It’s still sort of amazing to me that Sarah Ferguson has continued to receive invitations to glitzy charity balls and galas around the world. She really is a “royal for hire” in that sense, although I’m not saying that Fergie lacks a charitable spirit. She shows up for charities consistently and good for her. But she’s also getting those invitations because of her title, because charities want someone with some kind of vague royal connection. So it was when Fergie got invited to the Knights Of Charity Gala at Chateau de la Croix des Gardes, in the south of France. She was even tasked with “helping out” with an auction, and she decided to throw in a special offer. From Richard Eden’s Mail column:
King Charles is said to be determined to evict his brother Prince Andrew from Royal Lodge, but the Windsor residence has lost none of its cachet. For I can disclose that Sarah, Duchess of York, who lives at Royal Lodge with her ex-husband Andrew, used the 30-room mansion to lure a plutocrat into donating 100,000 euros [£84,000] at a charity gala on the French Riviera this week. Fergie berated the audience at the Knights of Charity Gala at the Chateau de la Croix des Gardes, in Cannes, for lacking energy on Monday evening.
She then helped top auctioneer Simon de Pury raise money by volunteering to entertain a super-rich bidder at the royal residence which used to be home to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
‘What I’m offering is a unique experience with me, wherever you want to go in the world, whether it be Samoa, or whether you come with me in one of my charity adventures, or it could be in London or at the Royal Lodge,’ she told guests, who included the Hollywood star Orlando Bloom. ‘Anywhere you want to go. You don’t know where you’re going to end up, but it’ll always be something different.’
The duchess, 64, wore a monochrome gown complete with black opera gloves, which she said was a style tribute to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 film To Catch a Thief, which starred Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. It was filmed at the chateau where the gala was held in partnership with Ulyssia.
‘I like the theme, you know, of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly,’ she tells me. ‘And I can wear my gloves. No, I don’t feel hot in them, I love them. I think it’s rather nice to keep up with this. I just like wearing gloves.’
Fergie will resume her Australia book tour in November, after cancelling her scheduled appearance at a literary festival in Perth the previous month because she didn’t want to clash with the King and Queen Camilla’s visit Down Under.
While there’s definitely a sleazy element to this, I don’t know, it was for charity?? That’s the whole reason she was there, to be loud and to convince people to donate more. “You don’t know where you’re going to end up, but it’ll always be something different.” Fergie is so wild. But yeah, she should probably stop offering up private dinners at Royal Lodge in exchange for cash, even if that cash is going to charity. Because we know that she probably still offers access to the Windsors for cash privately too. That being said, King Charles does the exact same thing only much worse.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.