Sarah Margaret Ferguson was born on 15 October 1959 as the daughter of Ronald Ferguson and Susan Wright. She has an older sister named Jane.
Following her parents’ divorce in 1974, her father remarried to Susan Deptford and had further three children. Her mother remarried to Héctor Barrantes. The divorce was difficult for Sarah, and she later revealed she had developed an eating disorder.1
Sarah attended Daneshill School and Hurst Lodge School, where she was apparently a talented swimmer and tennis player. She followed a course at Queen’s Secretarial College when she was 18 and then worked for an art gallery, public relations firms and a publishing company.
Sarah knew her future husband from childhood. She and Prince Andrew announced their engagement on 19 March 1986. She was presented with an engagement ring consisting of ten diamonds surrounding a Burmese ruby to complement her red hair. They were married on 23 July 1986, and as Prince Andrew had been created Duke of York, Sarah became Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York.2 Sarah wore an ivory-silk wedding dress designed by Lindka Cierach.
As Duchess of York, Sarah became a working member of the royal family and joined her husband in carrying out engagements. Their first child, Beatrice, was born on 8 August 1988, followed by a second child, Eugenie, on 23 March 1990. As they are both girls, neither can inherit the York dukedom, which is set to go extinct upon Prince Andrew’s death. During her marriage, Sarah was often ridiculed for her weight, which only made her eating disorder worse.
Unfortunately, Sarah and Andrew’s marriage was soon in trouble. Their separation was announced on 19 March 1992. Their divorce became final on 30 May 1996 and Sarah published her autobiography in November of that year. Although she initially retained the style of Her Royal Highness, a new Letters Patent regarding the regulation of post-divorce royal title was issued in August removed the style from her.3 Since then, she has been styled as Sarah, Duchess of York.
Sarah still attends some family functions but lives largely out of the public eye. She currently has three grandchildren through her two daughters. She has become a prolific author of books in several genres.
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