Fergie: Why I’m just like Jennifer Aniston

AS a mother of two princesses and the former wife of Prince Andrew, the Duchess of York has rarely been out of the glare of the spotlight.

But to step-grandson Wolfie, five, Sarah Ferguson says she is a bona fide star in her own right – thanks to her YouTube readings of children’s books.

Speaking to Mail columnist Sarah Vine on her new Mail+ podcast, Femail Half Hour, the duchess said Wolfie, son of Princess Beatrice’s husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, saw her as the ‘Jennifer Aniston of his life’ owing to her Story Time With Fergie And Friends videos.

‘For him... I’m very cool,’ she said. ‘He thinks I’m a star because he sees me on television, on YouTube.’

In a candid interview, Fergie said she was also trying to be a ‘cool and trendy grandma’ to Princess Eugenie’s sixmonth-old son, August.

She fears this will involve reading current children’s books containing crude words she would not normally approve of, such as ‘poos’ and ‘farts’, adding: ‘I think I’m going to have to keep with modern life, modern cultures.’ The duchess, pictured, said that if August decided he would rather play with Barbie dolls than trains she would have ‘no judgment’. Having written a number of books, mostly for children, she has now written her first novel – for Mills & Boon – entitled Her Heart For A Compass. Speaking on the podcast, she described protagonist Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott, as ‘courageous, strong, red-headed, resilient, fiery... extremely headstrong and often doesn’t think of the ramifications of her actions’ – and said the heroine ‘parallels a lot of my own life’. The duchess revealed last night that she had signed another Mills & Boon book deal.

The duchess said she previously ‘desperately wanted to make people like me’, but was now comfortable being herself.

She consoled Miss Vine following news of her separation from Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove. Alluding to her own separation from Andrew, the duchess said she remained ‘grounded’ by not hiding the situation from their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie.

She told Miss Vine, who said she was struggling to keep a ‘business-as-usual’ outlook: ‘It’s very tough, but I’m very proud of you and just keep going.’

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