Sarah, Duchess of York Current Events 17: June 2011-December 2013

[Iluvbertie]

At these large events two things happen:

1. people do have set seats.
2. people have a window in which to arrive to facilitate seating and to cater for protocol.

Sarah thus arrived during the window in which she was asked to arrive and went to the seat she was allocated - in the second row behind the family.

 

[HRHHermione]

At these large events two things happen:

1. people do have set seats.
2. people have a window in which to arrive to facilitate seating and to cater for protocol.

Sarah thus arrived during the window in which she was asked to arrive and went to the seat she was allocated - in the second row behind the family.

Yup. That was where she was supposed to sit.

Some people may need to just accept that Sarah isn't quite the pariah the media paints her as- she was always well-liked by those who knew her and I'm sure she still maintains a lot of the same friendships she had when she was a member of the royal family.

 

[Spheno]

At these large events two things happen:

1. people do have set seats.
2. people have a window in which to arrive to facilitate seating and to cater for protocol.

I know this general rules. But one more rule exists: 'less important' people arrive first, 'more important' (better seats) arrive later, the queen arrives latest.

 

[Lumutqueen]

I know this general rules. But one more rule exists: 'less important' people arrive first, 'more important' (better seats) arrive later, the queen arrives latest.

What do you class as 'less important people'? Sarah was sat in VIP Reserved seating as the live news report stated directly behind The Thatcher Family. Reserved seating went 10+ rows back behind The Thatcher Family and The Queen. Sarah arrived at 9:15am along with several other hundred guests. There were over 2,000 people in St Paul's Cathedral yesterday and like Cepe said, if they all arrived at 10am, it would have been chaos. Reserved seating or not.

The Queen arrived last, because she is The Queen, she arrived 5 minutes prior to Maggie arriving.

 

[FergieFan]

With reference to the debate about Sarah smiling...

I agree with other comments that this is typical tabloid bullying of Sarah, of the kind that she has had to put up with for many years. She could have spent hours looking glum, but the newspapers will pick through tons of photos to find the "smiling" ones that can fit their own agenda of criticising her.

And as for the smile being too wide... I've often noticed when watching TV footage of Sarah that her facial expressions are naturally very expressive - the facial muscles tend to move a lot as she speaks or gestures. So when you take a still photo, the expression often seems somewhat exagerated. (I think the same is true of Beatrice, which makes it easy for photographers to select wide-eyed, open-mouthed expressions if they want her to look bad!)

And thirdly, as others have pointed out, the funeral of someone who lived a long and full life has elements of celebration of that person's life, which was certainly the case yesterday.

Personally, I'm really happy for Sarah that she had this chance to say goodbye to someone she admired and respected, and also that she was able to be part of an important day in the life of the nation. It hurt her to be excluded from the wedding, and I'm so glad that wasn't the case yesterday.

 

[grevinnan]

Oh dear god.

Sure, let's get out our tape measures and come up with an acceptable etiquette standard. "Smiles may not exceed this width"

Great idea! Someone should invent a "smiler" that can be discreetly inserted in mouth to measure said smile.

 

[vkrish]

I didnt find Sarh's smiles or "grins' any different from those of all others, while greeting each other.
See in my (Indian) culture, we are supposed to be as serious and mournful as possible at funerals, not even thinking of producing something that looks like a smile.
But in Diana's funeral (my first Western one), I saw Queen smiling when greeted by Dean of W'minster, I was surprised. But then slowly I understood, that it is OK to smile, while greeting at funerals, as they are not actual deaths..

 

[Iluvbertie]

I know this general rules. But one more rule exists: 'less important' people arrive first, 'more important' (better seats) arrive later, the queen arrives latest.

So the second row - right behind the mourning family - isn't one of the 'better seats' while the rows behind the second row are 'better seats' because the people who were seated there arrived later than Sarah according to you. To me the further forward you are the better seated you are.

However you are in fact incorrect - it is easier to get over 2000 people seated if people to be seated in different parts of the venue arrive at different times so that they can be spread out rather than having all the 'more important' people trying to reach the 'better seats' at the same time.

