recent men in her post marriage dalliances, she had the guts to face a sceptical public and work her lot out. 

From the start, Fergie was not everyone’s idea of the perfect princess.  She had her detractors.  For want of a better word, these people thought her too common to be a princess.  Certainly, she was not a conventional, potential royal.  She was boisterous, outspoken and obviously not a girl who would easily tow the courtier line.  She had her own ideas, her own ways but publicly she was always warm.  No doubt these were some of the qualities in her that Prince Andrew fell in love with.  They are also some of the qualities that saw her through the dark time in her life. 

Out of the Family fold, she raised further eyebrows by going from royal, to retail.  To pay her (mind-boggling) debt, she wrote books, flogged Wedgwood and became a spokesperson for Weight Watchers.  This kind of life cannot have been easy, coming straight from a life of palaces and finery but she did it, and she did it well.  She paid off her debt, learned who and where she was in life, and most importantly, came to like herself. 

Interestingly, perhaps that she has reached this point, where she is in complete control of her life, that we see her chatting happily with her ex-mother-in-law, the Queen.  The Queen has always appeared to genuinely like Fergie and she appeared very much at ease with her as they chatted at the Guards’ Polo Club.  It is very doubtful that the Queen would have allowed Fergie to have rooms at Prince Andrew’s newly refurbished house, the Royal Lodge, had there not been some thawing and forgiving in their relationship.  Who knows? Maybe there is even some admiration by the Queen.  As to what Prince Philip thinks of these latest developments, we shall have to wait and see. 

There can be no doubt that Prince Philip was livid with Fergie because of her past behaviour.  Perhaps, with good reason, he bears a grudge.  He is not only very protective towards the Queen, but has also devoted most of his life to the monarchy.  It was widely reported that it was he who decided Fergie would not be welcome at Sandringham at Christmases but, it has also been said, that he indicated to her that she either joined the whole team or nothing at all. 

When one looks at the personalities of Fergie and Prince Philip, it’s hard to imagine that they wouldn’t get on, given half a chance.  Both are ‘roll-up-your-sleeves and get on with it’ types and neither is afraid to give something a go.  It may be that Philip’s animosity towards her stems more from being hurt and let down by his former daughter-in-law, than actual dislike.  He has two, seemingly well adjusted, likeable granddaughters that attest that Fergie is not a complete imbecile.  It will be time that will tell if the relationship between the Prince and the Duchess can be salvaged. 

As for Fergie’s relationship to Prince Andrew, it would be a good thing for both of them, and their children, if there were a happy ending.  When most young divorced couples find other partners, neither the Duke nor Duchess have done so.  They may like to think that they have put their children first, and tried to give their girls a family life, but the fact remains that neither have had steady partners and this fact doesn’t look to change in the near future.  The Duke refuses to remove the plaque on the door outside his apartment at Buckingham Palace, which states ‘The Duke and Duchess of York’ and Fergie obviously hasn’t demanded that he have it taken down either.

- Gioffredo