Sarah Ferguson Feels “Liberated” After Queen Elizabeth’s Death

Sarah Ferguson finally feels free to be exactly who she is.

The Duchess of York “feel[s] liberated,” she said during an appearance on Good Morning America Tuesday. “It’s like I’ve taken the mental shackles out of my brain.” She added, “I don’t know whether it’s the queen passing on that I now think I can just sort of say openly what I want to say without worrying I’m going to offend somebody. I’m really truly authentic Sarah now.” The royal is promoting the release of her second historical fiction romance novel, A Most Intriguing Lady, about a seemingly traditional Victorian woman who becomes an amateur sleuth by night. Ferguson confessed that in many ways the story mirrors her own life as a self-identified “royal rebel.” “Lady Mary is me. It is, it is me. It is a part of me,” she explained. “I think that in life it’s not just royal institution and monarchy, it’s any bureaucracy that tries to allow this redhead to conform.”

But while she may be a royal rebel, the duchess confirmed that she also still believes in the “absolute unequivocal institution of the monarchy” and is looking forward to her former brother-in-law King Charles‘s coronation in May. “I totally support the King and the Queen Consort…I’ve known them all my life,” she said, although she added that she’s not sure whether or not she will be invited to the big event. Ferguson married Prince Andrew in 1986, and they got divorced in 1992. The former couple shares two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, and have remained very close in the decades since their split, even continuing to live together. The duchess added that she has “adored” Charles all her life and believes “he is an extraordinary person.”

At an event in New York City on Monday to promote the book, Ferguson was also asked about whether she would attend the coronation to which she replied, “TBD,” adding, per the Daily Mail, “The invitations haven’t gone out yet. Have they?” But she said that ultimately it makes no difference either way as she will still be celebrating the new King and Queen even if it means she has to “set up a tea room at the bottom of the drive with bunting and cakes.” Unfortunately for the duchess, it seems that invitations have already gone out as her comments come shortly after a representative for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle confirmed the couple had received theirs but had not yet decided if they will be attending.

Ferguson may feel “liberated” following the monarch’s passing, but Queen Elizabeth was also actually one of the biggest supporters of her career as a novelist. In October 2022, the duchess told the audience at the Henley Literary Festival that her late mother-in-law was a “wonderful friend” and “the finest ever icon,” calling her “legendary” and “incredible” before adding that the two corgis she inherited from her after her death are well-trained “national treasures.” She went on to explain that she’d given Queen Elizabeth copies of her 2021 novel, Her Heart for a Compass, in both English and French. “When we wrote the book, I gave it to the boss and I said, ‘You don’t need to read it.’ But I think she was so proud that we did it. And that’s just huge for me. She was just very, very special,” she said. The duchess went on to call herself “the luckiest person alive…no question” that she had the opportunity to know the queen personally, adding that “there’s no one like her.”

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