If they have 500 people to seat in each 15 minute slot (and they only had from 9 -10 to get the bulk of the people in and seated) it is far easier if they could direct them in 4 or 5 different areas - so 50 here and 50 there with another 20 to the front couple of rows etc and then repeat that during the 2nd, 3rd and 4th 15 minutes arrival slots.

Thus Sarah arrived during her allocated slot and was sent to the second row - right behind the family - I would say into one of the 'better seats' in the cathedral where she could see the proceedings rather than those at the back who would have seen very little.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

The gurning exhibitionist: Fergie makes her presence known at Margaret Thatcher's funeral | Mail Online

 

[cepe]

As if to give further credence to my earlier post, another bullying and bitchy article by the DM. It is a rag of a paper

 

[Dman]

You know the DM love to pick on Sarah. It's not a good day for them unless they pick on her.

 

[wyevale]

The 'Fail' article is a disgrace, and i've commented on it there to tell them so, but i doubt they will publish it !

I loathe bullying, and this is a classic example. It makes me sick to the stomach, and ashamed of our {much vaunted} 'free press'.

 

[sndral]

Yup. That was where she was supposed to sit.

Some people may need to just accept that Sarah isn't quite the pariah the media paints her as- she was always well-liked by those who knew her and I'm sure she still maintains a lot of the same friendships she had when she was a member of the royal family.

Well, except for that guy she burned in business who wrote a book about it - Starky, I think his name was, Prince Phillip, and presumably her former employees and the creditors she stiffed in her financial disasters and of course the country of Turkey isn't too wild about her either.
For some reason Sarah craves public attention and seems to seek it out, thus she reaps both the good and the bad. The press and the public would soon lose interest if she stopped jetting off w/ eurotrash, posing @ charity gliteratti gigs, etc. and just led a discrete normal life, but she doesn't seem to want that, so to achieve her apparent desire of still being a public figure, she has to suffer some lumps as well.

 

[Zonk]

Let's stay on topic with Sarah's actual CURRENT events. We don't need to rehash her failings...they are well documented.

Additional posts that wish to revisit the past will be deleted without notice.

 

[Iluvbertie]

I think the DM took a lot of pictures of Sarah and chose the worst two to show without any context of what was actually happening - just to make her look bad.

 

[MARG]

It is disgraceful! They couldn't even leave her alone at such a solemn and important occasion as the funeral. In the midst of all the shots of the great and the good, they go ahead and smack in a virtual caricature of her. We all know that shutter speeds are phenomenal these days and these are just instants, not even seconds, out of time.

What utter scum.

 

[FergieFan]

I completely agree with the above posts. Disgraceful is the word. To these reptiles, it's all a game - find some funny looking photos, stitch up Fergie, everyone laughs, ha ha. No thought or sympathy for the human victims of what they do.
Sarah has had to deal with this kind of bullying for a long time, but I'm sure that doesn't make it any easier. This will hurt her. She is a decent, kind-hearted, honest person. She doesn't deserve this. Nobody does. I just hope those around her are able to shield her from seeing filth like this.
The Mail claims to be an ardent supporter of Lady Thatcher and her legacy, but here they are trashing a friend and supporter of hers and a guest at her funeral! Disgraceful!

 

[Kataryn]

IMHO the closeness of her seating to the Thatcher family implies for me that the family was aware that there had been a personal connection between Sarah and Lady Thatcher. Otherwise they would have seated her far more removed from the queen and the DoE, knowing how the duke thinks about her. And I don't think Sarah chose that seat herself.

The DM using these pics and claiming she used her phone while still in the church is a ugly form of slander. I'm not known to be a fan of Sarah, but these last months she has behaved as she should have done so in former times and that has to be lauded, IMHO, for it doesn't seem to come easy to her to stay in the background.

 

[Baroness of Books]

And I'd like to know what the crime was that she put a mint in her mouth. Really??? I see nothing wrong with that at all. I think the crime was that cameras were on Sarah to catch her every movement and thus capitalized it as another faux pas.

 

[Ish]

And I'd like to know what the crime was that she put a mint in her mouth. Really??? I see nothing wrong with that at all. I think the crime was that cameras were on Sarah to catch her every movement and thus capitalized it as another faux pas.

It is a crime to have minty fresh breath at a funeral! How dare she!

