A week before my brush with royalty, I got a text from Donna Weitzman, former mayor of Colleyville. “The big talk among the women going to the luncheon is what to wear, and do they shake hands or curtsy,” she wrote.
The luncheon was technically a High Tea, cucumber sandwiches and mini-desserts in the company of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, but the days leading up to the event were high anxiety in the national mood. A conservative lightning rod assassinated onstage; social media grew dark, fingers pointing in all directions. So I found it rather grounding, if a bit frivolous, to fret over what one wears to meet a duchess, albeit a duchess whose divorce from the royal family became final in the ’90s.
As I rushed to get ready, I kept referring to Donna’s text. What kind of shoes? (Donna suggested closed-toe.) Hat or no hat? (Either was fine.) Curtsying, for the record, would not be required.
It was a mind-scramble that Sarah Ferguson — the original “Fergie,” not to be confused with the Black Eyed Peas singer — was coming to Dallas, though I learned she’d visited many times. In recent decades, her life was defined by charity work, in this case, a fundraiser for her nonprofit Youth Impact Council.
News Roundups
Sarah Ferguson (right) at a 2008 event in Dallas with (from left) Tim Headington, director Martin Scorsese and Oscar-winning producer Graham King .
Carter Rose
I still remembered Fergie as a central figure in one of the great tabloid sagas of the ’80s, a Hampshire girl who wed Prince Andrew in Westminster Abbey. They had two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, but what stayed with me was the scandal; her weight was a common punch line, though the key tension concerned her inability to fit into the stiff garb of the royals.
A generation had passed since that melodrama: Princess Diana killed in a car chase with paparazzi, her son Harry and his American wife, Meghan Markle, trading the cocoon of Buckingham Palace for the Netflix contracts of Southern California, and I won’t even start on Prince Andrew’s narrative arc, which involved an association with Jeffrey Epstein, any mention of which was definitely not etiquette for High Tea.
It was shortly before noon on Friday when I pulled up to a posh white home in Preston Hollow, where 68 well-heeled women gathered inside, waiting for the duchess’ arrival.
Guests chat at a Preston Hollow home hosting a High Tea with Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
The battle of tongs and scones
The home belonged to Nikki Ramji, wife of commercial real-estate investor Tony Ramji and mother of JR Ramji, the 20-year-old entrepreneur behind NextGenX, a generational-wealth enterprise he started with Trammell Crow’s great-grandson Carter. NextGenX was the focus of a breakfast earlier that day whose invite I had to decline, being a busy journalist who can fit only so many fancy events on her Google Calendar.
The living room was taken over by round tables covered in black tablecloths and fine china. Chef Janice Provost of Parigi, renowned for her high tea, had assembled silver carousels of scones and finger sandwiches that beckoned from the center of each table. Champagne flutes floated around on trays, and if none of this sounded ethereal enough, there was a harpist in the corner.
Chef Janice Provost of Parigi provided food for a High Tea with Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
I recognized several women from the Mad Hatter’s gala I’d covered last spring, since many attendees belong to the Women’s Council of the Arboretum: old and young, dressed to the nines or demure, closed-toed and open-toed shoes.
Donna Weitzman greeted me upon entry. The hostess of this event, she wore a turquoise midi-length dress and had the fine bone structure of a former actress or news anchor, but she was the former mayor of Colleyville. She is also a writer, whose novel Twisted Retribution is being made into a movie. She’s married to Herb Weitzman, owner of one of the largest retail real-estate brokerage firms in Texas, but relevant to this report she was quite the social butterfly.
“Lots of people are special,” said Donna’s friend Betty Jean Willbanks, who ran Donna’s mayoral campaigns, as we took our seats. “But Donna is rare.”
Host of High Tea, Donna Weitzman, was once the mayor of Colleyville. She also wrote a book, “Twisted Retribution,” that’s being turned into a movie.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
I was delighted and only slightly panicked to discover I was seated near the duchess, a fact I learned from the cursive name tags at each table. Don’t cuss, I reminded myself, as I smoothed a silky pink napkin in my lap, searching fruitlessly for a place to dispense with my gum.
I’d expected some ritual to announce the arrival of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. A bugle call? The ding-ding of a crystal goblet? But she just suddenly appeared, standing in the center of the room in a stylish mod blouse and dark skirt, the long red hair that has long been her trademark.
“You all look so fabulous,” she said, staring out at the women. “The shoes!” she exclaimed, pointing to a pair of spiky Louboutins worn by a youthful guest. Now in her mid-60s, Fergie was in flats.
“You’re fantastic!” said Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, to a woman in a hat, as she gave a presentation on her charity, Youth Impact Council, at a Preston Hollow home.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
My first impression was that she seemed down-to-earth. Her voice was a low alto, not the snooty pitch of royalty but a just-us-girls vibe that drifted from serious business — she mentioned the Hill Country flood, she gestured to an invention from the Youth Impact Council, a portable desalination machine for developing countries — and the impromptu asides of a woman used to an audience and therefore not that fussy about it.
