Sarah Ferguson claims she was trying to protect Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie when she sent an email apologising to Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duchess of York’s spokesman James Henderson has come to the fierce defence of the royal, saying ‘her children will always come first to her’.
He claimed yesterday that a ‘chilling’ warning from the sex offender financier is why she was fawning over him in leaked correspondence from 2011 in which she called him her ‘supreme friend’.
Epstein was apparently raging when she called him a paedophile in public and cited accepting £15,000 from him to settle her debts as a ‘terrible, terrible error of judgment’.
In the email leaked to the Mail on Sunday the duchess ‘humbly apologised’ and told the sex trafficker she was aware that he would ‘feel hellaciously let down by me’.
The revelations have led to several charities cutting their ties with the duchess, a decision that has been praised by Virginia Giuffre’s family, who urged US organisations to follow suit.
Mr Henderson claimed her fawning email came after a ‘chilling call’ in which a ‘menacing and nasty’ Epstein threatened to ‘destroy the York family’ in ‘a Hannibal Lecter-type voice’.
‘The pressure she was put under to protect her family must have been huge,’ he said.
Sarah Ferguson claims she was trying to protect Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie when she sent an email apologising to Jeffrey Epstein
Sarah Ferguson sent the fawning email to Epstein calling him a ‘supreme friend’ after publicly calling him a paedophile
‘And this was long before the Duke’s life had been ruined by his association with Epstein. Her family and her children will always come first.’
The Duchess, 65, was subsequently dropped by seven charities including the Teenage Cancer Trust and British Heart Foundation.
Giuffre’s family yesterday called it ‘commendable’ for the charities to have severed ties with Sarah.
‘This decisive action sends a strong message about accountability and the need to confront those who support the horrific child trafficking network established by Epstein and Maxwell,’ they said in a statement to The Times.
Ms Giuffre, who claimed she was abused by Epstein and trafficked three times to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17, committed suicide in April.
The Duke of York has vehemently denied the claims.
Meanwhile, today, he broke cover for the first time since the news of his ex-wife’s email to Epstein was unearthed.
The duke was spotted driving his Range Rover away from his Windsor mansion with a male companion in the passenger seat.
The Duchess of York received backing yesterday by football WAG Lizzie Cundy, who told of speaking to the Duchess amid the fall-out from the email revelations.
Ms Cundy, 57, the TV personality and former wife of ex-Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur footballer Jason Cundy was questioned about the Duchess’s feelings by Channel 5 presenter Jeremy Vine on Tuesday morning.
The programme guest said of Fergie: ‘Well, she’s obviously devastated – there is no one more sorry today than Sarah Ferguson.
‘She is regretful, she wishes she’d never met Jeffrey Epstein, but there are reasons why she sent that email.
Prince Andrew was seen driving his Range Rover away from his Windsor mansion today as he broke cover for the first time since the revelations about his ex-wife’s email to Epstein
‘The fact is, he was enraged that she’d publicly condemned him – he was absolutely beyond, saying, “I’m going to get revenge, I’m going to ruin your family”.
‘It was threatening, it was very dark and she felt she had no choice but to try and appease him – she was scared for herself, for her family.
‘You have to think, he was probably the most powerful man on the planet, or the richest man.
‘She was fooled by him, like many others were – like the Clintons, like Peter Mandelson, many others.’
The host raised how Cundy had spoken to the Duchess ‘in the last 24 hours’ while putting to her how Epstein ‘was a convicted paedophile’.
Ms Cundy replied: ‘He was. It’s wrong. She’s very, very sorry. But the fact is, when she did condemn him, she did publicly, it got very, very nasty.
‘He got huge lawyers on to her as well – she thought it was going to be embarrassing not just for her own family but the rest of the Royal Family and she felt that was the only option she had.’
It comes as Princess Eugenie this week launched a campaign against children who are exploited in fast fashion.
The warned co-founder of The Anti-Slavery Collective ‘modern slavery hides in plain sight’ as the royal said: ‘This couldn’t be more true than in the case of counterfeit fashion.
‘A fake handbag or football shirt may look harmless, but it often carries with it the fingerprints of exploitation.
‘The Anti-Slavery Collective is determined to make sure consumers understand the true cost of these items, and to call for greater accountability across supply chains.’
