Fergie’s 1972 School Report Resurfaces — and the Description of Her ‘Erratic’ Behavior Is Telling
A newly discovered 1972 school report is spilling the tea on Sarah Ferguson’s youth at the posh Hurst Lodge School.
Long before she became the Duchess of York and entered the royal fold in 1986, Sarah Ferguson was just a normal, outgoing child who completely immersed herself in sports—though this was not the only interesting tidbit about her formative years. A recently unearthed school report from 1972 presents a rather striking glimpse of Ferguson’s youth at the prestigious Hurst Lodge School. While the 12-year-old Fergie wanted to showcase her potential, her teachers were quite honest about her behavior, going as far as to call her ‘erratic’ and ‘anxious to please.’
Although her teachers admitted that the former duchess was enthusiastic about her curriculum, they also called out her people-pleasing tendencies. A report via Daily Mail read, "Enthusiastic and anxious to please... Sarah has not yet learned to channel her energies in the right direction. Both work and behaviour are erratic, and she needs to exercise greater control over both.” While many believe Fergie had passed six O-Level exams, the report suggested she actually only earned two. She received an A in spoken English and a C in art but failed subjects like geography and French. But it seems like Ferguson doesn’t mind her lack of grades.
A source close to her told The Mail on Sunday that she has always been quite vocal about her limited academic background. “She is proud of the fact she started out scrubbing toilets for a living and has ended up as a Sunday Times bestselling author in her 60s,” the insider told the outlet. The former duchess has herself explained that learning was difficult for her because of health reasons. “I had myself evaluated by experts who confirmed I am ADHD and moderately impaired by dyscalculia [difficulty in understanding numbers],” Ferguson wrote in her book Finding Sarah: A Duchess’s Journey to Find Herself.
In 1972, the same year her school grades tanked, Ferguson was going through one of the toughest times of her life. Her mother, Susan, had left the family and moved to Argentina with her lover and professional polo player, Hector Barrantes. Fergie admitted the same in her 1996 book, My Story, Sarah, that the personal turmoil she was facing at the time made it really difficult for her to focus on her studies, writing, “My mind was anywhere but on studies in the summer of 1974.” Royal author Andrew Lownie also touched on this period in his book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, noting that her parents' divorce had a “profound effect on Sarah.”
While Ferguson wasn’t the best student in school, she was a talented athlete and was eventually chosen as Head Girl in 1976. Fergie once even described herself as a leader among her friends. “I was winning netball captain. I was our class ringleader too, gregarious and dramatic with a flair for stirring up mischief,” she wrote in Finding Sarah. At present, however, Ferguson’s life has changed drastically. After losing her Duchess of York styling in October 2025, she is now facing the repercussions of her contentious ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
