Sarah Ferguson recalls how she was meant to be in Twin Towers on 9/11 but was running late
12 September 2023, 13:28
Sarah Ferguson has revealed she should have been in New York's Twin Towers the day it was hit by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
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The Duchess of York had an office on the 101st floor of the North Tower for her charity Chances for Children and was actually making her way to the World Trade Center but was behind schedule, after an interview had run late.
Sarah took to Instagram Stories to discuss how she should have been in the New York building at the time of the attacks, and to pay tribute to those who had lost their lives.
In the first of three stories, she shared a photograph of firefighters in the rubble. Sitting in the rubble a small doll can be seen - that is the Little Red Doll, the mascot for Sarah's charity.
Superimposed on the image, text read: "My charity Chances for Children was located on the World Trade Centre N Tower.
"I was meant to be there that morning 22 years ago but an interview ran late. The Little Red doll, the charity's mascot, was found in the rubble. Today I am thinking of those who lost their lives."
A second story featured a photograph of the doll, alongside the words: "The original Little Red is in the Ground Zero museum. We remember today & always. I want to send the families love and strength."
Sarah has previously spoken out about how close she was to being in the building when it was struck by planes.
Speaking in 2018 to Hello!, she said: "I take every minute as a blessing, I really do, and I really work hard at it. 'Because the minute you look too far forward, then you're missing now. The minute you look back,... you can't go back. Hindsight is a wonderful thing"
After the collapse of the Twin Towers, the charity's mascot Little Red was found among the rubble by photographers and was initially mistaken for a child's doll.
A decade after the terror attack Sarah pitched an idea for a children's book based around the atrocity which was rejected by publishers who feared Americans would find it offensive.
The Duchess of York, 51, sent publishers an outline of the 32-page book, The Little Pear Tree, in 2011 following the story of a tree that survived the attack.
She told them she intended to present a copy to President Barack Obama at the opening of the Ground Zero Museum in New York in September that year.
But a source said at the time: "The Duchess got her people to contact at least three publishers but none showed any interest because the Americans regard works of fiction about 9/11 as insulting."
