The pressure has been steadily building on Prince Andrew ever since the Mail on Sunday first exposed his involvement with disgraced sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein in 2011.
But in recent weeks, the steady stream of bad news has become a torrent. We’ve had embarrassing claims in a new biography, Entitled, by Andrew Lownie, sordid allegations in a posthumously published memoir by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Giuffre – which Andrew denies – and fresh accusations that he has cultivated inappropriate business links with an alleged Chinese spy.
But I believe the final, fatal blow to Andrew’s fast-sinking reputation came last weekend. And that the Prince fell on his sword – handing back his titles as Duke of York and Knight of the Garter – because of the emails I exposed in the MoS.
These made it clear that both Sarah Ferguson and Andrew had very much closer relationships with Epstein – who died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges – than they had admitted to in public.
And that, crucially, Andrew – the King’s younger brother and a senior member of the Royal Family – told a bare-faced lie when he appeared on the now-notorious Newsnight special with presenter Emily Maitlis in 2019.
It was during this interview that Andrew claimed to have cut off all contact with the disgraced Epstein in late 2010. The Prince was categorical on the point.
Yet, as last week’s MoS revealed, in an email to the paedophile dated two months later on February 28, 2011, Andrew makes it clear that not only that the relationship is continuing, but that he is ‘in this together’ with Epstein.
The former Duke of York even wrote that he expected to ‘keep in close touch’ and ‘play some more’ – with a convicted sex abuser!
Prince Andrew at the Order of the Garter service in 2019 outside St George’s Chapel in Windsor
Daphne Barak (left), with Sarah Ferguson. Daphne writes: ‘As a fellow survivor of breast cancer, I have great sympathy for Sarah Ferguson’
Prince Andrew’s statement released by Buckingham Palace
Or to put it another way, the late Queen Elizabeth’s second son appears to have invited television cameras into Buckingham Palace, where the Newsnight interview was filmed, for the express purpose of misleading the nation.
My sources tell me that it was this point above all else, that proved the final straw for the King and his advisers, who have let it be known that they are concerned about the ‘clear fault lines’ in Andrew’s version of events.
I’m also told that the Palace remains deeply concerned there could be more embarrassing material to emerge about the wayward prince. Who would bet against it?
It is important to say that Andrew vigorously denies any wrong-doing and has done from the outset.
As a fellow survivor of breast cancer, I have great sympathy for Sarah Ferguson. She is a warm and charismatic person.
Sarah has confided in me how hard this fall from grace has been for her former husband. The ‘second son’ syndrome has proved all too real. Andrew seems to be a man without purpose.
Yet I still cannot believe they have been so blind. Andrew and Sarah seem to have believed that the rest of us are fools, lesser mortals too stupid to see through their fabrications.
Is it a case of simple immaturity? They are certainly well-known for their love of vulgar jokes, cuddly toys and childish pranks.
Virginia Giuffre photographed with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell in London in 2001
Prince Andrew’s dramatic fall from grace was catalysed by a disastrous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in 2019
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson in June 2016 at Royal Ascot
I recall that when I met Sarah in Windsor in 2023, she arrived for lunch with two large dolls, one resembling herself.
To my bemusement, she proceeded to place the dolls on chairs at the table alongside us, where they remained, silent guests, for the duration of the meal. There was no explanation.
Maybe, in the end, it really does come down to overweening entitlement, as the title of the recent biography suggests.
It’s as if the couple formerly known as the Duke and Duchess of York have been living out their own private fantasy, unable to grasp that others might have a point of view worth considering, let alone fearing.
Perhaps they will consider it now.
Daphne Barak is a senior interviewer and documentary film maker. Daphne is also a cancer survivor who has a fast-growing charity with the University of California, San Diego. www.gamechangerevents.org
For more about this story: Five Days That Brought Down Prince Andrew on C5, Saturday October 25 at 10.05pm
