Sarah Ferguson's Year of Royal Highs and Lows

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Sarah "Fergie" Ferguson was labeled the wild child of the royal family, embroiled in a number of scandals and business ventures which saw her cast outside the protective royal circle after her divorce from Prince Andrew.

Following the 1996 divorce, Fergie became the first royal to give Oprah Winfrey a tell-all interview about life behind-palace-walls, and penned a highly revealing memoir which preceded the revelations made by her nephew, Prince Harry, more than two decades later when he made his own break from the monarchy.

There was also a round of more serious moves that ostracized the duchess (she keeps her Duchess of York title until she remarries), including a media sting by the notorious tabloid journalist Mazher Mahmood, nicknamed the "Fake Sheikh" for his trick of impersonating a wealthy Middle Eastern royal to gain trust and information from his targets.

In 2010, Mahmood recorded Fergie appearing to offer him access to Andrew in return for cash. This resulted in widespread media embarrassment for the duchess, and saw her lose out on an invite to Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding just months later.

In recent years however, Fergie has appeared to leave her gaffe-prone public persona behind her. In 2018, a slow process of royal rehabilitation appeared to be in place, when she received an invite to Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle.

Later that year, she played a central role at a royal ceremony for the first time in over two decades, as mother of the bride at her daughter Princess Eugenie's wedding to Jack Brooksbank.

Still living with Andrew at the large Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, Fergie has remained fiercely loyal to her ex-husband through the public disgrace over his friendship with sex-offender, Jeffrey Epstein, and a now settled sexual assault lawsuit filed against him by Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre.

In 2022, Fergie was present at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and it was later revealed that she and Andrew had inherited the monarch's much loved corgis. The next year was set to be one of further boosts for the duchess. However, media highs were contrasted with personal medical lows.

This has only been compounded by the news on January 21, 2024, that the royal has now been diagnosed with skin cancer.

Here, Newsweek looks at Fergie's year in peaks and valleys, from royal rehabilitation to medical challenges and beyond.

A Coronation Concert Invite

One of the biggest public boosts for Fergie of the past year came in 2023, where, though she wasn't included on the invitation list for King Charles III's coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey, she was included in the royal box for the coronation concert at Windsor Castle the following day.

The duchess sat with Andrew and it marked one of the most major royal events she had attended outside of royal weddings for a number of years.

Three Times a Grandmother

May also saw a personal development for Fergie as she became a grandmother for a third time. Eugenie, whose eldest son August, was born in 2021, gave birth to her second son, Ernest, on May 30, 2023.

The duchess' eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, has one daughter born in 2022 with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, named Sienna.

Tea Talks With The Duchess

In June 2023, Fergie launched her first podcast titled Tea Talks with the Duchess & Sarah together with co-host and friend, Sarah Jane Thomson.

The general interest podcast covered a number of subjects in its first 13-episode season and received widespread coverage of its first instalments.

Mastectomy

As the first episodes of her podcast aired, it was announced that Fergie had been diagnosed with breast cancer following a routine mammogram and had undergone a single mastectomy.

"She was advised she needed to undergo surgery, which has taken place successfully," her spokesperson said at the time.

"The duchess is receiving the best medical care and her doctors have told her that the prognosis is good. She is now recuperating with her family.

"The duchess wants to express her immense gratitude to all the medical staff who have supported her in recent days."

Over the following weeks, Fergie returned to her podcast, praising the work of the medical team who cared for her and encouraging others to get checked.

A Royal Return for Christmas

In December, Fergie made a surprise appearance at the annual royal Christmas Day church service on the Sandringham Estate.

The duchess had not been included in the invitation or walkabout that takes place afterwards for three-decades and her inclusion by Charles and Queen Camilla in the family plan was seen by some commentators as a signal of her rehabilitation into family events.

Fergie attended the event with Andrew and Princess Beatrice.

Epstein Document Drop

As the dawn of a new year broke, dark clouds hung over Royal Lodge in the grounds of Windsor Great Park, with the impending release of a cache of legal documents relating to a 2015 lawsuit in the U.S. which was filed by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell.

When the documents were released by a judge on January 4, Andrew's name appeared over 60 times and included a number of damaging claims made against him.

In 2021, Giuffre filed her sexual assault lawsuit against the prince in the United States. Andrew has maintained a strong denial of all allegations made against him, and settled the case out of court in 2022 for an undisclosed sum.

This increased attention focused on the York house was also extended to Fergie, who was also named in the documents, having allegedly previously been a guest at Epstein's Florida home.

Malignant Melanoma

On January 21, a spokesperson for the Duchess of York announced that following her diagnosis with breast cancer and subsequent mastectomy in 2022, she had now also been diagnosed with skin cancer following the identification of a malignant melanoma.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Fergie said she was "taking some time to myself" after the diagnosis adding that while it was a shock she remained in good spirits.

Speaking of this recent development and the duchess' year of highs and lows, royal commentator, Richard Fitzwilliams, told Newsweek that there will be a "good deal of public sympathy" for Fergie.

"When Sarah Ferguson was publicly seen with the royal family at Christmas for the first time in 30 years, it was a gesture from the king that clearly indicated closer future relations," he said.

"She had undergone a single mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery last summer. Also, during an extremely difficult period for him, she has shown loyalty to Andrew, her former husband, with whom she cohabits at Royal Lodge.

"There will be a good deal of public sympathy now, as she has been diagnosed with skin cancer, which her father was also diagnosed with shortly before his death and which has come as a shock."

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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