Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has cost the royal dearly. In the aftermath of Epstein’s final arrest and death, Andrew resigned his royal duties, lost his military titles, and settled a reported multimillion-dollar lawsuit over his Epstein ties. Yet Sarah Ferguson, who is still known as the Duchess of York even though she and Andrew divorced in 1996, largely managed to evade the scandal because she had publicly disavowed Epstein in 2011.
Now, though, it seems Ferguson may have been caught in the Epstein crossfire. This past weekend, The Mail on Sunday published parts of an email showing that the duchess corresponded with Epstein even after her public disavowal. “As you know, I did not, absolutely not, say the ‘P word’ [pedophile] about you,” she said in an April 2011 email, per the Mail. “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that…. You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.”
On Monday, Ferguson’s 35-year-long affiliation with the Teenage Cancer Trust came to an end—making that organization one of seven charities to cut ties with Ferguson following the Mail’s report. Another charity, children’s hospice Julia’s House, said it would be “inappropriate” for her to remain in her role as a patron, according to the BBC. The duchess was also dropped by Prevent Breast Cancer, the British Heart Foundation, food-allergy charity the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the National Foundation for Retired Service Animals, and the Children’s Literacy Charity. In the wake of the Mail on Sunday piece, events meant to promote Ferguson’s recent children’s book have been canceled.
The roots of the controversy reach back to 2011, when News of the World published a photograph of Andrew and Epstein walking through Central Park, taken amid a 2010 trip during which Andrew stayed at the financier’s now notorious Upper East Side townhouse—years after Epstein’s guilty plea on prostitution charges. Subsequent reporting revealed that Andrew had also arranged for Epstein to help pay money Ferguson owed to a former assistant. (Vanity Fair reported in 2022 that Andrew had visited New York to seek Epstein’s assistance with the debt.)
Ferguson gave an interview to the Evening Standard in March 2011, after those allegations became public, in which she attempted to defend Andrew and apologized for Epstein’s involvement in the matter. “I abhor pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf,” she told then editor Geordie Greig. “I am just so contrite I cannot say. Whenever I can, I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.”
In that interview with Greig, Ferguson might have been trying to take some of the pressure off Andrew over his Epstein ties. In it, she praised Andrew for being a good father to daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, and also hailed the work he did as a trade ambassador. Ultimately, she expressed remorse that her own money woes were a factor in his relationship with Epstein. “I cannot state more strongly that I know a terrible, terrible error of judgment was made, my having anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed,” she said. “Once again my errors have compounded and rebounded and also inadvertently impacted on the man I admire most in the world, the duke.”
Because of the intensity of her public 2011 comments, it’s surprising to see that, within weeks, Ferguson was trying to smooth things over with Epstein in the recently uncovered email. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the duchess gave an explanation for that: He told The Telegraph that Ferguson’s 2011 comments had prompted a vituperative call from Epstein, and that her subsequent email was an attempt to ease tensions and hopefully prevent a lawsuit. “It was a chilling call, and I’m surprised anybody was ever friends with him given the way he talked to me,” said James Henderson, a spokesperson and adviser to Ferguson. “He said he would destroy the York family and he was quite clear on that. He said he would destroy me. He wasn’t shouting. He had a Hannibal Lecter–type voice. It was very cold and calm and really menacing and nasty.”
In the email obtained by the Mail, the duchess apologized for her public disavowal, once again referring to her fears about her ex-husband’s reputation. “I am apologising to you today for not replying to your email or reaching out to you when the tabloids were so horrendous,” she said. “I was advised, in no uncertain terms, to have nothing to do with you and to not speak or email you and if I did I would cause more problems to you, the Duke and myself. I was broken and lost.”
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