As best I can tell from repeated playbacks, Ryan Seacrest greeted her with, “Hello, your highness,” but the applause was too loud to hear it clearly. After she sat down, he asked her, “What is the proper royal greeting?” She said, “Oh, Sarah. Or hey you.” Was she being coy? Is she a humble highness, or did Ryan possibly screw up? The reason I wonder is that I figured her title would be stripped since Diana’s was, and the Queen couldn’t be seen favoring Sarah over Diana.
IIRC The correct way to address a dutchess is “Your Grace”
From what i can find from some googling, Fergie retains the title of Duchess of York, but did have to surrender the right to be called Her Royal Highness.
A Duchess is referred to as Her Grace generally, but because the Duke of York is the title give to the Monarch’s second oldest son, he continues to be addressed as His Royal Highness, meaning that his wife would be Her Royal Highness.
“Your Grace” would definitely be right for a non-royal dutchess. However, for a royal dutchess, I think we’d have to check Whitaker’s or something to see whether she is entitled to the “HRH.” When she was married to Prince Andrew, I think she definitely was a “royal highness.” But I remember that when Charles and Diana divorced, the Queen had to make a special dispensation to allow Diana to keep the “HRH.”
both diana and sarah lost “the” and “hrh” in the divorce.
fergie is officially: sarah, duchess of york. when married she was: her royal highness, the duchess of york.
when first introduced you would go with: your grace, then if you were able to speak to her again after the intro. ma’am would be okay, or whatever she says you can call her.
diana was: hrh, the princess of wales while married; diana, princess of wales after.
Actually, the divorced wives of non-royal dukes lose the right to be called ‘Your Grace’, which is why, for sake of consistency, it was decided when the Yorks split that divorced wives of royal dukes should lose the HRH.
The correct way to greet her or any other divorced duchess is ‘Hello’/‘Good morning’/‘Nice to meet you’ etc., just like the rest of us.