Fergie gets candid: ‘The Queen is more of a mother to me than my own mother’

Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson has had her fair share of ups and downs with the royal family, however the ex-royal still credits her former mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II, as her “greatest mentor”.

Fergie, who was married to the Queen’s second son Prince Andrew, appeared on Monday’s episode of the Tea with Twiggy podcast to talk about her debut novel, Her Heart For a Compass. During the chat, the 61-year-old candidly revealed the Queen was “more of a mother” to her than her own mother.

The 61-year-old’s own mother, Susan Barrantes, left her family to move to Argentina with her new husband, a professional polo player. She died in a car crash in 1998.

“I think to myself that honestly my mother-in-law has been more of a mother to me than my mother,” Fergie said on the podcast, The Independent reports. “I absolutely think there is no greater mentor because from a little girl to now, the consistency of Her Majesty has been a great honour and makes me want to cry.”

She added: “Because I went through so much pain losing mum, I lost my way and I became deeply deeply insecure. I kept asking everybody for advice. And I never trusted my own judgement of myself.

“I have got my lovely ex-husband Andrew – he always believes in me and always did believe in me. But my greatest mentor – and I know this sounds so weird to say it – and person who believes in me is the Queen and has never faltered.”

It’s no secret Sarah doesn’t have the best track record. Just months after she separated from Prince Andrew, photos emerged of the mother-of-two sun-baking topless and getting her toes sucked by American financial adviser John Bryan in France. And in 2010, the duchess was caught in a sting by the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World that showed her trying to sell access to her ex-husband for £500,000 (A$943,575).

However, Fergie and Andrew seem to be closer than ever now, and have been pictured out and about on a number occasions. Just last week the duchess was seen accompanying her ex-husband to the Queen’s Balmoral estate in Scotland following news Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an alleged victim of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, filed a lawsuit against Andrew.

In a statement shared with People magazine at the time, Giuffre said, “Today my attorney filed suit against Prince Andrew for sexual abuse under the Child Victims Act. As the suit lays out in detail, I was trafficked to him and sexually abused by him.”