Death of my sister led to my mother walking out on the family, says Fergie
SARAH, Duchess of York, has spoken candidly about the death of her baby sister, saying she believes the tragedy contributed to her mother walking out on the family.
Sarah Ferguson explained that the loss of Sophie ‘tipped my mum into trauma’ and the resulting grief was a factor in the move by Susan Barrantes to Argentina when the duchess was only a child.
The duchess said she originally blamed herself for her mother’s departure and the devastating experience would later influence how she parented her own daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday the duchess, 63, said: ‘I never knew about Sophie until I was an adult, but looking back on it I think it explains a lot about my mother’s unhappiness, and perhaps why she abandoned us when I was 12 and moved to South America.
‘If I’m right, that means Sophie has been very present in my life because my mother’s departure from my life affected me greatly. I think the loss of Sophie tipped my mum into trauma.’
Ms Barrantes developed potentially lifethreatening pre-eclampsia while pregnant with Sophie, who died at birth.
She would later leave her husband, the late Major Ronald Ferguson, and move to South America with professional polo player Hector Barrantes.
The Duchess was speaking ahead of the publication of her novel, A Most Intriguing Lady, whose heroine is inspired by her real-life Scottish ancestor Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott.
She said: ‘I find it very cathartic to explore feelings and emotions through the eyes of my characters. I think the themes of abandonment in this story do stem from my own experience as a teenager, when my mum upped and left us for Argentina, followed soon after by my sister Jane, who went to Australia, leaving me and my father alone.
‘I have done a lot of work on my mental health over the years and it is clear that experience did me some real damage that I have had to work hard to overcome.’
The duchess said she initially believed her mother moved out because she was so angry ‘because I had cut my hair very badly and that was why she had gone’.
She added: ‘I don’t know if what I experienced after my mother left me would now be called PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], but it was certainly deep trauma. I’m actually now thankful that my mother left, because it made me determined never to put my own girls through anything like it, and always to be there for them.’
The Duchess said the way her parents’ split informed how she and Prince Andrew approached family life in the wake of their 1992 separation. She added: ‘Andrew and I agreed to make sure we would always be strong co-parents, operating by what we call the three Cs – compassion, communication and compromise – even after we were divorced.
‘I look at the wonderful mothers my girls are turning out to be themselves and it convinces me that we have done a pretty good job.’
Now an author of more than 80 books, the duchess said she was relishing life, adding: ‘When you have been in the public eye for as long as I have, lots of people have made a judgment on you.
‘I have also underestimated myself in the past – you perhaps get frightened about putting your head above the parapet in any way. But now I’m embarking on a new career as a novelist in my sixties, which I’m very proud about – I’m not just Prince Andrew’s ex-wife.’
The duchess’s first historical romance, Her Heart for a Compass, was published in 2021 and co-written with Scottish novelist Marguerite Kaye. It was inspired by the duchess’s Scottish great-greataunt, who ‘strains against the confines of duty’. Her ancestor, Lady Margaret Montagu Douglas Scott, was portrayed as a flamehaired Victorian rebel and a daring free spirit cast out from polite society after fleeing from an arranged marriage in search of true love.
Although the duchess admitted she used her imagination for most of the tale, research shows her ancestor did indeed have red hair.
However, another of Lady Margaret’s real-life ancestors suggested that fiction was rather different from fact, stating she had been a stickler for convention and ‘would never have run off with anyone’.
• A Most Intriguing Lady by Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson and Marguerite Kaye, Mills & Boon, £14.99, is published on March 30.
‘My mother’s departure affected me greatly’