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Sarah Ferguson lost patronage from five charities after her email calling Jeffrey Epstein a supreme friend surfaced, prompting backlash over her ties to the convicted sex offender.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. (Reuters/File)
Several charities on Monday severed their links with Britain’s Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, after reports emerged that she had described the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as a “supreme friend” in an email.
Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state prostitution charge in Florida.
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The Guardian reported that Ferguson’s apology to Epstein followed an interview published in the Evening Standard in March 2011 in which she said that she had made a “terrible, terrible error of judgment” in accepting £15,000 from the financier, a convicted sex offender, to pay off her debts, adding: “I abhor paedophilia.”
According to the Sun, Ferguson, ex-wife of King Charles’ brother, Prince Andrew, had sent the apology message to Epstein in 2011, weeks after giving an interview in which she said she would never contact him again.
In her apology email to Epstein, she called him as a “steadfast, generous and supreme friend”. The Telegraph reported James Henderson, her spokesperson at the time, as saying the email was sent after a “really menacing and nasty” phone call from the sex offender, in which he had a “Hannibal Lecter-type voice”.
Describing the phone call that prompted the email, Henderson told the Telegraph: “People don’t understand how terrible Epstein was. I can remember everything about that call. It was a chilling call and I’m surprised anybody was ever friends with him given the way he talked to me.”
“He said he would destroy the York family and he was quite clear on that. He said he would destroy me. He wasn’t shouting. He had a Hannibal Lecter-type voice. It was very cold and calm and really menacing and nasty,” he further said.
He added: “The pressure she was put under to protect her family must have been huge. I am sure there were legal actions. And this was long before the duke’s life had been ruined by his association with Epstein. It was 14 years ago and everyone will do what they have to do to protect their family. Her family and children will always come first for her.”
According to CNN, Ferguson’s former spokesperson declined to comment on the charities’ action, having previously said that she sent the email to Epstein because she wanted to counter the threat that he might sue her for defamation.
On Monday, five charities announced that the Duchess could no longer be one of their patrons. “We were disturbed to read of Sarah, Duchess of York’s, correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein,” Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, the founders of one of the charities, the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, said in a statement.
“She was a patron but, in the light of the recent revelations, we have taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue to be associated with the charity,” they said.
In 2022. Prince Andrew was stripped of most of his titles and removed from royal duties due to his connections to the financier, while firms and charities also distanced themselves from him, CNN reported.
London, United Kingdom (UK)
September 24, 2025, 10:35 IST
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