Sarah Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s long-term friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has seen them lose their home and their royal titles
Shunned from royal life, work projects and even their shared home, Andrew and Fergie’s lives are in tatters after their links to Jeffrey Epstein were plunged back into the spotlight. But the nightmare isn’t over yet.
The disgraced financier might have died more than six years ago, but even from beyond the grave, he has posed major issues for those connected to him – few more so than Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. With the US Congress investigating Epstein’s sex trafficking network, they called on King Charles’ brother to provide testimony about his relationship with the convicted sex offender – but the former prince did not reply within the two-week deadline they set him. It also emerged that in the around 23,000 documents released by the committee, provided to them by the Epstein estate, Andrew is named more than any other Brit.
While a name’s appearance does not imply any wrongdoing, it is yet another reminder of how how deeply Andrew’s downfall became entwined with the Epstein scandal. The ex Duke denies all allegations against him. Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who had for some time managed to stay slightly away from the fray, has been dragged down with him, with her own friendship with Epstein under intense scrutiny.
READ MORE: Meghan Markle given brutal new nickname as ‘disaster’ move spotted in new videoREAD MORE: Virginia Giuffre ‘multi-million pound’ estate battle begins in Australia
Recent weeks have seen revelation after revelation emerge about the former couple’s long-term ties to Epstein. Sarah Ferguson is reportedly leaning on her daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, to find new place to live, and her professional life has taken a huge hit, with her latest children’s book pulped, and charities cutting ties. Her brand has become “toxic,” a PR expert has warned.
Both Andrew and Fergie have been found, with emails emerging to and from the disgraced financier, to have stayed in contact with Epstein longer than they had previously admitted, and new details about the entrenched and bizarre relationships between the trio have been revealed…
Fergie’s cash riddle with Epstein
When an email emerged that Fergie had written to Epstein in 2011, calling him a “supreme friend” and apologising for negative comments she had recently made about him in a newspaper interview, she was swiftly dropped by the charities she worked with. However, her spokesperson claimed that she only sent the gushing email – leaked last month – as she was terrified for her safety.
Epstein was, after her interview, allegedly threatening Sarah and her family, with a former aide claiming the financier said he would “destroy” her in an intimidating phone call. Sarah’s email was, according to her team, an attempt to broker peace amid the threats levied at her.
However, another email emerged, from Epstein to his own legal team, in which he allegedly instructed that Sarah should say she was “misquoted” in the interview where she tried to distance herself from him. It also claimed that Sarah – who publicly declared she “abhors paedophilia” – had “celebrated” his release from prison for sex offences against a minor, by bringing her two daughters to visit him after his sentence was complete. A source claims that Sarah, Beatrice and Eugenie, who would have been 20 and 19 at the time, have no recollection of the trip.
Sarah has previously admitted that she borrowed £15,000 from Epstein, something she called a “gigantic error in judgement”. But new claims put that figure was in fact far higher, indicating that Epstein may have helped fund her lavish lifestyle. An email was revealed this year that saw Sarah allegedly ask for between $50,000 and $100,000 to cover “small bills” back in 2010. And according to the Daily Mail, the financier allegedly “bankrolled” Sarah for 15 years.
Epstein’s ‘killer plot’
Documents from the Epstein cache showed that Epstein was advised more than once to keep his distance from Andrew and Fergie. After Epstein’s victim, Virginia Giuffre, publicly made three allegations of sexual assault against Andrew – which he firmly denies – a PR team advised the financier to cut ties with the “disastrous” former couple.
The advisors from Osborne & Partners LLP wrote in a reputational management document in 2011: “It is disastrous for you to be seen in any way to facilitate his lifestyle, or to help with his well documented issues. Their sole interest in you and Ghislaine is as a means to attack Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
“You need to studiously avoid any involvement whatsoever with the couple,” the PR team advised. Speaking to the Mirror, PR expert Mayah Riaz explained that this advice was “very telling”.
“From a reputational standpoint, associations are often as powerful as actions. For people like Epstein and Maxwell, who operated quietly behind the scenes yet relied on influence to maintain access, proximity to high-profile figures can be a double-edged sword,” the expert added.
But the reputational management document was by no means the only time that Epstein was advised to steer clear of Andrew and Fergie. The convicted sex offender wrote in an email to Peter Mandelson in 2016 that the former US Ambassador was “right about staying away from Andrew.”
And now a shocking new report saw royal author Andrew Lownie make bombshell claims that Epstein’s desire to get rid of his Andrew and Fergie problem allegedly went further. The author claimed that Epstein went so far as to look into hiring a hit man to kill Andrew and Fergie, to ensure the secrets they knew about him stayed buried, as Epstein descended into “paranoia” shortly before his death in 2019.
Lownie alleged to The Sun: “He spoke to a hitman who was a former member of the British SAS and said he wanted the Yorks dead. He wanted to remove them. I’ve been told this by two reliable sources, one in Paris and a former FBI agent in Florida, and I can believe it’s true.”
However, the expert admitted that “Epstein said all sorts of things, and you can’t always believe what he said” and that it was unclear just how far the financier had gone with this alleged plan.
‘Closest friends’
Epstein might have been advised to steer clear of his high-profile royal pal, but at one stage in 2007, he reportedly described Andrew as his “closest friend in the world” and a “serial sex addict”.
One former lover of Andrew’s was quoted in Lownie’s recent book as saying that the ex-prince had “no boundaries” in the bedroom. “He wanted me to engage in kinky sexual activity. He had no boundaries. He told me he had an open marriage arrangement with his wife,” said the woman, who was at the time 20 years old and worked as a model. “After returning to London, I never heard from him again. I felt like he used me for a few days, so he could live his wildest fantasies.”
Andrew claimed to the BBC in 2019 that he had cut ties with Epstein in 2010, but emails that have emerged show the pair remained in touch beyond that point. Epstein was also a guest at royal residences, including Balmoral and Windsor Castle.
Andrew’s ‘consensual sex’ with Epstein staffer
A private email exchange between Epstein and a former New York Times reporter, Landon Thomas Jr, which discusses Andrew, has drawn attention after emerging in the Epstein files. As reported by The Telegraph, in January 2015, disgraced financier Epstein wrote to Thomas Jr suggesting that he could be exonerated over claims that he has trafficked young women for sex by an ex-girlfriend, who had travelled with him. By this point, Epstein’s former life rubbing shoulders with global elites had well and truly crumbled.
In 2008, he had pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution as well as solicitation of prostitution with a person under the age of 18. At the time of this email exchange, the paedophile was four years away from his second arrest, this time facing federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in both Florida and New York.
Offering his advice to Epstein a the time, Thomas Jr wrote: “I think the big issue is separating yourself from Andrew. I mean, I can see why a statement might help in some way – but it’s Andrew (not Clinton and the rest) that is keeping the story alive.”
In his email to Epstein, which appears to point towards a close relationship between the pair, Thomas Jr continued: “Until you are able to come forward and address that, the story lives on. I mean, in the end, he had consensual sex with [redacted]. And [redacted] worked for you. The rest is atmospherics. You have moved on! People don’t know that and can’t accept that unless you say as much.”
When contacted by the publication for comment, Thomas Jr claimed Epstein hadn’t told him the employee had sex with Andrew, clarifying that he was repeating what he’d seen in the news. He explained, “He never told me that she had sex with Andrew. When I say that he had sex with her, consensual sex, that’s just what I had read in the press.”
