Fergie tells women to get themselves checked for breast cancer
Fergie tells women to get themselves checked for breast cancer after shock diagnosis: Duchess of York, 63, stresses ‘importance of regular screening’ after undergoing operation at King Edward VII Hospital – as she recovers at home in Windsor
- Sarah, Duchess of York, has thanked doctors who detected her breast cancer
- She will discuss it on podcast ‘Tea Talks with the Duchess and Sarah’ tomorrow
The Duchess of York says she is ‘hugely thankful’ to hospital staff involved in the mammogram which detected her breast cancer and believes her experience ‘underlines the importance of regular screening’.
Sarah, 63, was diagnosed with an early form of the disease after a routine screening, her spokesman said, which had presented no symptoms.
After undergoing surgery at the private King Edward VII hospital in Marylebone, central London, she has been told her prognosis is good and she is recuperating at Windsor with her family.
In a statement, a spokesman said Sarah wanted to ‘express her immense gratitude to all the medical staff who have supported her in recent days’.
The duchess has highlighted her experience as she encourages other women to get themselves checked for breast cancer.
Sarah, Duchess of York, has undergone an operarion to treat breast cancer, it has been revealed.
The 63-year-old duchess was diagnosed after a routine mammogram, it is understood
The duchess underwent an operation at the King Edward VII hospital in Marylebone, Central London, where royals are frequently treated
The author and businesswoman has been discharged from hospital today and is back at Windsor with her family
It is understood that she spent five days in the King Edward VII Hospital, which is regularly used by the Royal Family, before her release yesterday.
Her spokesman said: ‘Sarah, Duchess of York was recently diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer detected at a routine mammogram screening.
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‘She was advised she needed to undergo surgery which has taken place successfully.
‘The duchess is receiving the best medical care and her doctors have told her that the prognosis is good. She is now recuperating with her family.
‘The duchess wants to express her immense gratitude to all the medical staff who have supported her in recent days.
‘She is also hugely thankful to the staff involved in the mammogram which identified her illness, which was otherwise symptom free, and believes her experience underlines the importance of regular screening.’
A friend of the duchess said: ‘It has all happened very quickly, to be honest. But Sarah is in the best of hands and is keen to get the message out about the importance of regular screening given her experience.’
The duchess recently launched a podcast, Tea Talks, and will be talking about her experience in an episode to be released today. It was recorded the day before she went in for surgery and held back while she was in hospital.
The duchess, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew, is mother to Princess Eugenie, 33, and Princess Beatrice, 34. Beatrice was seen greeting friends with a hug near the hospitality area at the Glastonbury Festival yesterday.
Sarah and Andrew divorced in 1996 but remain close friends and live together at Royal Lodge in Windsor, where she is recuperating. Eugenie, who gave birth to her second son earlier this month, lives close by at Frogmore Cottage.
Princess Eugenie, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and Princess Beatrice (pictured at the wedding of Petra Palumbo and Simon Fraser in 2016)
Prince Andrew, Duke Of York, and Sarah, Duchess Of York, pictured driving out of Royal Lodge in Windsor
Sarah, Duchess of York, at the London Book Fair in Olympia on April 18, 2023
The Duchess of York (centre) with her two daughters, Princess Beatrice (left) and Princess Eugenie (right)
Sarah, Duchess of York, walking Venice last month shortly after the wedding of Australian Olympic champion Scotty James and F1 billionaire heiress Chloe Stroll
The news of the duchess’s illness comes as Andrew faces a battle to remain at Royal Lodge.
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The duke, also 63, is in a stand-off with his brother the King over the future of the property. The King wants Andrew, who no longer has official duties after being forced to quit over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, to move out of the 30-room, £30million home as part of plans to scale down the monarchy.
The King believes the property could be better repurposed but Andrew, who took over the house from the late Queen Mother on a long-term lease and has ploughed up to £7million of his own fortune into renovations, is refusing to budge. The Daily Mail reported earlier this month that he is refusing to leave his home during building works for fear he ‘might never get back in’.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK, with around 55,000 women diagnosed each year.
Most women diagnosed with breast cancer are over the age of 50. Mammographic screening, where X-ray images of the breast are taken, is the most commonly available way of detecting cancer.
The NHS Breast Screening Programme invites all women from the age of 50 to 70 registered with a GP for screening every three years. A landmark study out earlier this month found women diagnosed with breast cancer are now two thirds more likely to survive than their counterparts 20 years ago.
Experts said it illustrated the substantial improvements to both diagnoses and treatment since the 1990s.
Patients diagnosed with early invasive breast cancer between 1993 and 1999 had a 14 per cent chance of dying from the disease within five years.
