From PEOPLE Magazine Click to enlarge
WHEN THE DUCHESS OF YORK MADE her first public appearance since the surfacing of those photos of her topless romp with John Bryan in France, the otherwise tranquil meeting of a British charitable society became the setting for the latest episode of the Weeping Women of Windsor. Three months after Princess Diana broke down in public following printed revelations of her marital woes, the Duchess began crying during a brief speech before the Motor Neurone Disease Association's annual meeting in Birmingham on Sept. 19.

Assured that she was "among friends" by the association's director, Peter Cardy, Fergie managed to compose herself after five minutes and accepted a standing ovation from the crowd of 400. But the Duchess in dutch could find little comfort elsewhere. "She will be an embarrassment to any charity or organization if she cannot control her emotions," sniffed longtime royal commentator Margaret Holder. Fleet Street tabloids, meanwhile, offered their own view. DRY UP, FERGIE headlined Today unsympathetically. "Oh, how they clapped," mocked The Sun. "In a few sobbing seconds, the Duchess was transformed from a philandering, conniving, gold-digging bimbo into a Latter-day Saint."

Sequestered on her Surrey estate, where she has been living with daughters Bea, 4, and Eugenie, 2, since separating from Prince Andrew last March, Fergie reportedly spends long hours alone these days watching rented videos—"a classic sign of depression," noted one London psychologist. Indeed, just a week before the speech, the Duchess was said to be seeking help at London's Group Analytic Practice, a clinic that treats depression sufferers. "She's been under pressure that you wouldn't believe," said a friend. "It had to escape somewhere."