Multiple charities have severed ties with Sarah, Duchess of York, after it emerged she had described the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as a 'supreme friend' in a 2011 email.
The Teenage Cancer Trust confirmed on Monday it was ending her patronage. The children's hospice Julia's House said the correspondence rendered Ferguson no longer suitable, stating: 'Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York's correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia's House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity.'
The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, Prevent Breast Cancer, and The Children's Literacy Charity also dropped Ferguson as a patron. Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, founders of the allergy charity, said they were 'disturbed' by the comments.
The email, reported by The Sun, was sent in 2011 after Ferguson had linked Epstein to paedophilia in a newspaper interview. In it, she apologised 'humbly' and called him a 'steadfast, generous and supreme friend'. A spokesperson for the duchess said the email was written on legal advice to head off threats of legal action from Epstein.
Epstein was found dead in his cell in Manhattan in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