“Look at you, you’re fantastic!” she said to a woman in a hat, whose gauzy brim sat like a tilted discus on her head.
Our table had determined it was fine to eat as she spoke, since other tables were doing it, so three of us conspired to quietly extract the scones from the middle tier of the carousel with a pair of small silver tongs, a tricky maneuver that was a bit like a game of Operation. The scones kept slipping from the metal grip, so I had to stab one in the side to get it on my plate.
When the duchess finally took her seat at our table, I was charmed to watch her skip the tongs, grabbing a dainty rectangle of egg salad sandwich with one hand, like a normal human who had been given five fingers to do exactly that.
‘You’re unusual’
It was hard to know where to start a conversation with a duchess, even one who seemed quite approachable.
Betty Jean, the doyenne of our table, was the first to give it a try.
“You’re unusual,” she said with great admiration.
“Very!” said Fergie, to laughter.
The purpose of the event was to raise money, so the sipping and nibbling of High Tea was occasionally given over to presentations. New York-based former banker Wendy Chen, who runs the investment program of the Youth Impact Council, told us Dallas was the third fastest-growing start-up market in the country. She was joined by Anna-Grace Millward, a Palo Alto-based entrepreneur and a co-founder of Youth Impact Council. They explained that only a tiny fraction of global capital went to young founders, so the council had been launched in 2024 to accelerate that work.
Nikki Ramji, owner of the Preston Hollow home where a High Tea was held, stands in the center of the room in pink, with the guest of honor, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, standing directly to the left.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
Afterward, Millward sat at our table chitchatting with the duchess, as clusters of private conversations flourished around the room. I found myself in a lonely cul-de-sac, where nobody was talking to me, so I concerned myself with a second scone, smearing a hunk of clotted cream on my plate. “What is clotted cream?” I wondered, as the duchess turned to me and did something remarkable.
“Sarah, Anna is asking me about …” Honestly, I don’t know what Anna was asking her about. I was taken aback: The duchess remembered my name? Well, it was her name, after all, but this was so gracious. She had somehow intuited my social exile and was bringing me into their conversation.
We got to talking about our greatest talent. The duchess considered it important for every woman to know this about herself.
“What’s yours?” I asked. Her blue eyes seemed even bluer in the light streaming through the huge windows, and she braided her gold necklace with one finger.
“Kindness,” she said.
The meaning of royalty
I’ve never understood the vaunted place of the royals, who seem like holdovers from another era. The saga of Diana and Charles became the saga of Harry and Meghan or William and Kate, which were like soap operas for other people. But when the queen died in 2022, I found myself glued to the TV watching the funeral, moved by the ritual of each sacred station and the sight of thousands of strangers lined up to pay tribute.
Sarah Ferguson weds Prince Andrew in London’s Westminster Abbey, July 7, 1986.
PA Wire / AP
I once heard a theory from cultural critic Clive James that America’s obsession with fame comes from our lack of royalty. Humans need to look up to someone, so the American experiment, having dispatched with kings and queens, required turning ordinary people into larger-than-life heroes. Michael Jackson, prince of pop, Elvis Presley, king of rock ’n’ roll. Marilyn Monroe and Madonna were my soap operas as a girl, though I did have a soft spot for Fergie, because she struggled with her weight, as I did, or maybe because she never fit in, just as I did not.
Duchess to the rescue
We got a few more presentations, including one from a pair of recent Southern Methodist University grads who developed a portable desalination machine that could provide clean water to 10 people in developing countries.
“Who doesn’t want kids to drink fresh water?” asked Donna, issuing a challenge to the room. For the record I am very pro-fresh water, but when Donna asked who would be willing to buy one for $599, hands shot up around me, as my fingers fiddled with a scone.
A portable desalination machine, which could provide 10 kids with fresh water, was purchased by several guests at a fundraiser for Sarah Ferguson’s nonprofit, Youth Impact Council. The event was held in the home of Nikki Ramji, wearing pink on the right.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
A young woman born in Sri Lanka gave a presentation for her start-up. She was tall and stunning, with thick raven locks, but she grew a bit shaken, pages trembling in her hands. She lost her place, looking up at the audience helplessly, and that’s when the duchess hopped up and marched over to her, placing an arm around the young woman’s shoulders.
“You’ve got this,” said Fergie, and she did.
The event raised nearly $100,000. It was past 2 p.m. as guests gathered their clutches to leave, and Fergie made the rounds, posing for group pictures. But I swear I caught her hauling off an empty silver carousel to the kitchen, as though, having entertained the guests, she was now going to clean up for them.
I returned to my car and my phone, whose social media channels held so much misery. Left vs. right, old vs. young. The world is a dark place — but for a few hours on Friday, I’d enjoyed the company of a woman trying to bring some light.
High Tea with Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, a fundraiser for Youth Impact Council, on Sept. 12, 2025 in Dallas.
Azul Sordo / Staff Photographer
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