Over the years, the Duchess of York has been to Houston several times — usually to shill for something. I interviewed her when she was hawking Wedgwood china at Foley's Willowbrook mall in 1999. She touted the virtues of the china in front of an audience of several hundred and enthusiastically signed plates, platters and pitchers purchased at the store.

I met her again briefly when she was back in town late last year promoting a film she helped produce, The Young Victoria, and urging those attending a tea in her honor at Neiman Marcus to follow her downstairs to purchase pricey Clive Christian No. 1 perfume, which retails for $2,350 a bottle.

It all seemed a little unseemly for a former member of the British royal family to so openly hawk products, but the former Sarah Ferguson was quick to point out that she had bills to pay. Plus, she seemed to really relish selling her name with gusto in a nation where everyone tries to cash in on something.

"As you all know very well, I like to break the rules, or at least bend them a little," she said during the interview at Foley's.

How true.

The duchess was caught in an embarrassing scandal over the weekend when the British tabloid The News of the World caught her on video tape accepting $40,000 in cash — with a promise of more than $717,000 more — after promising to introduce a businessman (actually a reporter in disguise) to her former husband, Prince Andrew.

“If you want to meet him in your business, look after me and he’ll look after you,” she told the undercover reporter, referring to Andrew. “I can open any door you want.”

She is so blatant about her quest for cash that I cringed while watching the tape. Yet, I felt sorry for her.

This is clearly a woman who is desperate for money. Even though she made millions as a spokesperson for Weight Watchers, Wedgwood and others, she's broke now. She owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to creditors.

She told the newspaper that she only gets $21,000 a year in her divorce settlement. “I have not got a bean to my name,” she said. “I’m a taxpayer, a British taxpayer, and I left the royal family for freedom, and in freedom it means I am bereft. I’m hopeless.”

In her convoluted logic, she defended her husband, whom she has maintained a close relationship with even after the divorce.

“He ever, ever, never, ever, ever — he never does accept a penny for anything,” she told the undercover reporter. “He does not and will not — he is completely whiter than white.”

America is a land of comebacks, so I don't think we've seen the last of the duchess, who has always been more comfortable in the former colonies than in her native Britain. A tearful appearance on Oprah is bound to be in her future.

And perhaps a visit to a credit counselor?

See the video here: