A public comeback for Sarah Ferguson would be a mistake, writes Shelagh Fogarty

We are told she is planning some kind of public comeback. From the comfort of the Emirates, where she has been with one of her daughters on a working trip, she is reportedly considering a return to public life. The very idea speaks to the level of ego and entitlement at play.

I say this as someone who has met her and interviewed her. I found her very warm and very likeable. When I spoke to her years ago about the programmes she made on Romanian orphanages, she was unstuffy and open. She gave a good, normal, human interview.

Which is why, if she were my friend, I would sit her down and ask: "What are you thinking?”

I am not saying she should hide away and never be seen again. Nobody should have to live like that. But the notion of a public comeback, a return as an author, a public champion of some organisation, or at the head of another charity, simply does not stack up.

Long before Epstein, she had blown it in the public eye. The photographs in the early 1990s. The separation and divorce. The sting in 2010 when she was filmed apparently offering access to Prince Andrew for £500,000. Repeated financial troubles. In 2010, John Caudwell, the founder of Phones 4u, publicly offered to clear reported debts of several million pounds in exchange for half her future earnings. The pattern has been one of scrabbling around for money and wealthy assistance.

Then there are the emails.

In 2010, two years after Jeffrey Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution, she wrote to him in glowing terms. “You’re a legend,” she said. “I’m at your service.” In another email she said she was being “hung out to dry” and cast herself as the victim. In correspondence with others, there are attempts to draw distinctions between Epstein being a sexual offender and being a paedophile. But he was convicted of soliciting a child. A minor. That is the reality.

Nobody is discrediting her. She discredited herself.

If she wants to return to public life, it should not be through glitter or reinvention. It should be to show penance and to say sorry. To reflect on those emails and on the judgment they reveal.

And even then, I would still say this. She has two daughters who love her. She has grandchildren. She has survived cancer. That is a life. It is more than many of Epstein’s victims can say. Many of them are still living with the psychological harm of what was done to them.

Public life is not something you are owed. You can lose it.

For Sarah Ferguson, and for Prince Andrew too, the idea of a comeback is for the birds. Some things are over. Better to live the life you still have, with your family, and leave the public stage behind.

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Listen to LBC's Shelagh Fogarty from 1-4pm Monday to Friday on the new LBC app.

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