Sarah Ferguson is the proud caretaker of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s beloved corgis.
“I have seven dogs and two of them are corgis [and] five of them are Norfolk terriers. They’re all doing very well,” the Duchess of York, 64, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, May 1, at the Global Citizen Prize Awards in New York City. “They’re all very lovely and very, very loved!”
Ferguson, who was previously married to Elizabeth’s son Prince Andrew, has five pups of her own. After the queen died in September 2022, Ferguson took in the monarch’s corgis, Muick and Sandy, with her canines looking after them.
“They do all get on with each other,” Ferguson gushed to Us, detailing how she takes care of the animals. “It’s quite a lot of work, but it’s work I love. I have many dog people around me who also love them and love to take care of them, so I can share and I do share.”
Elizabeth, who died at the age of 96, owned many corgis in her lifetime. Muick and Sandy, specifically, had been gifted by Ferguson and Andrew, 64. (Following Ferguson and Andrew’s 1996 divorce, they continued to coparent daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, as well as cohabitate at the Royal Lodge in Windsor.)
Ferguson has frequently spoken out about the honor of taking in the queen’s pets.
“They can sense the late Queen’s presence at Royal Lodge, Windsor,” Ferguson told the U.K.’s Express in April 2023. “It makes me think Queen Elizabeth is passing by and laughing. I’m not being weird. … At night they like their own space. I respect that they probably do miss her. I miss her too.”
In addition to taking care of the royal dogs, Ferguson remains passionate about philanthropy — further showing off that passion at Wednesday’s awards ceremony.
“It came from my grandmother in 1992,” the duchess told Us. “She said, ‘When you feel bad about yourself, give to others.’ So I went, took myself to the most polluted area in Poland in 1992 … and when I got there I realized it’s the most polluted area [in] Europe. I took the children out of the polluted area and 28 days of clean air gave [them] two years of life. So, I saw firsthand how you can make change.”
Ferguson continued, “[Those children] take many steps. They don’t get overwhelmed. They don’t think it’s so big, they can’t talk about it. They just go, ‘OK, what if we do something to help?’ At least we are doing something. Don’t get overwhelmed because otherwise you get frightened and then you give up.”
With reporting by Travis Cronin
