Sarah Ferguson has addressed her email correspondence with late billionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
An email sent by Ferguson, 65, to Epstein in 2011 was recently resurfaced by several U.K. outlets. A spokesperson for the Duchess of York claimed in a statement to the Daily Mail on Sunday, September 21, that the correspondence was “sent to counter an aggressive threat Epstein had made to sue her for defamation.”
In a separate statement to the BBC, the spokesperson noted, “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 pedophilia.”
The statement concluded: “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.”
Ferguson reportedly referred to Epstein as a “supreme friend” in the email and denied referring to him as “the P word” (pedophile) in a March 2011 interview — which was published weeks before her email was sent.
“I know you feel hellaciously let down by me, and I must humbly apologize to you and your heart for that,” Ferguson’s email to Epstein reportedly read. “I am apologizing to you today for not replying to your email or reaching out to you. I was bedridden with fear. I was paralyzed.”
The message continued, “I was advised in no uncertain terms, to have nothing to do with you and to not speak or email you.”
Ferguson claimed that she did not want to “cause more problems” for her ex-husband, Prince Andrew. (The Duke of York was stripped of his royal title following his alleged involvement with Epstein. He was sued by the late Virginia Giuffre for sexual abuse in 2021. They settled the following year, and he has continued to deny her allegations.)
In her March 2011 interview, Ferguson acknowledged that having any connection to Epstein was a “gigantic error of judgment” on her part.
“I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children,” she continued at the time. “I cannot state more strongly that I know a terrible, terrible error of judgement was made, my having anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.”
Epstein was arrested on federal charges in 2019 for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. He died by suicide at age 66 while being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.
