Leaked emails suggest that the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, apologised to Jeffrey Epstein just weeks after publicly disowning the convicted sex offender. The emails, obtained by the Mail on Sunday, indicate that she told Epstein she never called him a paedophile and suggested her public condemnation was aimed at protecting her career as a children's book author and philanthropist.
In March 2011, Ferguson admitted to the Evening Standard that her association with Epstein, who had been jailed for soliciting prostitution from a minor, was a “gigantic error of judgment”. She also promised never to have any further contact with him, stating: “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children.”
However, on 26 April 2011, she wrote to Epstein: “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that.” The duchess added that she was “instructed to act with the utmost speed if I would have any chance of holding on to my career as a children’s book author and a children’s philanthropist”.
A spokesperson for the duchess said the email was written in response to a threat from Epstein to sue her for defamation. “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,” they said. The spokesperson maintained that Ferguson stands by her public condemnation of Epstein, adding that she was “taken in by his lies”.
Ferguson, who has published over 50 children’s books since 1989, continues her work as a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust and a breast cancer charity. Her latest picture book, Kindness Along the Way, is due for release in November.
