Associated Press

In this photograph provided by Harpo Productions, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey interviews Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, during taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

The Duchess of York has given an emotional television interview in which she blames her abusive parents for her fragile emotional state.

Sarah Ferguson says her late mother, Susan Barrantes, would frequently beat her because she claimed a small mark on her forehead was “the sign of the devil”.

And she describes her late father, Major Ron Ferguson, as a tough military man who never showed love or affection and sold his daughter’s beloved pony after his marriage broke down.

The Duke of York’s former wife says she was left psychologically damaged by her childhood, and also reveals for the first time how her apparent rejection by the Royal Family following a string of gaffes has hurt deeply.

While her daughters, Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice, spend every Christmas with their father and the rest of the Windsors at Sandringham, the QueenÕs Norfolk mansion, the Duchess either stays alone in a cottage on the edge of the estate or travels abroad.

“I haven’t spent a Christmas with my children for 12 years. But that’s okay,” she tells her interviewer, before thinking again and adding: “It’s not okay, but what else can I do? I hate it. It’s horrible to feel so ostracised from the family. I adored my mother-in-law.”

The Duchess makes the revelations in her new six-part reality show Finding Sarah, made for the Oprah Winfrey Network in the U.S. She is reportedly being paid £200,000 for the series, which will be shown in America from Sunday.

She agreed to open her heart on television after coming close to bankruptcy last year following a string of failed business deals.

She then suffered a major public humiliation after being exposed by a tabloid newspaper demanding £500,000 to arrange a business meeting with her ex-husband, who works as a British trade ambassador.

Her interviewers, American TV psychiatrist Dr Phil McGraw and finance expert Suze Orman, give her a relatively easy ride Ð and there is no mention of how her marriage to Prince Andrew was wrecked by her affair with businessman John Bryan, who was famously pictured sucking her toes in the south of France in 1992.

But the Duchess explains for the first time how her childhood experiences left her feeling “worthless”.

She reveals how her mother came from a family that never showed emotion or expressed love and would beat her as a toddler.

“When she used to hit me because I didn’t sit on my potty or wouldn’t eat, a little vein would come up on the centre of my head near my red hair,” she recalled.

Her mother called it the “sign of the devil” and would attempt to rid her of it, shouting: “I’m going to beat that devil out!”

When Dr McGraw points out the treatment could be classed as abuse, she laughs nervously and adds: “It’s just the way I was brought up. No wonder I’m so flawed.”

The Duchess goes on to blame herself for the break-up of her parents’ marriage in 1972, when Susan left her family to move to Argentina with professional polo player Hector Barrantes.

She married Barrantes in 1975 and the couple were inseparable until his death from cancer in 1990. Susan died in a car accident in 1998.

Sarah says: “My mum left me when I was 12 and ran off with an Argentine polo player. As soon as she left I remember going with my pony to the sweet shop, buying sweets and sitting with the pony eating sweets. Then Dad sold the pony.

“I believed I caused my mother to leave and therefore I am worthless and unlovable.”

Her father, former Guards officer Major Ron, endured a long battle with cancer and died in 2003 of a heart attack.

Asked about him, the Duchess wipes her eyes with a pink handkerchief and sobs: “Dad, who was a tough military man, said, ÒYou need to get rid of all your ponies because there’s no one here to look after them... your mum has gone.”

“Every time I got upset he would call me a sheep’s ass and tell me I looked like a clown and to grow up and stop being so silly. So I did. I shut up and never said a word.

“I cried every night, all the time. I was inconsolable.”

Asked about her relationship with the Royal Family, Sarah admits she “keeps away”. She was not invited to Prince William’s wedding to Kate Middleton last month, despite having had a close friendship with his late mother.

She still shares her ex-husband’s mansion in Windsor and describes him as “a great man”, but insists she was never suited to being a member of the royal family.

“Being married into the Royal Family, you have to be perfect in every way to be a princess,” she said.

“I went to Buckingham Palace and lived on the second floor, but two weeks after we got married Andrew was sent to sea. I saw him 40 days a year for the first five years. So I had to learn how to be a princess.

“It sounds fantastic, but is terrifying... You have so many restrictions and rules.” - Daily Mail