Queen Elizabeth instructed Fergie ‘being your self is sufficient’

Sarah Ferguson has revealed how she used to hide her ‘huge personality’ from the public, after her father told her she was a ‘bore’ – but that she found support from the late Queen.

The Duchess of York, 64, made the comments during a recent interview with Hello magazine, after she was asked about whether her recent experience with cancer had changed her outlook on life.

She revealed that it had made her start being herself more. Speaking about her personality, she said she had previously ‘tried to keep it under the cushion’, revealing that her father, Major Ronald Ferguson, called her ‘a bore’, and told her she was ‘too much’, or even to ‘shut up, no one wants to hear from you’.

However, the mother-of-two said, after being diagnosed with cancer, the experience gave her ‘a swift kick in the butt’, prompting her to ask herself: ‘Are you going to start living now, at 64, or are you going to keep on not quite living? You don’t have to be what everyone wants you to be: just be yourself’.

And not everyone wanted her to change her personality: the late Queen Elizabeth II, before her death, told Sarah that ‘being yourself is enough’. 

Now, according to the former wife of Prince Andrew, she has made the decision to be herself. She explained that she is ‘just not excusing [herself] any more’. 

Her battle with cancer began last Summer, when she was diagnosed with the disease during a routine mammogram.

Sarah underwent a single mastectomy, but six months later, she was found to have malignant melanoma.

She currently has regular check-ups, and while she told Hello that ‘her doctors that she shouldn’t use the phrase “cancer-free”,’ her health outlook currently appears positive.

Just months after being treated for breast cancer, this January, Sarah was diagnosed with skin cancer.

The Duchess had a mole removed from her body which tests found to be a malignant melanoma – which is the most serious type of skin cancer. 

However, at the time, she was described as being in ‘good spirits’ after the ‘distressing’ news, which was broken to her just days after Christmas.

While she keeps a tight check on her health, taking precautions like mole mapping, and visiting the doctors if she has any concerns, Sarah told the magazine she believes her health is ‘better than ever’ (before knocking on wood).

Describing how difficult it was dealing with the condition, Sarah said it was the help of her loved ones that helped her get through that time. 

Among them, she listed her daughters Princess Beatrice, 35, (as well as Beatrice’s stepson Wolfie, eight, and daughter Sienna, two) and  Princess Eugenie, 34, and her two sons – three-year-old August and Ernest, who turned one last week.

She said: ‘I have the most exceptional family and I have an extraordinarily great team and I have an enormous ability to turn to joy.’

Since the diagnosis, her new ‘mission’ is to encourage people to be vigilant regarding their health.

During the interview, Sarah also spoke about the upcoming release of the paperback version of A Woman of Intrigue – her second work of historical fiction for Mills & Boon.

She reiterated previous comments she has made about the pride she feels in embarking on a new career, as a novelist, in her 60s.

While doing a media tour for her the hardback version of the novel (which had a different title: A Most Intriguing Lady) in April 2023, Sarah said she was pleased that her writing career had taken off, giving her another ‘claim to fame’ aside marrying into the royal family. 

In an interview with OK! magazine, the royal said her new career ensured that marrying into the Firm was no longer her ‘only claim to fame’.

She said: ‘I feel very proud to have embarked on a new career in my sixties.

‘Not many people get that opportunity. Now having married into the royal family isn’t my only claim to fame, I’m an author who has made the Sunday Times Bestsellers List. It feels like this is my time. It is very liberating.’

Sarah also answered the question many royal fans are keen to hear about.

After Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022, her corgis Sandy and Muick were adopted by the Duchess, coming to live with her at Royal Lodge in Windsor (the home she shares with former husband Prince Andrew).

Speaking previously, the 64-year-old has described how the dogs displayed obvious signs of grieving, after losing their human companion, the Queen.

But they are going much better now, she said. Describing herself as ‘dog mad’, Sarah said the two corgis are ‘exceptional’, and that Sandy follows her around everywhere. They are ‘national treasures’, she concluded. 

The full interview and photos can be seen in Hello! magazine.