Sarah Ferguson, also known as Fergie, is well-known for being the Duchess of York and ex-wife of Prince Andrew of the British Royal Family. This week, however, Fergie is known for the Duchess of York scandal, spurred on by her apparently accepting large sums of money in exchange for “opening doors” for a British reporter to Prince Andrew. Fergie went on Oprah Winfrey discussing the scandal, the tape, her explanation and her “substantial” debt.
Regarding her behavior on the shocking undercover tape, in a sting orchestrated by a British journalist, the Duchess of York told Oprah, “I was in the gutter in that moment….I’d been drinking.” When Oprah asked the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson if she’d watched the whole tape of herself selling access to the Prince of England, Fergie replied, “No, I haven’t.”
The three-minute Sarah Ferguson scandal tape shows the Duchess of York asking for 500,000 British pounds, in wire transfers, with a cash deposit in the amount of 40,000 pounds, to secure access to Prince Andrew. The Duchess of York scandal gets worse when she can actually be seen leaving the hotel room where the meeting took place with the bag of money, which she told Oprah Winfrey had since been returned to the newspaper the man worked for.
“There aren’t many words really, to describe such a gross act of stupidity.” Fergie began. “I have, through my actions, hurt millions of people, all my friends, my family, first and foremost.”
Sarah Ferguson then delved into a very convoluted, hard to follow story of a friend needing money, a friend-of-a-friend going through a divorce, and meeting a stranger in a hotel room who wanted to “help” her. The Duchess of York scandal began, Fergie said, with the introduction to a man who said he wanted to make large investments in her books and other business ventures. (I know, bear with me here…)
After two or three meetings, Fergie says she tried to make the mystery man sign a confidentiality agreement, though he didn’t, yet she still conducted conversations with him. Eventually, the events depicted on the Duchess of York scandal tape, the Prince-Andrew-for-cash agreement , took place. Most of what the Duchess said as she explained the meetings, and during most of her Oprah interview, sounded completely contrived and evasive, and at times made little sense.
Though Sarah Ferguson claims she originally demanded the deposit of 40,000 pounds in order to “help a friend who needed 38,000 pounds” (no mention of the bonus 2,000…), Oprah asked Fergie why the jump to 500,000. the Duchess stammered, “I took a long shot. I can’t even think where my head was. I just want to cringe.”
On the actual amount of her demand for access to Prince Andrew, Fergie said 500,000 pounds was a number she plucked out of the sky. When Oprah Winfrey asked Sarah Ferguson how Prince Andrew reacted to her behavior, the Duchess of York replied “He knows me, and he reached out with understanding. He’s such a good man.”
Source:
Oprah Interview: Duchess of York scandal – Sarah Ferguson – 6/1/2010
