Cheers for slimline Duchess

Press, 27 November 1986, Page 6

Cheers for slimline Duchess

By

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London

A slimline Duchess of York drew spontaneous applause at a Royal variety performance in London, thanks to her new diet and, possibly, hypnosis. Headlines in the “Daily Mirror” newspaper claimed “Fergie” has lost a full 9.5 kg through a hypnotist’s talking her out of fattening meals. The rival “Sun” newspaper maintained “Fruity Fergie” had shed 5.5 kg in a month by keeping to a diet of lean meat and fruit juice. Whatever the claims of the equally unreliable tabloids, the audience and television viewers were left in no doubt that there was considerably less of the formerly well rounded

Duchess on display than when she married Prince Andrew four months ago.

The “Sun” reckons she is now a trim 59kg. The unusually coy “Mirror” does not predict her w’eight, but says the Duchess is now a “stunning” size 12. As well as hour-long sessions of hypnosis, says the “Mirror.” “Fergie” has been pummelled on the massage table three times a week to sort out “her problem areas” of thighs and bottom. In just a month, she lost scm off each thigh and 7.5 cm from her waist. “Now the Duchess, who was nicknamed ‘Seconds’ at school because she always had second helpings of food, looks like a new woman," the “Mirror” says. The “Mirror” claims

“Fergie” fought the flab at the Alternative and Orthodox Medicine Clinic in London, which is said to list Bianca Jagger and a former sex queen, Fiona Richmond, among its clients.

The massage sessions cost her £595 ($1636) and the hypnosis an extra £35 ($96) an hour, it says.

“Think thin” was the message allegedly given by the hypnotist. He even gave her “homework” — a hypnosis tape to listen to at Buckingham Palace.

Her diet is now one of meat, fish, eggs and oranges, according to the "Mirror’s” "exclusive” story. The “Sun” says it “mainly” involves lean meats such as turkey, chicken, rabbit and fish, with oranges, tangerines and plenty of unsweetened fruit juice.

Fleet Street loves what the diet has done to “Fergie’s” figure. Enthuses the woman’s editor of the “Mirror,” Christina Appleyard:

“Unlike Princess Diana, she hasn’t made the mistake of losing too much too quickly. She still looks well rounded but a bit more streamlined.

"The weight that’s gone from her face shows off her lovely bone structure and opens up those big eyes a bit more. Those famous flabby hips now look deliciously curvy in a straight pencil skirt, whereas before she would have bulged.” Although her husband is said to be "delighted” with his trimmed-down wife, Buckingham Palace has the usual comment to make on the newspaper stories — none.