ABOUT SARAH
SARAH, THE DUCHESS OF YORK
Photo: Robin Layton. Courtesy of OWN
The Duchess has recently finished filming a documentary series for Oprah and the OWN network entitled “Finding Sarah”. It is a six part series aimed at the Duchess’ journey to heal herself. The Journey takes the Duchess all over the globe and introduces her to some of the worlds leading specialists in mind, body and soul. The Series is set to launch Sunday, June 12th at 9/8c, only on OWN. The Duchess is also writing a book to be published by Atria books June 28th, 2011 about her experiences whilst making the documentary.
The Duchess is an accomplished children’s author with over 24 titles to her name. The newest being Rosie Red Curls which centers around a little girls desire to dance ballet. The book is scheduled to come out later this year. Her last children’s book, Tea for Ruby, was published by Simon and Shuster in the US remained no. 2 on the New York Times best seller list for a record number of weeks.
She is the co-producer of the critically acclaimed film ‘The Young Victoria’ and the Duchess has written two books on the subject, ‘Travels with Queen Victoria’ and ‘Victoria and Albert: Family Life at Osborne House’.
The Duchess is devoting more time to broadcasting, publishing, and advocacy. Now that her daughters are grown, she has more flexibility to travel for speaking engagements. She is in demand as a motivational speaker on topics about empowerment and overcoming obstacles, and about her work as a children’s advocate and philanthropist. She is in the early stages of developing a multi-city speaker’s series geared to mothers on topics related to parenting and personal growth.
In 1993 she founded Children in Crisis (www.childrenincrisis.org.uk) and remains active in its mission to provide aid and education to forgotten children around the world. She recently toured CiC projects in Liberia (with BBC), Sierra Leone, Chile, Russia, Poland, Albania, and Russia and is spearheading its 15th anniversary activity to raise £10 million over the next four years to enable a further 250,000 children in post conflict countries to go to school.
She is a long-standing patron to a number of British charities, including the Teenage Cancer Trust, Tommy’s – The Baby Charity, The African Caribbean Leukemia Trust, the Motor Neurone Disease Association and The Chemical Dependency Centre. She also supports The Daisychain Foundation and Springboard for Children.
From 1997-2007 she served as U.S. spokesperson for Weight Watchers International, Inc and during that time she distinguished herself as a passionate wellness advocate and proponent for healthy weight-loss and weight management. She was a founding supporter of The American Cancer Society’s “Great American Weigh In,” an annual campaign aimed at raising awareness of the link between excess weight and cancer. She was also a voluntary spokesperson for the American Heart Association.
In 2007 DSSOY established the Sarah Ferguson Foundation in New York to fund programmes that promote education and wellness (including efforts to curb obesity among children) worldwide.
The Duke and Duchess of York have two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie York The Duke and Duchess divorced amicably in 1996 after 10 years of marriage and the couple are frequently cited as a model for civilised divorce and successful co-parenting.
