While Natalie Dormer plays Sarah Ferguson in ITV and Britbox’s The Lady, the actress has opted against any type of promotional activity after Ferguson’s correspondence to the late Jeffrey Epstein has come to light.
“When I agreed to take the role in The Lady, I knew portraying the script’s Sarah Ferguson would require nuance,” Dormer, 43, told Variety in a Friday, September 26, statement. “People are layered, their journeys are full of highs and lows, and as an actor, my job is to lean into those elements and bring them to life with honesty and empathy.”
She continued, “Since completing the project, new information has come to light that makes it impossible for me to reconcile my values with Sarah Ferguson’s behavior, which I believe is inexcusable. For that reason, I will not be taking part in the promotion of the project.”
Dormer further pledged to donate her “entire salary” from The Lady, a miniseries about former royal dresser Jane Andrews, who was later convicted of murder, to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood and the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse.
Sarah Ferguson has addressed her email correspondence with late billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. An email sent by Ferguson, 65, to Epstein in 2011 was recently resurfaced by several U.K. outlets. A spokesperson for the Duchess of York claimed in a statement to the Daily Mail on Sunday, September 21, that the correspondence was “sent […]
Emails between Ferguson, 65, and Epstein were recently resurfaced by several U.K. news outlets, in which the Duchess of York reportedly called the late disgraced financier a “supreme friend” and denied referring to him as “the P word” in a March 2011 interview, referring to the word pedophile. The interview was published weeks before her email was sent.
Ferguson also claimed that she didn’t want to “cause more problems” for her ex-husband, Prince Andrew. The Duke of York, 65, had been stripped of his royal title in 2022 following his own alleged ties to Epstein. (Epstein was arrested in 2019 for sex trafficking of minors, and he died by suicide at age 66 while in detention.)
A spokesperson for Ferguson said her email was sent to counter an alleged threat that Epstein made to sue her for defamation.
“The duchess spoke of her regret about her association with Epstein many years ago, and as they have always been, her first thoughts are with his victims. Like many people, she was taken in by his lies,” Ferguson’s rep told the BBC in a statement earlier this month. “As soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations against him, she not only cut off contact but condemned him publicly, to the extent that he then threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with pedophilia.”
Between Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s four children, Prince Andrew has perhaps experienced the most extreme highs and lows. Andrew is the subject of Andrew Lownie’s 2025 book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, which the BBC reported at the time as “an unrelentingly unflattering portrait” of the royal and “depicts […]
The spokesperson added, “She does not resile from anything she said then. This email was sent in the context of advice the Duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats.”
In light of the scandal, Ferguson has also been dropped from her patronages with nonprofits Julia’s House, Teenage Cancer Trust, the Children’s Literacy Charity and the British Heart Foundation.
As for Dormer, she made it clear that her decision to distance herself from The Lady was “not a reflection” of her experience with production company Left Bank.
“They are an extraordinary company to collaborate with and I’m grateful for the time we spent together,” Dormer added to Variety.
