She was already skating on ice thinner than a Christmas After Eight, but shocking new claims of Sarah Ferguson‘s deeper links to Jeffrey Epstein is a triple Salchow too many. And amid decades of previous scandals, debt crises and dodgy business associates, it begs the question: “Where does Fergie actually go from here?”
The former Duchess of York’s ill-judged friendship (to put it extremely mildly) with the vile US financier and convicted sex trafficker has already seen her ostracised by London‘s high society, Mayfair’s top clubs and most royals. Obviously she’s still welcome in the Middle East with businesses there happy to throw cash at anyone with vague royal connections.
Peter Andre’s nepo teen celebrity daughter Princess would probably get their red carpet rolled out in the mistaken belief she’s a Mountbatten-Windsor.
But to ordinary Brits, the line in the sand was already drawn with Sarah Ferguson in the summer after a leaked email saw her describe paedophile Epstein as a “supreme friend”.
To give some context, back in 2011 Fergie gave an interview – after Epstein’s 2008 sex trafficking convictions – to stress her prior involvement with Epstein had been a “gigantic error of judgment”.
She vowed she would never have anything to do with Epstein again, saying: “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children.
“I cannot state more strongly that I know a terrible, terrible error of judgement was made, my having anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.”
But in September 2025 an email surfaced claiming that shortly after giving the interview in 2011, the duchess emailed Epstein to apologise for that public act of distancing – calling him a “supreme friend”.
In that email she stressed she never used the word “paedophilia” in reference to him, writing pleadingly to the millionaire: “As you know, I did not, absolutely not, say the ‘P word’ about you but understand it was reported that I did.
“I know you feel hellaciously let down by me. You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.”
A spokesperson for Ferguson later claimed her email was only sent as Epstein threatened to sue her for defamation – and it was an effort to convince him not to.
But shocked charities dropped her as their patron or ambassador like one of Asterix and Obelix’s famous menhirs.
So what’s happened now?
Last weekend the Express revealed, like that resurfaced email, Fergie’s claims of staying away from Epstein after his 2008 conviction may not be the case.
Now, it has been alleged that Sarah Ferguson stayed at apartments closely tied to the shamed multi-millionaire for up to three years after that 2011 Epstein denouncement interview.
Andrew Lownie, whose bombshell biography on Fergie and ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was released earlier this year, claims several eyewitnesses saw her entering and exiting a block of flats in New York City “up until 2014”.
Lownie alleged Sarah “regularly used Epstein’s flats as free accommodation while in New York on business or pleasure”. Sometimes, he claimed, she would be there “twice a month”.
The block in question was 301 East 66th St, just around the corner from Epstein’s seven-story Manhattan mansion that sold for £38m in 2011.
The building on East 66th Street was owned by Epstein’s brother, Mark, at the time. Several flats within it were handed to Jeffrey to use free of charge, Mark told Lownie – and it is one of these the author believes Fergie used.
Lownie claims to have spoken to several sources who had seen Sarah entering and leaving the apartment. They were mainly neighbours of Epstein’s, and one of Ghislaine Maxwell’s friends, as well as the doorman of the building.
Lownie added: “She was seen by a local resident Claudine Prabst who got chatting to doormen whilst out dog walking after she had seen Fergie emerge from the building one day. Epstein housed various women in the block.”
Sarah Ferguson has neither confirmed nor denied these new claims.
In 1995 she backed a project launched by bankrupt businessman Clive Garrard to open a nursing home named after her and had to withdraw her support before Garrard was jailed for VAT fraud.
In 2010, she was at the centre of the ‘cash for access’ scandal, when she was secretly filmed by an undercover reporter offering to sell an introduction to Andrew for £500,000. She was heard boasting: “I can open any door you want.”
Now as she’s set to quit Royal Lodge in Windsor for good, what does her future hold?
Fergie once sold a range of gifts called The Duchess Collection. I suggest she brings out a new range of perfumes. She desperately needs something to drown out the lingering stench that Epstein has left on her.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
