LIZ JONES: Hear me out, but I feel for Sarah Ferguson. There’s only one woman to blame for the way her life panned out. And now I know the disgusting name Andrew called her, I cannot help but be moved

What does it take to be classified as a victim? How do you qualify and who decides?

After reading the revelation in The Mail on Sunday that Sarah Ferguson had embarked on a massive sofa-surfing tour of Europe – albeit on luxury sofas, possibly in the castles of Italian counties, and using burner phones to avoid detection – I once again felt uneasy about a woman being stalked and blamed. How scared must he have been?

Frankly, I’m relieved that Fergie still has friends who look out for her, despite damning revelations that she continued her relationship with pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein after he was jailed for prostitution of a 14-year-old girl.

Fergie has been keeping in touch with her pals via video calls, but it seems even they can’t stop saying the former Duchess of York is ‘a mess’, needs a Botox boost and has grown roots.

This rather sums up how he was treated throughout his life: ridiculed, found wanting, and doomed to be betrayed.

Sure, he’s reckless and stupid, but he’s no sex offender.

Fergie must sink under the weight of the guilt of disappointing her daughters and repeating the Ferguson family cycle of relationships, then abandonment, and now poverty.

But I think his fawning emails to Epstein, first revealed by the MoS, came not from a bad place but from desperation.

As someone who has been truly bankrupt, I know there is nothing scarier than losing everything. I’d bet that Sarah found the prospect of public poverty worse than the two cancer diagnoses she later received, which at least garnered sympathy.

The truth is that her life, privileged as it was, was emotionally turbulent even before she met Prince Andrew.

His father, Ronald Ferguson, was educated at Eton and Sandhurst before joining the Lifeguards: typically aloof and an incorrigible playboy to boot.

Ronald started playing polo and represented England and served as Prince Charles’ unofficial polo manager. She became the Ruler’s Escort by taking part in state and ceremonial ceremonies.

But the late Queen Elizabeth is said to have found him overbearing, reminding Ferguson that the public had come to see him, not him.

Fergie’s stunning mother, Susan, was aristocrat – the granddaughter of the 8th Viscount Powerscourt – and had emerged as one of the last debutantes.

Within three years, Ronald and Susan had two daughters; the second was Sarah, born in 1959. But family happiness was little.

Susan was infuriated by her husband’s womanizing and the tragedy that followed in 1969 when their third child died shortly after birth.

Sarah? He blamed the chaos on himself. While on holiday in Switzerland, his mother went looking for him because he had been out for too long. Susan slipped on ice and fell, which was said to have caused her to lose the baby. Sarah believed she was personally responsible for the disaster and once said: ‘This was all because I stayed out late.’

When she was ten, Sarah was sent to boarding school, where one report was eerily prophetic: ‘Sarah is unstable.’ She finished joint bottom of her cohort at secretarial school.

In 1972, her mother met the handsome Argentinian polo player Hector Barrantes.

Ronald was in a relationship with a then 23-year-old, so Susan decided to leave him with Hector, moving to Argentina and leaving her family behind, including the young and vulnerable Sarah.

Sarah’s 1986 wedding to then-Prince Andrew was watched by millions but financial problems emerged within weeks

Fergie blames herself again and turns to comfort food: ‘I ate my emotions, which is why I had a weight problem since I was 12.’

He needed a father figure, but it goes without saying that Ronald was extremely selfish and emotionally stunted. He named his daughter ‘ginger minge’.

The basis of Fergie’s cheerful personality lies in her low self-esteem. Beautiful women like Diana Spencer, whom he had known since childhood, seemed to navigate life effortlessly (though we know the reality was different). Sarah had to work at it, which meant she put up with a lot.

In 1980 she met Paddy McNally, a former racing driver and widower who was 22 years her senior and had two teenage sons. They called him ‘Frog’ but he was generous and rich. McNally teased Sarah about her weight and was open about their relationship. He would have married her but she didn’t ask.

In 1984, needing an ally, Diana arranged a meeting between Sarah and Andrew. They shared a childlike sense of humor and romance blossomed.

Their wedding in 1986 was watched by millions, and her personal demeanor – a joy typical of Joyce Grenfell – suggested that Charles and Diana’s marriage was extremely rocky by comparison.

Within a few weeks Andrew became cranky. There were financial problems. Andrew was abroad in the Royal Navy most of the time and Sarah was left to fend for herself, including the pregnancy of their first child, Beatrice.

And she continued to struggle with her weight. According to Andrew Lownie’s latest biography of the couple, Entitled, Fergie weighed over 200lbs (more than 14 stone).

Sarah believed she was personally responsible for her mother Susan’s loss of her baby, and once said: ‘It was all because I stayed out late.’

Sarah’s father, Ronald, was extremely selfish and emotionally stunted. The late Queen Elizabeth is said to have found him oppressive

Would you like your weight to be published?

Remember the 51 pieces of excess luggage he was traveling with? In my view, Fergie was self-medicating, numbing the pain and humiliation by buying things and more.

When Beatrice was born, she was suffering from postpartum depression. We sympathize with this now – look how we wringed our hands when the current Princess of Wales contracted acute morning sickness. But at the time, Sarah had little support.

He sold a photo of Beatrice to Hello! He paid the magazine £250,000, most of which went to rescue his heavily indebted mother in Argentina.

Ask anyone what they think when you mention the name Fergie and they’ll say, ‘Oh, toe sucking!’, after ‘Epstein’. they will say. – A reference to her being caught on camera kissing her feet by her lover, millionaire financial advisor John Bryan, in 1992.

Fifty-five photographs were published in nine pages of a tabloid newspaper. Think about it: your butt posted on Instagram, looking like a Viennetta left in the St Tropez sun. Who would come back from this?

In 1980 she met Paddy McNally, a former racing driver and widower who was 22 years her senior and had two teenage sons.

Both Sarah and Andrew attended the Duchess of Kent’s funeral at Westminster Cathedral in 2025

When her daughter Beatrice was born, Sarah suffered from postnatal depression and received little support.

Fergie had already been in a relationship with American millionaire Steve Wyatt, despite him saying he was ugly and fat. According to former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown, Andrew once referred to her as a ‘fat cow’.

(Another Wyatt, commentator and politician Woodrow, would later say that Sarah was ‘like a bartender who’s made some money.’)

It was her relationship with Steve Wyatt that eventually led to her divorce, but her husband reportedly slept with a dozen women by the time their first wedding anniversary rolled around.

Even Sarah’s flight instructors (she was the first female royal to hold a pilot’s licence) nicknamed her ‘Chatterbox One’. There is not a single corner of his life where he is treated with respect.

This shows that Sarah has crushes on famous men: Michael Hutchence, Tiger Woods, JFK Junior. Instead of dealing with flesh and blood, he chose to kiss the poster on his bedroom wall. He is a hopeless romantic, after all.

It’s no surprise that, following the release of the Epstein files and even more damning material about his behavior, Fergie’s first stop in exile was the Paracelsus Rescue clinic in Zurich.

Its founder, Jan Gerber, once told me: ‘It is easier to sympathize with a starving child in Africa. It’s harder to empathize with someone who is rich and famous. But I believe our empathy with a person’s pain should not be conditional.’

I second this. Sarah is a human being, she is definitely not the villain of the piece.

Even Andrew Lownie, one of her harshest critics, writes: ‘We must not forget that Sarah was a great force for good through her philanthropic efforts.’

When Sarah married Andrew, she was given a new coat of arms bearing the motto: ‘From adversity grows happiness.’

I hope this is true.