But this risk has fallen to 5 per cent in those diagnosed between 2010 and 2015, a landmark study by Oxford University reveals. The difference equates to 64 per cent, or two thirds. Most of those diagnosed today ‘can expect to be long-term cancer survivors’, allowing them to plan and get on with their lives. The study is the first of its kind to include all 512,447 women diagnosed with early invasive breast cancer in England between January 1993 and December 2015.
Princess Beatrice (pictured second left) and her husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi (pictured embracing a friend) has been spotted greeting friends on the final day of Glastonbury
Among the multitude of flags flying in the crowds was one picturing Prince Louis at last year’s Trooping of the Colour pulling a face and covering his hands up to his ears during the flyover
The Duke of York’s daughter was dressed in a long sleeved black top, black skirt, white Adidas trainers and a cross-body handbag, and was wearing a pink wristband
Beatrice, who also attended the festival last year, is not the only royal to have descended on the Worthy Farm site in the past.
Her sister Princess Eugenie has been previously, and their cousin the Duke of Sussex was pictured in the crowds in 2013 with his then-girlfriend Cressida Bonas.
She shared an Instagram post on 15 May confirming the first episode of ‘Tea Talks with the Duchess and Sarah’.
She explained it is a ‘new weekly podcast about the highs and lows of everyday life’ and would see her ‘taking on some of the biggest and strangest stories from around the world.’
On the first episode of the show, which was released last month, Fergie insisted she is ‘very shy’ and said she ‘trusts too much’ and ‘too many people.’
Meanwhile elsewhere, as her co-host Sarah Jane Thomson teased she wanted to know more about her, the royal said: ‘Do I have a boyfriend? No.’
Sarah Ferguson, 63, has revealed she ‘doesn’t have a boyfriend’ but ‘would like one’ on the first episode of her new podcast (pictured, with her ex husband Prince Andrew)
And after her co-host asked: ‘Do you want one?’ Fergie replied: ‘Yes’.
READ MORE: SARAH FERGUSON REVEALS LESSON SHE LEARNT FROM QUEEN IN NEW PODCAST
Her comments come after years of rumours that she would one day marry Prince Andrew.
Their unconventional relationship has now developed into what Sarah describes as ‘the happiest divorced couple we know’, with the pair appearing to spend more time together than during the ten years they were actually married (when Andrew was often away on naval service).
They still share a home, living at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the ten-bedroom former residence of the Queen Mother, although this cosy arrangement may soon come to an end as part of King Charles’s projected reshuffle of royal residences.
And the pair regularly holiday together with their daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, leading to sporadic speculation that given neither Sarah nor Andrew has found subsequent great romance, there is always the possibility they may one day remarry.
These rumours gained more impetus after the death of Andrew’s irascible father Prince Philip, who in his later years refused to countenance even being in the same room as Sarah.
Asked directly on the ITV show Loose Women if a rekindling of romance was likely, Sarah brushed the subject aside. ‘Oh, goodness me,’ she responded to the show’s presenters, ‘you’re all fairytale, you’ve all got your wands out. Andrew and I remain steadfast, in the past we’ve been co-parenting and now we’re co-grandparenting.’
A former courtier who has known Andrew for three decades observes: ‘Theirs is not a great passionate romance – they have separate bedrooms at Royal Lodge – but it’s more about the deepest form of friendship. It’s a very unusual relationship for a divorced couple, especially to the outside world, but they’re utterly devoted and would defend each other to the death.’
On the first episode of her pocast, Fergie insisted she is ‘very shy’ and said she ‘trusts too much’ and ‘too many people’ (pictured with her co-host Sarah Jane Thomson)
In another recent interview, Sarah described her relationship with Andrew as an achievement of which she was proud. ‘We’re divorced to each other, not from each other. We are co-parents who support each other and believe that family is everything. I’m proud of the job we have done together in bringing up our children and sustaining a strong family unit. Our bywords are communication, compromise and compassion.’
It is an unorthodox arrangement, of which the royal author Penny Junor observes: ‘It seems utterly bizarre, and who knows what their relationship really is. Sarah has not just stood silently by his side, she actually speaks out in favour of him.’
Elsewhere on her first podcast, Fergie insisted she is ‘actually very shy’, saying: ‘I play down to make myself very tiny to keep myself out of everyone’s way.
‘I’m frightened if I put my head above the parapet that I’ll be shot down in flames.
‘I’m coming from a very bruised place.’
The Duchess said that while she can appear to be ‘a very courageous public figure… really, I’m deeply sensitive and I mind terribly, and I’m very shy, which people don’t know’.
She said she was coming from ‘an incredibly brave’ place, adding: ‘I’ve been on the treadmill since I was 12.’
Later she said: ‘I need to have a bit more of left brain to make me a bit more business-savvy.
Fergie is far from the first royal to launch a podcast, joining the likes of Mike Tindall , Princess Eugenie and the Duchess of Sussex to have her own audio platform
‘Maybe I trust far too much and too many people.’
