Sarah, Duchess of York, has mastectomy for breast cancer, urges screening

“Tomorrow I’m going in for a mastectomy,” she said in the interview the day before her surgery. “I want every single person who is listening to this podcast to go get checked, go get screened, and go do it.”

Despite her initial reluctance to get checked, Ferguson said her preparation for the surgery has changed her outlook on life.

“I’m taking this as a real gift to … change my life,” she said. “I’m going to get super fit, super strong … and look at it straight on.”

After her operation, she showed a good prognosis and was released from the hospital on Sunday to recuperate at home in Windsor, her spokesperson told the Associated Press.

She underwent the procedure at King Edward VII’s Hospital, a private clinic in central London that has regularly treated senior royals, including the late Queen Elizabeth II.

The duchess, a patron of Teenage Cancer Trust, was largely “symptom free” before the diagnosis and believes “her experience underlines the importance of regular screening,” the spokesperson told AP.

Sarah, who divorced Prince Andrew — King Charles III’s younger brother — in 1996 after a 10-year marriage, has been a favorite target of Britain’s tabloids. They had two daughters, 34-year-old Princess Beatrice and 33-year-old Princess Eugenie, and three grandchildren. (They are also the caretakers of Queen Elizabeth II’s famous corgis.) After the split, she launched a career as an author, penning more than 20 books, including two best-selling memoirs.

As a regular TV show guest and now a podcast host, she is described as relaxed and approachable and often shares her self-deprecating take at life, including the disappointments over not being invited to the Coronation and other royal events. She was close friends with Princess Diana and, in a recent episode on her podcast, talked about the friendship, their loneliness and a shared sense of being outcasts.