Shamed Fergie faces Oprah and admits, 'I've been drinking'

The Duchess of York has tried to explain her offer to sell access to Prince Andrew for £500,000 by saying she was drinking at the time.

She told US television host Oprah Winfrey she was “not in the right place” when she was caught out in the videotaped newspaper sting.

The 50-year-old duchess said she had yet to see the damning videotape in which she tells a reporter posing as a wealthy businessman that ‘I can open any door you want’.

She added: “I haven’t faced the devil in the face because I was in the gutter at that moment.”

The tape was then played for her to watch as she recorded the interview for The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Her highly-anticipated appearance on America’s most-watched chat show was recorded in Los Angeles on Friday and will be screened in the U.S. today.

In one extract, released to People magazine in advance, the duchess says: ‘So I’m aware of the fact that I’ve been drinking, you know, that I was not in my right place.’

The filmed interview is expected to last ten minutes, but the producers have turned it into the main segment of the hour-long show as they rake over previous scandals involving the duchess.

The filmed interview is expected to last ten minutes, but the producers have turned it into the main segment of the hour-long show as they rake over previous scandals involving the duchess.

She was not paid for the interview and is now back in the UK, having faced her former husband to explain the News of the World sting.

A spokesman for the prince has denied he had any knowledge of her plan during which she took £27,000 that she has since returned.

The duchess is expected to have offered another apology to the Royal Family during her interview with Oprah. In a statement after the newspaper published its story she said: “I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused.

“It is true that my financial situation is under stress, however, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment and I am very sorry that this has happened.”

She is said to be up to £1million in debt and has blamed her financial situation on lack of money after her divorce from Andrew in 1996.

She has previously appeared on The Oprah Winfrey show in her role as spokesman in the U.S. for Weightwatchers. But in recent years her income has dried up in the U.S. as a result of losing contracts with Weightwatchers and other companies.

The duchess has been forced to issue another apology – this time to Turkey, to escape the threat of arrest over a television documentary.

She has formally apologised to the Turkish government after she went undercover to expose conditions in state-run orphanages.

The move lifts the threat of arrest hanging over her.

The duchess was accused of breaking Turkey’s strict privacy laws by secretly filming with a documentary crew inside state orphanages.

Authorities in Ankara had threatened to ask for her extradition to stand trial over the accusations, which carry a maximum four-year jail term.

Turkey made a formal request to the Home Office to investigate its claims that she and two journalists trespassed and filmed illegally while making the programme.

The duchess donned a black wig and headscarf to disguise herself as the film crew shot harrowing scenes inside an orphanage, including images of disabled children tied to beds.

Princess Eugenie accompanied her mother and wept when she saw the conditions in which some children lived. The ITV1 documentary, Duchess and Daughters: Their Secret Mission, caused a diplomatic storm when it was broadcast in November 2008.

A Whitehall source said: ‘The Turks made it clear that if the Duchess was willing to make an apology, they would drop moves to extradite her to face trial. That apology has now been received.’