Though Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was technically never a princess herself, she is the mother of both Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie and spent years attending the types of engagements and banquets where a senior royal must be on their best behavior. On this week’s episode of Tea Talks With The Duchess & Sarah, the podcast she cohosts with entrepreneur Sarah Thomson, she shared a few of the tips for etiquette she learned during her time in the royal family.
“I always say to my girls, when you’re out on the public stage, smile. If you don’t want to be polite, don’t go out on the public stage—because no one wants to see a grumpy princess,” Ferguson said, per People. “I think the most important thing is you’ve got to get your game on.”
Though Beatrice and Eugenie are not working royals, they have made public appearances at family events, like Trooping the Colour and royal weddings for most of their lives, and also have taken on a few patronages that are close to their hearts. Despite Ferguson’s 1996 divorce from their father, Prince Andrew, the family has remained close, and in the late 1990s, Ferguson would stay at another home on the Sandringham Estate over the Christmas holidays so her daughters could still participate in the festivities.
Even after leaving behind her official royal duties, Ferguson still had plenty of reason to rely on some of her royal skills to make a good impression at parties. She told Thomson one of her best tricks for moving around a party while still seeming polite.
“It depends [on] which country you’re in. There’s all different cultures, which you must always be aware of, and I love that,” she explained. “If you’re in British Downton Abbey, you get to a point when you say, ‘One second, could you hold that thought because I’ve just got to go and see Fred over there because I’ve got to give him a message.’ And by the time that the person you’re talking to has gone onto the next subject, they’ve forgotten that you were coming back to tell something about Fred.”
She also explained her clever strategy for attending multiple parties in one night. “What you do is you walk through the door, go in very loudly and walk all the way around the room, she said. “You’ll be so loud that most people are going, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s so loud.’ Then you leave after five minutes, and so the host and everyone will say, “Oh, I didn’t see Sarah tonight.’ And everyone in the room says, “Oh, well we did.’”
Ferguson and Thomson have cohosted the podcast since April, and in their weekly episodes they discuss their careers and personal lives, along with culture and current events. Earlier this month, a spokesperson Ferguson announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was recovering after a lengthy operation. On the next day, the pair released a pre-recorded episode of the show where Ferguson explained that she was diagnosed during a routine mammogram that she nearly skipped.
“It’s very important that I speak about it,” she said in the episode. “I am telling people out there because I want every single person that is listening to this podcast to go get checked, go get screened and go do it.”
Listen to Vanity Fair’s DYNASTY podcast now.
Erin Vanderhoof
Source link
