London: Sarah, Duchess of York, wrote to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, calling him a “steadfast, generous and supreme friend” after claiming she had cut ties with him, according to an email obtained by newspapers.
The email, published by the Sun on Sunday and Mail on Sunday, shows the duchess contacting Epstein in 2011, after he was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution.
The duchess had given an interview in March that year, apologising for the “terrible, terrible error of judgment” in associating with him and accepting his money, promising she would have “nothing ever to do” with him again. But in April, according to the emails, she sent Epstein a message “from the truth of my heart”, saying she must “humbly apologise”.
Sarah, Duchess of York, and Prince Andrew, Duke of York, at a requiem mass for Katharine, Duchess of Kent, last week.Credit: Getty Images
“I know you feel hellaciously let down by me,” she wrote, insisting that she had not used the “P word” [paedophilia] in her interview condemning him. “You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.”
It is understood that, at the time, the duchess had received aggressive threats from Epstein following her interview, and had been advised to tell him whatever was necessary to prevent him from taking legal action against her.
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A spokesman for the duchess said: “The duchess spoke of her regret about her association with Epstein many years ago, and as they have always been, her first thoughts are with his victims.
“Like many people, she was taken in by his lies.
“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 paedophilia.
