Newly released US justice department files reveal how convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein attempted to use his relationship with Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, to restore his reputation after she publicly distanced herself from him in 2011.
Emails show Epstein and his publicist, Mike Sitrick, discussed a plan to persuade Ferguson to release a statement saying he was “not a pedo”. The move came after Ferguson expressed regret over her association with Epstein in a Daily Telegraph interview, in which she admitted he had paid off £15,000 of her debts.
Sitrick suggested that if “gentle persuasion” failed, they should “turn up the heat even to the point of sending her a draft defamation lawsuit”. He described Ferguson’s retraction as “critical” for Epstein’s name and reputation.
Ferguson, who had earlier described Epstein as the “brother I always wished for”, did not make a public statement supporting him. However, she privately emailed Epstein the following month to “humbly apologise” for her Telegraph comments, calling him her “supreme friend”.
