Sarah Ferguson's changing face: How the Duchess was a 'guinea pig' for new cosmetic treatments

Daily Mail​

a day ago

She is known for living a life of excess and spending extravagantly.
Facing endless media scrutiny, it is little surprise that Sarah Ferguson, now 65, has splurged on cosmetic procedures to keep her looking younger.
Ahead of her 60th birthday in 2019, Sarah Ferguson gave royal observers a rare insight into the work she has had done to maintain her youthful appearance.
And it seems there's more to it than just drinking cranberry juice...
The Duchess was lauded for her healthy glow at Princess Eugenie 's wedding to Jack Brooksbank in 2018, but she later revealed to FEMAIL that her youthful looks were helped by laser treatment.
She told the Daily Mail: 'The happiness was shining out of me because my daughter was getting married. I was so glad. I love Jack. When I'm passionate about anything, my eyes shine.
'Above all, it was being joyful for Eugenie that made me look good. But I'd had some laser treatment on my face which helped, too.'
This comes as the Daily Mail has published extracts of the book called Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, revealing that the Duchess spent £25,000 in just one hour in Bloomingdale's.
The Duchess is pictured in 1986, before she is reported to have had any cosmetic work done
The woman behind the Duchess's treatment was Harley Street doctor Dr Gabriela Mercik.
The Duchess and Dr Gabriela met in 1992 - the same year Sarah separated from Prince Andrew - when she was visiting young cancer victims in Upper Silesia, Poland, and the two have stayed in touch.
'I'm very loyal to my friends,' said the Duchess.
When Dr Gabriela moved into aesthetic medicine and opened her clinic, Sarah became one of her patients.
Dr Gabriela has treated Sarah with her rejuvenating facial procedures every time the Duchess has managed to sit still for long enough.
'I live on jingly-jangly nerves. I'm very focused, earnestly intense, but I live at high speed,' said Sarah.
'I don't sit down for long. I'm always saying to Dr Gabriela: 'Come on, come on! Hurry up!' I'm the worst patient.'
So it's just as well her 'ultimate laser facelift', as it's called, is a quick treatment which can be accomplished in a lunch hour.
The facelift, which purports to promote the skin's natural production of youth-restoring collagen, is said to continue to work as the weeks pass.
The Duchess much prefers it to Botox, the botulinum toxin injections that relax the muscles in your face to smooth out lines and wrinkles.
'I had Botox a long time ago when there was nothing else available,' said the Duchess.
'But it's passé now,' said Dr Gabriela.
'Now we have different treatments we can use instead. Toxins are always toxins, so I've looked for alternatives. I only use Botox if a patient specifically asks for it, and I try to explain what would be better.'
'I really don't like the frozen look,' said Sarah.
'I'm so animated and I like to be myself. I don't like the thought of needles and am very glad if I look well and happy.'
The Duchess also uses Dr Gabriela's skincare range of serums and unguents.
'Her serum (Aesthetic Magic Facelift Serum) is great for healing cold sores. Incredible,' said Sarah.
The Duchess of York is pictured cradling a baby at St Thomas's Hospital in London on January 14, 1992
'I've been her guinea pig with new treatments, too. I'm really happy to be open about what I've had done.'
Sarah began having mesotherapy - an injection of vitamins, minerals and amino acids under the face's mesodermal layer to plump skin - in 2013, then moved onto organic fillers, non-invasive injectables that fill out facial lines.
Then Dr Gabriela proposed a thread lift. Also called 'a puppet lift', this involves no knives. Instead, medical threads are inserted into the skin to create a supportive mesh that pulls the face upwards.
The threads dissolve over six to eight months, but the results should last for two years.
Dr Gabriela was one of the first to introduce the thread lift to the UK in 2013 and travels around the world teaching the procedure.
'It's like garden trellising for sweet peas. You insert the threads under the skin with a fine needle and they hold everything up,' says Sarah.
'They also encourage collagen production. It takes a couple of months, then the sweet peas bloom!' she said.
'Before I had it done I thought, 'Oh this is going to be painful,' but it wasn't bad.
'My skin responded well. I think if you look at photos of me after I had it done, I look much better.'
'We inserted nano peptides (synthetic growth factors) under the skin which, with the synthetic threads, stimulate collagen production,' explained Dr Gabriela.
'But now we've swapped the threads for laser because it's non-invasive.'
Sarah said at the time that she hoped the laser treatment would help her look her best for her 60th birthday.
Dr Gabriela said a multitude of factors determine how long treatments last and how many are necessary.
'If you're aged 40 to 50, you might need two or three to get optimum results. Other factors come into play: lifestyle, smoking, environment, the colour of your skin, whether you dance all night … The Duchess is a challenge because redheads have more sensitive skin.'
Prices for the 6D laser lift start at £3,750. Sarah has and does pay for treatments at Dr Gabriela's discretion, given that they have become friends.
The Duchess admitted that her fine, fair skin was exposed to far too much sunshine when she was a child.
'When I was little, my mother thought Nivea moisturiser was sunscreen. Of course it wasn't. So that's where the damage began.
'My father, Major Ronald Ferguson, who died in 2003, had melanoma skin cancer, and my best friend, Carolyn Cotterell, also died of a malignant melanoma. She was 43.
'It made me realise you have to look after your skin just as much as your other organs. It isn't just about aesthetics. We have to think about our skin health.
'That's why I don't go in the sun now. The tan I have is out of a bottle. Fake.
'I need to repair the damage that was done on the beach when I was a child.
'It's why I had the mesotherapy, the vitamin cocktail to hydrate and boost the skin.
'I've started the laser treatment, but it's not finished yet. The collagen needs to rebuild.'
It seems that, like many women in the modern world, Fergie has turned to cosmetic treatments to trim a few years off her appearance. She is pictured in 2024
It seems that, like many women in the modern world, Fergie has turned to cosmetic treatments to trim a few years off her appearance.
In recent years, Sarah has undergone treatment for early-stage breast cancer and malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer, discovered during reconstructive surgery following her breast cancer treatment.
After taking time away from the spotlight to recover, she appeared confident and composed at her recent appearance at Royal Ascot, her signature warmth and humour firmly intact.