Why won't people take Fergie seriously?
Ask Eric, her ghost

Duchess too dotty for council estate shows says TV boss

By Guy Basnett & Douglas Wight

THE flab-fighting Duchess of York knows who to turn to when life weighs her down... the ghost of a dead monk called ERIC who looks like Friar Tuck.

Former royal Fergie speaks to a psychic EVERY DAY—and through her gets guidance from the saintly spectre whenever she has to make big decisions, we can reveal.

Like just what to do when one is facing the prospect of having to live with an overweight council estate family for one's upcoming new ITV show.

HAS FERGIE LOST THE PLOT? HAVE YOUR SAY HERE

The startling answer? Ask if you can take your own BEDSHEETS and your personal TOP CHEF along so you don't have to eat their horrid CHIPS.

Fergie's wacky world is laid bare by the producer who dreamed up the idea for the series Duchess In Hull in which the posh redhead tries to transform working class eating habits.

Sam Brick also reveals how Fergie is so insecure she still obsesses over a 2001 joke survey that stated 82 per cent of men would rather sleep with a GOAT than her.

"It's sad. She's desperate to be a success and to be taken seriously—but her world is completely bizarre," says former BBC, ITV1 and Channel 4 producer Sam. "You have to actually experience it to really know what it's like."

But most bizarre is the existence of Eric the ancient monk. Fergie gets in touch with him through celebrity psychic Mia Dolan.

Sam, 37, says: "He's Mia's spiritual guide— and is a bit like Friar Tuck. He tells Mia how to advise people.

"She first heard his voice when he came to say her toast was burning. That's when she first realised she was psychic. Sarah seeks regular guidance and converses with Mia daily —but Mia never says what about.

"She's even taken her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie to meet her psychic. Sarah completely believes in her powers."

Sam-one time head of entertainment programming at Sky One—felt the full force of Fergie's eccentric approach to life after being introduced to her by their mutual pal Mia, 49.

Sam had been executive producer on the psychic's series Haunted Homes which has appeared on ITV. "Sarah had seen what a success I had made out of Mia and wanted me to do the same for her," she says.

So Sam pitched an idea for a series in which the 48-year-old Duchess would live with a fat family on benefits and help them overcome their obesity.

Sheets

But worrying problems soon began to emerge. At a meeting about the prospective series at London's luxury Berkeley Hotel, Fergie began asking questions about the council family.

"She said, ‘I won't have to eat what they eat, will I? and then she added, ‘Can I bring my own sheets?'," recalls Sam.

"That was her first concern. I would be offended if someone said that about living with me."

Then there were her ideas about who should do the healthy cooking for the estate household. Fergie asked if her personal chef, or swanky London restaurant Cipriani, could do it.

Sam goes on: "The idea was to change the eating habits of everyone in the council estate—but she wanted her personal chef to teach them to make soup. I had to ween her away from it.

"She wanted to be another Jamie Oliver. Because she's had a weight problem she feels qualified to talk about it.

"I think she would have preferred the series to be nearer her home in Berkshire. We had to mention that to her that obesity wasn't so much of a problem in Berkshire." Sam eventually quit working with Fergie in 2007 over her concerns. But the project has since gone ahead with another production firm, and will be shown on ITV1 this summer—with Fergie staying in a B&B rather than with the family in Hull.

Show insiders have claimed this is because the family didn't have a spare room. But Sam says: "Sarah really didn't like the idea of staying in a council house. I wasn‘t involved in the final decisions, but I can confidently predict that she didn't want to stay with the family.

"She's just so occupied with her weight, it was the idea of having to eat with another family, and not being able to control what the food was.

"Her biggest fear was eating chips and fried foods. She said she just didn't want to do that. The idea was to see what the family ate—before and after Sarah was there. Ideally, for the show, it would have been a family eating pizza, and hamburgers and chips.

"She was supposed to be living with them, doing what they did, drinking fizzy pop if they were, rather than drinking expensive Lapsang souchong tea.

"It's a very different world for her. She was very nervous about it all."

But Sam claims Fergie was determined to do it because she is still desperate to be taken back into the public's hearts after her divorce from Prince Andrew in 1996.

Once dubbed the Duchess of Pork, she has been US spokesman for slimming group Weight Watchers and sees herself as a British Oprah Winfrey, says Sam.

The TV executive says that in the two years she dealt with the former royal she never saw her eat. "It now seems a bit weird. We met quite a lot, with food around — cakes, and scones and sandwiches. But she never ate with me."

Sam believes Fergie's hang-ups with food stem from issues with her mum Susan Barrantes, who walked out on her family when Sarah was 13.

She smiles: "There's still that very nervous insecure teenager there, whose world fell apart when her mummy left.

"She would get very upset talking about her own experience of putting on weight as a teenager and being enormous. If someone doesn't like her she will think it's because of her weight."

Sam revealed Fergie still worries every day about the survey that said more men would rather bed a goat than her.

"She's never forgotten the headlines. That really scarred her deeply—it still hurts her. I've seen her do Weight Watchers conventions in the States and she says it every time and every time you can see her eyes filling up because she gets very emotional talking about it."

But Sam believes one of the main driving forces behind her desire to do the TV show has also been money.

She says: "If it goes badly it will really mess up her plans. If it doesn't succeed she will be devastated.

"She is desperate for a TV hit. Cash flow is always a problem for her. She had about 25 people on the payroll and she's got to somehow pay for her lifestyle.

Lonely

"When I was working for her she was spending around £30,000 a month. Mia told me that. I think it goes mostly on the staff.

"She probably has about five paid staff in the States and the UK. She travels everywhere by British Airways first class. Then she has her personal trainer, and at one point she had her own chef."

Despite her vast staff, Sam revealed Fergie cuts a lonely figure at her Berkshire home of Sunninghill Park—the sprawling home she used to share with Prince Andrew.

"She uses a room for her office, a living room and a bedroom. The rest were just empty—nothing like furniture in there."

Now Sam is awaiting the birth of her TV idea for Fergie with bated breath. But she believes she SHOULD have lived with the family.

She says: "It's difficult for her to be taken seriously. And she's missed an opportunity to get a sense of what it really is like for people living like that.

"I think her intentions are good, but when it comes to the practicalities of it, things are different."

Maybe, as spooky Eric might say, she needs to enter more into the spirit of it!