Sarah Ferguson And Princess Diana Were Never Really Rivals Contrary To Reports

In an essay published by Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew opened up about how people pitted her and Princess Diana against each other and how she sees Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle suffering the same fate today.

Last year, the Duchess of York penned an essay in support of Hello Magazine’s #HelloToKindness campaign. In the said essay, she talked about the downsides of social media and how she had mastered the art of ignoring abusive comments about her online. She particularly mentioned her perceived rivalry with Princess Diana, in which she was the one who often got the short end of the stick.

Fergie said that while she’s grateful that the monarchy has allowed her to communicate directly with her royal fans and promote her charitable causes on Twitter and Instagram, there are still a lot of people who tend to hit her below the belt.

“I rarely if ever go below the line on social media or news websites and read people’s comments,” she said. “I know that a lot say nice things, but there’s a large minority who seem to think that all the normal rules of society don’t apply to the internet,” she added.

Fergie went on to allude to the perceived rivalry between the Duchess of Sussex and the Duchess of Cambridge and how it reminds her of her and Princess Diana’s previous positions. “Women, in particular, are constantly pitted against and compared with each other in a way that reminds me of how people tried to portray Diana and me all the time as rivals, which is something neither of us ever really felt,” she said.

Back in the 1990s, when Princess Diana and Sarah were still married to their respective husbands, Prince Charles and Prince Andrew, the attention of the media was so focused on the two women that it led to an increase in paparazzi interest, urging the public to make up stories about them and portray them as rivals.

Just as Fergie maintained in her essay that she and Princess Diana were never rivals, she said in a 2007 interview that there was no truth in rumors claiming that she and the Princess of Wales were in a silent competition. According to the duchess, she and Princess Diana, who was her fourth cousin, were more like siblings than rivals. While they occasionally rowed with each other, they were never on a full-blown rivalry.