14 DAY TRIAL // A short while back, British tabloid News of the World came out with a story that shook the Royal Family to its foundation: footage of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and former wife of Prince Andrew, taking bribe in exchange for access to Andrew, a UK Representative for Trade and Investment. During the Oprah interview that aired the other day, Ferguson explained what was going on in her mind at the time she was caught on camera asking for and accepting bribe money.
The other day, word got out in the media that the Duchess would try to explain part of her behavior by alcohol abuse on the day in question. Today, as People can confirm, it emerges that she also says that partly responsible was the feeling of desperation she had when thinking of her financial situation. Still, what prompted her to go through with the plan of cashing in on her connection to the Prince was her honest desire to do good by a friend, the magazine says.
“Sarah Ferguson first got embroiled in a cash-for-access scandal because she was trying to help a friend in need of cash, the Duchess of York now says – but her own financial desperation got her in even deeper. ‘A friend of mine needed $38,000 urgently,’ Ferguson said Tuesday on The Oprah Winfrey Show, though she didn’t identify the pal in need. Ferguson then decided at the last minute to ask for even more money for herself – about $725,000 – and though she didn’t have specific plans for the money, she said of her debt, ‘I was so out of control with desperation where I’d reached a point of no return’,” writes People.
“The Duchess of York said she suspected the man was a journalist when they first met, but ignored her instincts. He told her he was interested in investing in her business dealings, and that he was having personal problems and needed her advice. The reporter gave her $40,000 as a down payment, which she says has now been returned to the newspaper. Winfrey played the tape of the encounter, which Ferguson said she’d never seen in its entirety before. ‘I feel sorry for her. She looks exhausted,’ Ferguson said after watching herself on tape,” the mag further says.
In the same interview, for which the Duchess was not paid a single cent, as per ongoing reports, she admits to feeling terribly humiliated and embarrassed when the video was made public. However, more than her hurt feelings, the Duchess regrets having put so many people around her in a terribly awkward position, including her two daughters and, of course, Prince Andrew and the Royal family. She will continue to beg for forgiveness, she tells Oprah, but she will also move on with her life because dire times are ahead of her, at least from a financial perspective.