Sarah Margaret Ferguson was born on 15 October 1959 at London Welbeck Hospital. She is the second daughter of Major Ronald Ferguson (1931–2003) and his first wife, Susan (née Wright; 1937–1998). After Sarah's parents divorced in 1974, her mother married polo player Héctor Barrantes in 1975 and moved to Trenque Lauquen in the Argentine pampas. Sarah stayed at the Dummer Down Farm at Dummer, Hampshire, her father's home since age 8. Major Ferguson married Susan Deptford in 1976 and had three more children: Andrew, Alice, and Elizabeth. Sarah later mentioned that at the age of 12, when her parents' marriage started to fall apart, she developed an eating disorder and "turned to overeating for comfort".