Fergie's blinding love

Nov 16, 2007, 12:30 GMT

The Duchess of York has spoken of how love blinded her to the public pressures of becoming a royal.

Sarah Ferguson - who married Britain's Prince Andrew in 1986 only to divorce 10 year later - has said she did not consider the responsibility of becoming a public figure.

'Fergie', 48, said: "I loved my Prince. I loved my boy so much that nothing was going to stop me walking down that aisle.

"If it meant putting up with the glare of the publicity then I wanted to do it, because I felt that he was worth it - I still think he was worth it.

"It took me a while to get used to it. It's a huge public stage, you have to have that sense of duty.

"I don't think I understood. I went in blindly with love."

The duchess - who is to mother Princess' Beatrice, 19 and Eugenie, 17 - made the comments after launching her new children's books in London.

She issued them as a warning to the girlfriends of Princes William and Harry, Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy.

It emerged this week that Chelsy and Harry have split amid rumours the Zimbabwean blonde told her prince she did not want the pressure of being a royal girlfriend.

Kate and William briefly split earlier this year, allegedly because Kate was unhappy with being in the spotlight.

(C) BANG Media International