Ferguson was cagey when it came to the numbers. She told Winfrey that she had an idea of what she owed, but would say only that she was "substantially" in debt. And "I haven't counted it up because I've been so grief stricken," she said.
When Winfrey pushed for a ballpark figure, Ferguson said, "I think I've got an uphill battle. I must look at bankruptcy."
Ferguson owed some of her financial problems to attempting to live like the duchess of York, without the accompanying royal bank account. She also tried to make connections between her history of problems with over-eating, to her trouble with over-spending, and she repeatedly referred to herself as out-of-control, and struggling with deep-seated feelings of self-hatred.
"All of these issues are now to be really looked at," she said, later adding, "It's almost like I freed Sarah from the treadmill of her life."