Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson removed from charity over Epstein email

The Duchess of York has been removed as patron of a children’s charity, in the wake of an email emerging in which she called sex offender Jeffrey Epstein her “supreme friend”.

Julia’s House, a children’s hospice charity serving families in Dorset and Wiltshire, has removed Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Prince Andrew, from her role as a patron.

“Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York’s correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia’s House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity,” said a charity spokesperson.

“We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support.”

A spokesperson for the duchess said she was not commenting on the charity’s decision.

Another charity, the Teenage Cancer Trust, for which the duchess has been a patron for 35 years, says it is currently reviewing the situation.

The Julia’s House charity’s ending of its links with the duchess follows the publication of an email from her to Epstein in 2011, which appears to have been sent after she had publicly broken off contact with him.

The email appeared to privately apologise for her public rejection of Epstein, saying: “You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.”

That seemed to contradict her public denunciation of Epstein in an interview earlier that year, in which she had said her involvement with him had been a “gigantic error of judgement” and that: “What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.”

A spokesperson for the duchess said her subsequent email to Epstein, describing him as a friend, had been sent because she was trying to counter a threat from him to sue her for defamation – and that she still really regretted any association with him.

“This email was sent in the context of advice the duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats,” said a statement from her spokesman at the weekend, when the email to Epstein had been published.

The email exchange was several years after Epstein’s jailing for sex offences in 2008.

The duchess became patron of the Julia’s House charity in 2018 and had visited one of its hospices, although she appears now to have been removed from the website, no longer appearing alongside other patrons, which include football manager Eddie Howe, actor Nigel Havers and designer Jasper Conran.

The hospice charity helps children with “life-shortening and life-threatening conditions”, supporting them and their families.

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and ex-husband of the duchess, stood down as a working royal and lost his royal patronages after challenges over his association with Epstein, including in a BBC Newsnight interview in 2019.

The contact with Epstein had continued after he had been released from jail – with Prince Andrew being photographed with Epstein in New York’s Central Park in 2010.

There has been increasing pressure in the US for the release of any information about Epstein and his famous connections, which has seen more details emerging, including messages sent to him in alleged “birthday book”.

Epstein died by suicide in jail in New York in 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.