Sarah Ferguson was “scared for her life” during her contact with the paedophile Jefferey Epstein after he told her he would ‘bring down the entire York family’, a friend of the Duchess has today revealed.
Ferguson is said to be filled with regret and completely devastated after being dropped as the patron of several charities after calling Epstein her ‘supreme friend’ and appearing to apologise for her public condemnation of him in leaked emails. Reality star Lizzie Cundy has today spoken out for the shamed former royal and said her pal was completely ‘fooled’.
Appearing on Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine Show, Lizzie, who claims to have spoken to Ferguson in the past 24 hours, insisted her feared for her safety over Epstein. She told the show: “Well, she is obviously devastated, there is no-one more sorry than Sarah Ferguson, she is regretful, she wishes she never met Jeffery Epstein.
“There are reasons she sent that email. The fact is, he was enraged that she’d publicly condemned him. He was absolutely, beyond saying ‘I’m going to get revenge, I’m going to ruin your family.’ It was threatening, very dark – and she felt she had no choice but to try and appease him because she was scared for herself, for her family.
“He was probably the most powerful man on the planet, one of the richest men. She was fooled by him like many others. Like The Clintons, Peter Mandelson and many others.”
Host Jeremy Vine told Lizzie that at the time Sarah sent her gushing email, Epstein was a convicted paedophile.
Lizzie responded: “She does [understand that] and she’s very, very sorry. But the fact is when she did condemn him, which she did publicly, it got very nasty. He got huge lawyers onto her as well. She thought she was going to be embarrassed, not only her own family but the rest of the Royal Family.
She felt like that was the only option she had. She really was, back against the wall, Jeremy.” Lizzie claimed that Epstein had vowed to “bring down the York family.”
When MP Dawn Butler asked whether a private email would have been enough to resolve the matter, Lizzie went on to say: “She felt she could calm the situation by trying to appease him. Kind of saying ‘Look, I didn’t actually call you a paedophile,’ I said ‘paedophilia is abhorrent’, that’s what she said, she was trying to calm him and stroke his ego.”
Lizzie said Sarah is in a “terrible way” at the moment and has deep regrets over being friends with Epstein. “I’m afraid, he is a toxic person – even from the grave,” she commented. While there have been calls for Sarah to be stripped of her Duchess of York title, Lizzie believes that the royal should “lay low” and “let this die down”. She said: “This is a shock, but he was so aggressive, so unpleasant, I think if anyone, if you thought your family could get hurt and bring your family down, what would you do?”
Speaking about losing her charities, Lizzie said: “Sarah is absolutely devastated about losing the charities. Especially the cancer one, herself had a cancer diagnosis recently, She’s absolutely devastated. She’s a human being, a mother, she’s going through hell.”
“She needs to lie low, reflect on all of this, she’s full of regret, she’s full of remorse,” Lizzie added, continuing: “He [Epstein] was a conman.”
When political commentator Charlie Rowley questioned why Sarah associated with Epstein after Prince Andrew’s links, Lizzie replied: “Charlie, if you’re in that position, [if] you think your own family could be threatened? I think she was just thinking ‘I’ve got to do the right thing’, which I agree, it was a mistake.”
Dawn Butler added: “The people whose lives have been ruined are those young girls, those is where our compassion should be.” Lizzie replied: “Sarah has put an email to the show to say her thoughts are with those victims.”
Jeremy explained that Jeffrey “wouldn’t have a chance” of suing The Duchess as he had already been convicted. But Lizzie claimed that Epstein had threatened those working for The Duchess.
“You have to remember, vile, disgusting man,” Lizzie said of Epstein. When asked whether Sarah apologised as she “wanted more money” from Epstein, Lizzie said: “As far as I’ve been told, Jeremy, that’s not the case. She was really concerned for her family, and he wanted revenge.”
During the broadcast, commentator Charlie Rowley described the emails sent by the Duchess as “grotesque.” Sarah is no stranger to the royal circle, having previously been friends with the Duchess of Sussex before she married Prince Harry and pals with Queen Camilla. She often attends the same red carpet events as the Duchess of York.
It comes after the Duchess of York had been dropped as an ambassador for dozens of charities, which she had previously served as a patron of. Over the weekend, an email sent by the Duchess to notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 was reported.
The Duchess had spoken publicly, disassociating herself from Epstein after countless allegations were made against him. The email stemmed from an interview with the Evening Standard on March 7, 2011, in which she apologised for accepting £15,000 from the sex offender.
During the interview, she told the newspaper: “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say. Whenever I can, I will repay the money and have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again,” she added: “What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.”
But an email from her said she “humbly apologised”. The Duchess emailed: “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me. 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.”
It continued: “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. So please understand. I didn’t want to hurt Andrew one more time. I was in over-riding fear. I am sorry.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Prince Andrew’s ex-wife said that Epstein had threatened to sue her for defamation after associating him with paedophilia. Her spokesperson said: “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.
“Like many people, she was taken in by his 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.”
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.
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