US work paid my girls' school fees, says Fergie

THE DUCHESS OF YORK claims that her daughters' education would have suffered without her American earnings.

Prince Andrew's allowance after their divorce was too "meagre" to cover the schooling of Princesses Beatrice, 10, and Eugenie, nine, she said.

"If I hadn't gone to work, where would we be?" she said in an interview with the US magazine, Parade.

"How else could my daughters go to very good schools or afford holidays?"

The Duchess is a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, promotes Wedgwood pottery and is a special correspondent for the Today TV show in the USA.

She expressed deep gratitude to Americans for allowing her to recover both financially and emotionally.

"I'd lost everything. I was virtually bankrupt. I felt so worthless. I couldn't get out of bed," she said.

"I will always be profoundly grateful to the American people for giving me a second chance. America gave my children back their mother."

She was aware how she was still scorned by "the British establishment and press" as a "closet American", she said. But rather than being offended by the label she says she wears it as a badge of honour. "I'm free here," she said. "I don't have to prove anything. I don't have to pretend.

"I'm just able to be me, which is the most difficult thing of all.

"For years, the real Sarah was hidden in a dark shell. I'm just beginning to find out who she is."

Despite conquering many of her fears in America, she still finds returning to Britain a daunting experience.

"I'm free from anxiety, but I'm still insecure and over sensitive," she said.

"When I go back to Britain, I feel all that negativity coming at me, and it's sad for my girls to see people putting Mummy down.

Yes, I mind. I desperately mind."

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