Sarah Ferguson has opened up about her fight against cancer and how it has helped shift her focus towards living a healthier life.
The former wife of Prince Andrew is currently in Australia on a book tour and comes just a couple of weeks after King Charles and Queen Camilla visited the country.
In the interview with the Daily Telegraph on Sunday, The Duchess of York was candid about her own struggles.
Sarah revealed how her cancer diagnosis last year was the final wake-up call to help her to reprioritise her life and focus on what was really important.
Ferguson suffered an early form of breast cancer which was detected during a routine mammogram.
Her subsequent surgery was the ultimate wake-up to her years-long addiction to food and “took me being literally carved up to cut away the addictions”.
She said: “My melanoma scars, the scars of my cancer, it took me being literally carved up to cut away the addictions of self-doubt and self-judgment that I have lived with since the age of 11.’
“Don’t wait to be cut open in order to cut away the addiction. My addiction was my addiction to food.
“So I ate to compensate for my feeling. It started at 11, my whole world was food, and my life was in the corner on the bottom right-hand side.”
The Royal Family member only discovered the cancer scare after her “bossy” sister insisted she attend a mammogram.
According to The Society of Breast Imaging, women with an average risk of breast cancer should get annual mammograms at age 40.
It was during this routine mammogram that a malignant melanoma was discovered.
The Duchess of York was later diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer in the summer and underwent reconstruction surgery in June.
The Duchess further explained: “I ate to compensate for my feeling. It started at 11, my whole world was food, and my life was in the corner on the bottom right-hand side.
“When I got cancer I put my life back in the middle and food back in its rightful place, not intentionally.
“At 65, I’m now free of the shackles of unworthiness and self-doubt.”
