LONDON — After showcasing its finest pomp and pageantry during President Donald Trump’s state visit last week, Britain’s royal family has quickly been plunged back into all-too familiar controversy.
Just days after Trump, the royals and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer largely skirted questions about Jeffrey Epstein that had threatened to complicate the sunny spectacle of his trip, the British press offered new revelations.
A newly surfaced email revealed that Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, described the disgraced financier as a “supreme friend” despite his conviction for sex offences.
The email was published in two newspapers Sunday. It was sent by the Duchess — the former wife of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York —in 2011, just weeks after she had publicly distanced herself from Epstein.
A spokesperson for the Duchess said the email was sent to counter a threat Epstein had made to sue her for defamation.
But the story will add new fuel to damaging media coverage about royal links to Epstein, which have centered on Andrew’s own close relationship and a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse — he denied the allegations by Virginia Giuffre and settled out of court. She died by suicide earlier this year.
In a 2011 interview, the Duchess said her involvement with Epstein — jailed in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor — had been a “gigantic error of judgment,” promising she would never have anything to do with him again.
“I abhor pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children,” she said at the time, adding that what Epstein did was “wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.”
But The Sun and Mail on Sunday reported that shortly after the interview, Ferguson emailed Epstein to reassure him she had not used the word “pedophilia” in reference to him.
“As you know, I did not, absolutely not, say the ‘P word’ about you but understand it was reported that I did,” she wrote. “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me. You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.”
The Duchess was “taken in” by Epstein’s lies, her spokesperson told NBC News on Sunday.
“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 spokesperson said Ferguson stood by her public condemnation of Epstein. “This email was sent in the context of advice the Duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats,” they added,
Epstein was found dead by suicide in 2019 while awaiting a trial on sex-trafficking charges in New York.
Andrew returned his military affiliations and royal patronages in January 2022 after his lawyers failed to persuade a U.S. judge to dismiss the Giuffre lawsuit.
He later paid a substantial sum to Giuffre, who alleged Andrew abused her when she was 17. Andrew has repeatedly denied the allegation.
Giuffre died in April this year, with her family saying in a statement that “the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”
Other royals have rarely appeared in public with Andrew since his fall from grace.
In December 2024, Andrew was caught up in an alleged spying case after cultivating an “unusual degree of trust” with a Chinese man who was barred from the U.K. on national security grounds.
