The devil — and booze — made her do it.
When Sarah Ferguson asked an undercover reporter for more than $700,000 in exchange for access to ex Prince Andrew — the chat was caught on tape — she was in dire straits indeed.
But has she seen the incriminating tape?
"I haven't faced the devil in the face, because I was in the gutter at the moment," the Duchess of York, 50, admits on the Oprah Winfrey Show in an episode airing Tuesday.
"I''m aware of the fact that I've been drinking, you know, that I was not in the right place."
Insiders close to the British "Fergie" tell Us Weekly that they weren't surprised by her bold, reckless act. "She's totally broke," one source insists. "Her desperation led to the lack of judgment."
The source adds that the mother of Beatrice, 21, and Eugenie, 20, is "a shopaholic, obsessed with designers like Chanel and Hermes…she didn't know how to stop living like a royal."
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Her next step? "She wants to start fresh in America."
Fergie has even expressed interest in participating in the next Dancing with the Stars.
Tell Us: should Fergie be on the next DWTS?