Sarah Ferguson was caught out in a News of the World sting this week, offering an undercover reporter posing as a businessman access to her former husband, the Duke of York, who is a trade ambassador for Britain, for £500,000.
Fergie’s PR team quickly issued a statement expressing how ‘regretful’ and ‘devastated’ she was by her actions but is this good enough? It isn’t like she’s not been caught up in a mess of her own making before.
Should we feel sorry for her for being caught out in a “sting”? Afterall, many sided with Lord Triesman in the wake of the Daily Mail’s expose on him for comments he made in his private life. Maybe.
The problem is Triesman hadn’t got previous and wasn’t looking to exploit his private or public position for his own gain. It seems that Sarah Ferguson was and that once again she will have to build up her fragile public persona, which is her career currency, once again.
The Press For Attention Prescription
At least she fronted up – that was probably the smartest PR move she’s made for years – although I wouldn’t suggest there were many other options for her. The problem is that for all of the undeniably good work she does for charity (she was at a charity event in the US accepting an award for her charity work when she offered her contrite response – see pic below) she has a tendency to make these gaffs with relatively alarming regularity and that overshadows all of her more noble other efforts.
The question will again come down to whether this latest expose was in the public interest and I think Fergie will find most people will believe it was this time.
