A Moving Visit From a Royal Charmer
The drawing card was Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, once the merriest of the wives of Windsor, dismissed by the British royal family as unsuitable, and scorned by royalty-watchers as gauche, buffoonish, vulgar, errant--and, oh yes, fat.
So here was Fergie at 40, svelte and poised, accepting accolades in a Beverly Hills ballroom as a role model for women--and winning over her audience with an emotional tribute to a friend lost to cancer and a pledge to help fight the disease.
The occasion was the John Wayne Cancer Institute Auxiliary’s annual luncheon at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where she received an award for encouraging healthful living, and for her work on behalf of causes including multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s disease. (The institute is part of St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica and was established by the family of John Wayne, who died of cancer in 1979.)
For the record, Fergie looked fabulous, as befits the spokeswoman for Weight Watchers. “The suit [gray, with a long jacket and short skirt] is Italian,” she said. “The shoes [black pumps with curvy heels] are British.” Divorced from Prince Andrew since 1996, she still wears her ruby engagement ring and wedding band. She was unfailingly gracious on Friday as VIP guests were herded past to shake hands at a private reception. “Gosh, you’re well-behaved,” she told photographers and reporters kept at bay behind a red velvet rope.
The auxiliary--which presented the institute with $830,000--didn’t randomly pluck the Duchess of York from a list of celebrities. Dr. Steven O’Day, the institute’s associate director of medical oncology, said they’d met when she came to Santa Monica this year to visit a lifelong friend, Carolyn Cotterell, who sought treatment at the institute for eight months for advanced melanoma.
O’Day said Cotterell, who died earlier this month in England at 43, was one of those who “teaches us to find hope and peace” in the midst of the grief and suffering that surround cancer.
The duchess drew an appreciative laugh when she said, “For those of you who might not realize, I break rules. . . .” This was not to be some dry thank-you speech.
Some in the audience of 700 reached for handkerchiefs as she talked about her friend telling her she was “going to fight on because you and I have so much more laughing to do.” Accepting the award on behalf of Cotterell’s husband and three young children, she thanked the institute’s staff “for giving Carolyn an extra year of life.”
“In Britain,” she added, “emotions aren’t discussed, cancer’s not discussed,” but she vowed to help change that. Pledging her support to the institute’s “relentless determination” to find a cure for cancer, she said, “Plug me into a microphone and I’ll talk about it.”
