Prince Andrew wrote to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 saying 'we are in this together', according to emails published by British newspapers. The message was sent the day after a photograph emerged showing the Duke of York with his arm around Virginia Giuffre, then a teenager.
The correspondence, reported by the Mail on Sunday and the Sun on Sunday, appears to contradict Andrew's previous claims that he had ended contact with Epstein in December 2010. In the email, dated 28 February 2011, Andrew told Epstein to 'keep in close touch' and expressed a wish to 'play some more soon'.
The duke had told the BBC's Newsnight programme in 2019 that he broke off his friendship with Epstein after the two were photographed together in New York in December 2010. However, the newly revealed email suggests otherwise, with Andrew writing: 'I'm just as concerned for you! Don't worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it.'
Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had previously pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008. The email was partially disclosed in court documents earlier this year in a case involving former Barclays chief executive Jes Staley.
Separately, it emerged that former Prime Minister Tony Blair met Epstein in Downing Street in 2002, following a recommendation from Peter Mandelson, who described Epstein as 'safe' and a 'friend' in an email to Blair's chief of staff.