Meanwhile she also revealed how she confronts people trying to take photographs of her without her noticing.
She described an encounter in the security line at Heathrow’s Terminal Four during a recent trip to Croatia, when she said fellow passengers ‘surreptitiously’ took their cameras out.
She said: ‘So then I go up and say, ‘would you like a selfie?’ and they say, ‘no, no, I don’t know what you’re thinking’.
‘And then you feel like ‘oh, so sorry, how dare I presume that you would want a photograph’, when full well they wanted a photograph.’
In April, the duchess said that she was not offended at missing out on an invitation to the King’s coronation, while speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, citing her divorce from Prince Andrew.
She told presenters Kate Garraway and Adil Ray: ‘I’m not [going], it’s a state occasion, and being divorced I don’t think you can have it both ways.
‘I am divorced and I’m really loving being divorced to my ex-husband, not from him but to him, it’s important to differentiate.’
She added that just because she’s ‘not there on the state occasion’, she can still ‘be there’ in private.
‘That’s a lovely feeling to be part of, it really is,’ she continued, ‘and as I said you can’t have it both ways. You mustn’t sit on the fence. You’re either in or out, don’t muck around.’
Sarah who she is divorced from Prince Andrew said ‘you can’t have it both ways, you are either in or out’
Sarah Ferguson said she will not be at the Coronation because she is divorced to Prince Andrew on ITV’s Good Morning Britain
She added: ‘The great thing about this moment in time is the unity of family, and I think that Charles and Camilla are doing an exceptional job at unifying the family.’
Elsewhere Sarah said the ‘spotlight needs to come off’ Prince Andrew to let him get ‘on with his life’.
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Lady Pamela Hicks received a telephone call from a secretary at Buckingham Palace
The prince was accused of sexual abuse by Virginia Giuffre, who claims that she was trafficked by convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The duke has vehemently denied the allegations and claimed he never met Giuffre.
However he lost his royal titles as a result of the allegations and has not been a working royal since 2020.
She said: ‘With Prince Andrew, he’s such a good man. He’s a kind good man, and I think the spotlight needs to come off him and let him get on with his life to rebuild.’
Sarah, who shares daughters Princess Beatrice and Eugenie with Andrew, also added that he is a ‘very good grandfather’ to his grandchildren.
Later on in the programme, Ms Garraway asked what she thought the late Princess Diana, who Fergie was close to, would think of Prince Harry and Prince William’s current relationship.
She replied: ‘She was all about being true to her heart, and her heart would say, ”My boys have done really well, they look so happy in their own family units and they have beautiful children”.
‘And that is what she’d look at. She’d look at attitude and I don’t know, she’s not here to speak for herself, but from me, if I’m here talking to you, I would say that we should have much more kindness in life.
‘All of us need to stop being so cruel and trolling, lead by example, smile and be kind.’
It was reported last week that the Duchess was not expected to attend the Coronation next month – despite the fact Beatrice and Eugenie are set to be there.
Sarah opened up to Kate Garraway and Adil Ray on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today
Sarah said she will ‘be there’ for King Charles and Camilla ‘in private’, saying it’s a lovely feeling to be part of the family
The duchess said if you re divorced in the Royal Family you ‘can’t have it both ways, you mustn’t sit on the fence you’re either in or out, don’t muck around’
Sarah was pictured with her friend Princess Diana at the Guard’s Polo Club, in Windsor in 1983
Royal commentator Tom Bower previously told MailOnline that Sarah had excluded herself because of her previous ‘conduct’.
He added that her presence would ‘provoke critical comment, which King Charles doesn’t need’.
And expert Richard Fitzwilliams praised the ‘extremely wise’ decision from the King because she has been an ’embarrassment to the Royal Family for many years’.
But the apparent decision has surprised some royal watchers – with Meghan’s friend Omid Scobie tweeting: ‘If true, this feels kinda cruel, no?’
Speaking about the absence of Sarah, Mr Bower said she will be left out ‘because she is not a member of the Royal Family’.
He added that she had excluded herself ‘by her past conduct’, saying: ‘Her presence would provoke critical comment which Charles doesn’t need.’
Speaking about King Charles and Queen Camilla she revealed they were doing ‘exceptional job at unifying the family’
Sarah with the late Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Andrew at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, in 1987
Among Sarah’s most embarrassing moments was when photographs were published showing her having her toes sucked by her financial adviser John Bryan at her holiday villa in St Tropez, while they were also seen kissing, embracing and frolicking in the pool.
She was also said to have had a rift with her once good friend, Princess Diana, after she claimed she got a verruca after borrowing a pair of her shoes. They were reportedly still not speaking at the time of Diana’s death in 1997.
And in 2010 she apologised after being secretly recorded offering to sell access to Andrew in return for £500,000.
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