Sarah Ferguson Had a 'Wake-Up Call' After Princess Diana's Untimely 1997 Death: 'Are You Just Going to Waste Your Life?'

Sarah Ferguson weathered many storms during her life as an ex-member of the royal family once she divorced ex-Prince Andrew in 1996.

In a resurfaced interview the former Duchess of York, 66, gave to The Observer, she detailed being hit with a "wake-up call" following the death of good friend and sister-in-law Princess Diana in 1997.

While on a trip to Sierra Leone for her charity, Children in Crisis, Ferguson told the publication back in 2002 how she underwent a "remarkable transformation" of her public image after her split.

"I did think then: 'Are you going to waste your life and just eat yourself silly, Sarah, or are you going to wake up?'" she recalled thinking after the Princess of Wales died in fiery car crash in Paris.

She further opened up about her eating disorder and how low her self-esteem was when the tabloids branded her as "Duchess of Pork" and "Fat Fergie."

"It took my opinion of myself to absolutely nothing, a piece of dirt. And maybe I had to reach that point to start to put myself back together," the former Weight Watchers spokeswoman confessed, adding her eating issues began when she was 12.

The 1999 death of her friend Carolyn Cotterell from cancer at the young age of 43 also affected Ferguson. The two even shared a London apartment together when they were both carefree single women.

During her interview, the children's book author recounted Cotterell giving her a little statuette of the Virgin Mary on her death bed.

"She took the Blessed Lady and she handed it to me and she said: 'Your need is greater than mine, Fergie.' And since she has gone I have taken the statuette everywhere. It has been awful without her," Ferguson remembered.

As for Ferguson's friendship with Diana, the pair were childhood pals who met through their mothers and were inseparable by the time they reached their teenage years.

While they remained close for decades, Lady Di reportedly fell out with Ferguson after she assumed the ex-duchess was "selling stories" to the press. Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams told Fox News earlier this month about how Ferguson's 1996 memoir, My Story, allegedly shattered Diana.

Ferguson reportedly apologized profusely for penning the book and denied she was feeding the media stories about the royals.

"She was angered by mentions of her sons [Prince Harry and Prince William] in the book," Fitzwilliams said. "If [Diana] had wanted to renew their friendship, she would have."