Plaque for Sarah Ferguson disappears from Great Ormond Street hostel wall

A grey slate plaque with gold lettering has vanished from the wall of Great Ormond Street Hospital's 'Home from Home' hostel. Only a pale outline and two holes are left in the brickwork. The plaque had recorded Sarah Ferguson opening the building in 1990 as the then Duchess of York.

The disappearance was reported by the Daily Mail on 11 October 2026. Daily Mail The hostel gives parents of sick children a place to stay near the hospital. Photographs now show an empty patch where the memorial sat.

Ferguson, 66, has kept a low profile since she and her ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, lost their titles. That account was given by Hello! Magazine on 12 October 2026. Hello! Magazine She lost the Duchess of York title in October. The loss followed renewed attention on her links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Several charitable organisations ended her role as patron in September 2025 because of those ties. Julia's House, a children's hospice charity, was among those to drop Ferguson after an emailed apology to Epstein was reported. In March 2026 she was also stripped of her honorary Freedom of the City of York, a civic honour. BBC

Her own charity, Sarah's Trust, was set up in 2020. It announced in February that it was shutting down. That decision came after the U.S. Department of Justice released emails appearing to record communications between Ferguson and Epstein.

The wider Justice Department release earlier this year contained more than three million documents. They included emails appearing to show Ferguson was in contact with Epstein while he was in prison for soliciting sex from a minor. No further detail about the timing of the release has been confirmed in the published accounts.

Ferguson has previously spoken about her health. She had successful surgery after breast cancer was found during routine mammogram screening in 2023. She urged others to seek cancer checks at the time. In January 2024 she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer, after treatment for breast cancer the year before.

No statement has been published about who removed the hospital plaque or when it was taken down. The hospital has not been quoted on the reason. What remains on the wall is the shape of what was there.