People just want to see Sarah as this walking faux pas, a continuing embarrassment to the monarchy. If she isn't doing something that is actually legitimately worthy of critique then people are going to grasp for something. That's all that this bs surrounding her behaviour at the funeral is.

 

[bethaliz6894]

Maybe she had a sour stomach and the mint was actually a Rolaid? The media is so quick to burn her at the stake, it really does get old. I can only imagine how she must feel. I do feel sorry for her, I wouldn't wish this kind of treatment on my worst enemy.

 

[padams2359]

I am so happy evens played out the way they did. On another post, I was chastised for thinking that the DoY and MT could have easily gotten to know each other while others stated she was looking for attention. She lived much of her married life in and apartment in BP. Which coincidentally occurred during the same time that MT was PM and had the weekly 6P, Tuesday meeting with QE2. There were no cameras there to record the meetings between MT & DoY. Doesn't mean they did not happen. Anyone that was there worked for one of them in a way. Those people keep quiet. It's called respect.

I am sure DoY is use to it, and as many things go, she is probable amused that the best they could do was a breath mint. I wish more people used them. Especially for these occasions. I am a sanitizer junkie at funerals, and in flu season, I will tell people I am not feeling well to keep them from kissing me.

 

[Lee-Z]

IMO indeed she does have a very expressive face which is not very suited for the 'solemn' look, but ofcourse the fact that the media chooses to publish the photos they did is an attempt to start discussions i.o.w get more attention to their magazine...

Breath mint is often used afaik to avoid coughing-fits or dry-coughs, which are particularly awkward at a funeral (or a classical music concert )

 

[marine2109]

Sarah Ferguson: 'My grandmother taught me that when you feel better is when you help others'

Sarah Ferguson: 'Mi abuela me enseñó que cuando mejor te sientes es cuando ayudas a los demás'

Google Translate

 

[FergieFan]

From Sarah's description of her as her "Irish granny", we can infer that she means her maternal grandmother, the Hon. Doreen Wright (nee Wingfield), daughter of the 8th Viscount Powerscourt (their seat was the Powerscourt estate near Dublin).
Sarah called her "Grummy", and from what she says in her books, she was obviously a big influence on her, especially, as she says, in terms of encouraging her philanthropy and charity work.
A nice portait of her here:
National Portrait Gallery - Portrait - NPG x122091; Hon. Doreen Julia Wright (née Wingfield)
In terms of family likeness, she actually reminds me quite strongly of her great-granddaughter Eugenie! I wonder if other people agree?

 

[Irish Eyes]

"Irish granny" seems to have been a big favourite of Sarah's. When she is on Irish TV she talks about visiting Powerscourt and her grandmothers grave. Re. Eugenie I can see some family likeness around their eyes.

 

[corazon]

The gurning exhibitionist: Fergie makes her presence known at Margaret Thatcher's funeral | Mail Online

I really miss see sarah with the royal family, he always will be the mother of queen's granddauthers. maybe we have to wait for see her with the windsors until beatrice or augenie's weddings

 

[muriel]

Duchess of York looks glamorous in a sari as she joins Cherie Blair at Asian Women of Achievement Awards | Mail Online

Duchess of York looks glamorous in a sari as she joins Cherie Blair at glitzy Asian Achievement gala dinner

 

[FergieFan]

I think this is the same sari she wore at that charity auction in India that she went to with Andrew a month or so ago.
I think this look really suits her, she looks beautiful!
And, wonder of wonders, the DM is actually being NICE to Sarah! (Still, you can always rely on the morons who leave comments to provide the seemingly obligatory spitefulness and bile).

 

[iceflower]

On May 14 Sarah has dined at the Coya restaurent in Mayfair:


** Pic ** zimbio: Sarah Ferguson Gets Dinner in London **


On May 15 she attended the "Hello Magazine 25th Anniversary Party" held at The Wallace Collection, Manchester Square:


** Pic ** zimbio: Hello Magazine Celebrates 25 Years **


And yesterday, May 16, Sarah attended the "Butterfly Ball: A Sensory Experience" in aid of the Caudwell Children's charity at Battersea Evolution:


** Pic ** zimbio: Arrivals Butterfly Ball London **