Natalie Dormer, who plays Sarah Ferguson in an upcoming ITV drama The Lady, slammed the Duchess of York’s ‘inexcusable’ behaviour after emails to Jeffrey Epstein were revealed
Former Game Of Thrones actress Natalie Dormer, who is set to play Sarah Ferguson in an upcoming ITV drama, has now refused to promote the show and will be donating her salary to a charity supporting childhood sexual abuse victims.
Natalie, 43, slammed the Duchess of York’s recently revealed emails to peadophile Jeffrey Epstein as ‘inexcusable’ in a public statement. Natalie is set to play Fergie in upcoming ITV drama The Lady, based on the true story of Jane Andrews, former dresser to Fergie, who was convicted of murder in 2001.
Recently, Fergie was dropped from a string of charities in the wake of a disclosure of an email to peadophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, in which she described him a “supreme friend”.
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Several charities severed ties with the duchess on Monday after it emerged she apologised to the sex offender in April 2011 after publicly disowning him in the media.
Now actress Natalie has also spoken out, as she now refuses to promote the series in light of the recent revelation.
Natalie said: “Since completing the project, new information has come to light that makes it impossible for me to reconcile my values with Sarah Ferguson’s behaviour, which I believe is inexcusable.
“For that reason, I will not be taking part in the promotion of the project. In keeping with my commitment to the wellbeing of children,”
She told The Telegraph: “I have donated my entire salary from this project to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) and the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse.”
Over the past two weeks the Duchess of York has been dropped by a string of charities including Teenage Cancer Trust, Wiltshire and Dorset-based children’s hospice Julia’s House, Prevent Breast Cancer, and The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, while The British Heart Foundation announced Fergie was no longer a serving ambassador to the charity following a 2011 email in which Fergie seemed to apologise to Epstein over her public criticism of him.
Fergie’s friend Lizzy Cundy, later appeared on The Jeremy Vine Show and said her friend is in a “terrible way” and shares deep regrets over her links to Epstein. “I’m afraid, he is a toxic person – even from the grave,” she commented.
While there have been calls for Sarah to be stripped of her Duchess of York title, Cundy believes that the royal should “lay low” and “let this die down”. She said: “This is a shock, but he was so aggressive, so unpleasant, I think if anyone, if you thought your family could get hurt and bring your family down, what would you do?”
“The fact is when she did condemn him, which she did publicly, it got very nasty. He got huge lawyers onto her as well. She thought she was going to be embarrassed, not only her own family but the rest of the Royal Family,” Cundy said when trying to defend her pal.
When MP Dawn Butler asked whether a private email would have been enough to resolve the matter, questioning why Ferguson would be scared of legal action from a convicted sex offender, Cundy mused: “She felt she could calm the situation by trying to appease him. Kind of saying ‘Look, I didn’t actually call you a paedophile,’ I said ‘paedophilia is abhorrent’, that’s what she said, she was trying to calm him and stroke his ego.”
“Sarah is absolutely devastated about losing the charities,” Cundy also shared on the Channel 5 show. “Especially the cancer one, herself had a cancer diagnosis recently, She’s absolutely devastated. She’s a human being, a mother, she’s going through hell.”
In a statement, the Teenage Cancer Trust said: “We have made the decision to end our relationship with the Duchess of York, and as of today she is no longer a patron of Teenage Cancer Trust. We have communicated this decision to the Duchess. We would like to thank the Duchess of York for her support.”
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