{"id":153217,"date":"2025-09-22T13:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/153217\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T13:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T13:56:09","slug":"charity-cuts-ties-with-sarah-ferguson-over-message-to-jeffrey-epstein-sarah-ferguson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/153217\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity cuts ties with Sarah Ferguson over message to Jeffrey Epstein | Sarah Ferguson"},"content":{"rendered":"

A charity has severed ties with Sarah, Duchess of York, after it emerged she had described the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> as a \u201csupreme friend\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the duchess has previously said the comments were made in a letter of apology<\/a> to Epstein that was written in 2011 to head off threats of legal action after she had linked him to paedophilia in a newspaper interview.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the children\u2019s hospice Julia\u2019s House said the correspondence rendered Ferguson no longer suitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York\u2019s correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia\u2019s House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity. We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sun newspaper reported that the duchess had \u201chumbly apologised\u201d to Epstein for linking him to paedophilia in the media, and described him as \u201csteadfast\u201d and \u201cgenerous\u201d. Her spokesperson said it was sent \u201cin the context of advice the duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats\u201d.<\/p>\n

The email stemmed from an interview with the Evening Standard on 7 March 2011, in which Ferguson apologised for accepting \u00a315,000 from the sex offender. \u201cI abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say,\u201d she had told the paper. \u201cWhenever I can, I will repay the money and have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, a little more than a month later, the duchess sent the message to Epstein. In it, she said: \u201cI know you feel hellaciously let down by me. And I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that. You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cI was advised in no uncertain terms, to have nothing to do with you and to not speak or email you. And, if I did, I would cause more problems to you, the duke and myself. I was broken and lost. So please understand. I didn\u2019t want to hurt Andrew one more time. I was in overriding fear. I am sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

The duchess\u2019s spokesperson previously said Ferguson had spoken of her regret about her association with Epstein and \u201cdoes not resile\u201d from condemning him publicly.<\/p>\n

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, in the US, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A charity has severed ties with Sarah, Duchess of York, after it emerged she had described the disgraced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-153217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}