Fergie recalls her 'proudest moment' from daughter Eugenie's wedding

One happy mother of the bride! Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson looked back on her daughter Princess Eugenie’s wedding and reflected on missing her friend, the late Princess Diana, at the nuptials.

“My proudest moment was watching Eugenie standing tall, very proud to show her scoliosis scar in her low-backed dress,” the Duchess of York, 59, told The Daily Mail in a rare interview, published on Friday, November 9. “I’d gone to all the fittings and sat there beaming with delight, and because there was no veil it was a very strong statement.”

She continued: “We rang St George’s Chapel to make sure there wasn’t a special rule specifying veils must be worn, but there wasn’t and Eugenie just wanted to be herself. … The tiara danced to her. She was just so radiant. She said, ‘Mum, I thought I was going to get nerves,’ but she didn’t.”

Eugenie, 28, wore bespoke Peter Pilotto when she and Jack Brooksbank tied the knot at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in the U.K. on October 12. The dress displayed the bride’s scar from a previous surgery she underwent for scoliosis.

Ferguson also noted missing her former sister-in-law Princess Diana’s presence at the wedding. “I thought of absent friends and family; of Diana — but she’s with me all the time,” she said. “What I miss most is her tinkling laughter.”

She added: “Diana was my best friend and the funniest person I knew. She had such timing and wit. It was a total joy to be with her because we just laughed and enjoyed life so much, and I know she would have loved the wedding.”

Diana died in August 1997 at age 36 after being involved in a car accident. However, her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, and their respective families — including their wives, Duchess Kate and Duchess Meghan — were on hand for their cousin Eugenie’s celebration. William and Kate’s eldest children, Prince George, 5, and Princess Charlotte, 3, even served as a pageboy and a bridesmaid in the wedding party.

Ferguson made headlines in October when she breathed a noticeable sigh of relief at the royal event. The Finding Sarah author and ex-husband Prince Andrew — they divorced in May 1996 — also share daughter Princess Beatrice, 30.