By Jenna Clarke
Sarah Ferguson has opened up about her battles with an eating disorder during her marriage to Prince Andrew.
The Duchess of York, 57, who was once regarded as the "The Duchess of Pork" by the British press, revealed how she struggled with an eating addiction and wished for bulimia to cure her.
Britain's Duke and Duchess of York married in 1986 and divorced 10 years later.
Speaking on a podcast with Dr Vijay Murthy, who practises holistic medicine and naturopathy, she canvassed her binge-eating past which took hold during her 10-year marriage to Prince Andrew.
"To wish you could have a mental illness to that level is a very serious place to get to," the reformed "comfort eater" said.
Fergie and Princess Diana on the ski slopes in the 1980s.
"I was a binge-eater. I never could get bulimia because I just didn't have that mental state to go that far, but I always wished I could.
"But that just shows you how dangerous and what place I got to."
She added: "My body and mind was in that place, but I couldn't actually act out to make myself sick. I then grew and grew and grew."
Fergie, who was close friends with her former sister-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales, said her mental health took a beating as she sought motivation to be as "beautiful and thin" as the late princess and the Australian model Elle Macpherson.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and her daughter Princess Beatrice of York attended the Fashion for Relief event during the Cannes Film Festival back in May.Credit: Antony Jones
"I tried, but of course it never went that way," she said.
Like Fergie, Diana suffered in silence from several mental illnesses, including bulimia, during and in the aftermath of her marriage to Prince Charles.
The duchess, a former client of Dr Murthy, said she now hopes to be a "human bridge" for people suffering from disordered eating to get help.
The ever enterprising Fergie, who has been an long-serving ambassador for Weight Watchers and lost 25 kilograms with the program in 2015, now plans to establish a franchise of kindergartens around the world to teach children about healthy eating.
She also hopes to develop a line of nutritional sauces.
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