Sarah
Ferguson apologised to Jeffrey Epstein after disowning him, leaked emails
suggest
Duchess
had promised convicted sex offender she would never have anything to do with
him again
Alexandra
Topping
Sun 21
Sep 2025 15.49 BST
The
Duchess of York “humbly” apologised to her “dear friend” Jeffrey Epstein a
month after publicly disowning the convicted sex offender, according to leaked
emails.
Sarah
Ferguson told the disgraced late financier that she never called him a
paedophile in an earlier newspaper interview, and suggested that she had
disavowed him to protect her career as a children’s book author and
philanthropist, according to emails obtained by the Mail on Sunday (MoS).
Speaking
to the Evening Standard in March 2011, Ferguson admitted her involvement with
Epstein – who had been jailed three years earlier for soliciting prostitution
from a minor – had been a “gigantic error of judgment”.
The
remarks came amid criticism over the links she and Prince Andrew, her
ex-husband, had to Epstein and revelations she had allowed Epstein to provide
£15,000 to help pay off her debts.
The
duchess also promised she would never have anything to do with Epstein again,
reportedly saying: “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children.”
But on 26
April, weeks after she gave the interview, leaked emails published by the MoS
purport to show that Ferguson wrote to Epstein: “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.”
The
duchess stated that she did not call him a paedophile, and suggested she had
been advised to make the comments to protect her writing career and charity
work.
“I was
instructed to act with the utmost speed if I would have any chance of holding
on to my career as a children’s book author and a children’s philanthropist,”
she is said to have written. “As you know, I did not, absolutely not, say the
‘P word’ [paedophile] about you but understand it was reported that I did.”
A
spokesperson for the duchess said the email had been written in response to a
threat Epstein had made to sue her for defamation. “The duchess spoke of her
regret about her association with Epstein many years ago, and as they have
always been, her first thoughts are with his victims,” they said.
The
duchess has published more than 50 children’s books since 1989, including the
Budgie the Helicopter series, Little Red and Helping Hand. She is due to
publish a new picture book titled Kindness Along the Way in November. She is
also, alongside her daughters, a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust and a
breast cancer charity.
Ferguson
– who elsewhere in the leaked email says Epstein has “always been a steadfast,
generous and supreme friend to me and family” – wrote that she 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”.
The
spokesperson for the duchess said that she stood by her public condemnation of
Epstein. They added: “Like many people, she was taken in by [Epstein’s] lies.
As soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations against him, she not
only cut off contact but condemned him publicly, to the extent that he then
threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with paedophilia.
“She does
not resile from anything she said then. This email was sent in the context of
advice the duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário