Sarah Ferguson is dropped as patron of children’s hospice after leaked email showed her apologising to ‘supreme friend’ Jeffrey Epstein

The Duchess of York has been dropped by a charity as a patron after new revelations about her contact with late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Children’s hospice charity Julia’s House today said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to stay involved with Sarah Ferguson after her emailed apology to Epstein emerged.

The announcement came as both the Duke and Duchess of York were spotted for the first time since the latest scandal was revealed by the Mail on Sunday. 

Julia’s House said in a statement: ‘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.

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

The Duchess’s visits to the Julia’s House Children’s Hospice in Devizes, Wiltshire, included one in October 2018 – of which she shared photos on Instagram.

Writing on the social media site then, Fergie described the hospice as a ‘sanctuary of harmony and joy’ and praised the staff who support families and children with life limiting conditions.

Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson were seen travelling by Range Rover departing from Royal Lodge at Windsor Castle in Berkshire this morning.

Their emergence outdoors today follows the Mail on Sunday’s exposé of how ‘Fergie’ wrote to Epstein to apologise for disavowing him in a public statement following his conviction for child sexual abuse offences.

It has also been revealed the Duke and Duchess could be banned from taking part in private Royal Family occasions on the orders of his elder brother King Charles. 

In the newly published correspondence, Sarah issued a grovelling apology to Epstein for publicly disassociating herself from ‘her supreme friend’ when it emerged he had bailed her out financially – and she insisted she had only done so to save her career as a children’s author.

The bombshell email shows Sarah wrote to the convicted sex offender to ‘humbly apologise’ in 2011 just weeks after telling the press she had cut all ties with him.

In an earlier interview that year, she described her involvement with Epstein, who had served time for soliciting prostitution from a minor, as a ‘gigantic error of judgment’.

A spokesperson for Sarah has now said the email was sent to counter an aggressive threat Epstein had made to sue her for defamation.

The Duke of York has already been forced to relinquish all his public duties and offices as a result of his association with Epstein and is barred from attending official royal events.

But both the late Queen and her son, King Charles, have had their hands tied in preventing him from attending private family occasions, not least because the Duke has always denied any wrongdoing.

In recent years the Duke and, now, his ex-wife, have even appeared with the Royal Family on their annual walk to church at Sandringham on Christmas Day, as well as Windsor Castle at Easter.

And there was shock last week when they both appeared front and centre alongside senior royals at Westminster Cathedral at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent.

One source has told the Daily Mail that the King has tried ‘every avenue available to him’ to ring-fence his brother.

This includes cutting off all his private funding, withdrawing his security and trying to persuade him to downsize from Royal Lodge, his 30-room mansion at Windsor, by offering him alternative accommodation – such as Harry and Meghan’s former home, Frogmore Cottage.

Earlier this month it emerged that US investigators could have access to a damaging ‘cache’ of emails written by the Duke to Epstein, that could prove even more ‘explosive’ than those pertaining to his ex-wife.

Some insiders believe Charles will now have no option but to explore ways to prevent his brother attending family events in a private capacity too – or at least if does, do so in a less conspicuous manner, through the back door.

A source said, ‘It is about the last sanction he may be able to take’ – while pointing out there was a ‘real fear’ there might be more of this to come.

The bombshell email obtained by the Mail on Sunday revealed how the Duchess of York cynically lied when she pledged to cut ties with Epstein.

Just weeks after publicly disowning the vile billionaire, Sarah wrote him a gushing private message dubbing him a ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’ – and admitted she only distanced herself from him to save her own reputation.

The Duchess ‘humbly apologised’ to the convicted sex offender for letting him down and said she had been told to speak out if she wanted to save her career as a children’s author.

She wrote: ‘Sometimes the heart speaks better than the words. You have my heart. With lots of love, dear Jeffrey.’

The Duchess adopted a similarly appreciative tone in her email of April 26 2011, apologising for disowning him – while also trying to reassure him that she had never described him as a paedophile.

She told him she had been instructed to give the interview to protect ‘my career as a children’s book author and children’s philanthropist’ adding that she was ‘broken’ because ‘I saw all my children’s work disappearing’.

Pleading with the child abuser, she added: ‘I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that.’

She sent the grovelling message ‘from the truth of my heart’, less than two months after telling journalists: ‘I will never have anything to do with [Epstein] again.’

Those comments came on March 7 2011, amid mounting pressure over the links she and ex-husband Prince Andrew had to the paedophile – and the £15,000 bailout he gave her.

In an interview in the London Evening Standard with its then editor, Geordie Greig, she said that accepting Epstein’s money was ‘a gigantic error of judgment… I am just so contrite I cannot say’.

Another email obtained by this newspaper, which the Duchess sent on January 22, 2011 – is addressed to ‘my dear, dear friend Jeffrey’ and appears to thank him for his recent help with the huge debts she had racked up after years of lavish spending.

She wrote: ‘How can I thank you enough? You are a friend indeed and I will one day give it to you back. But I can not have the words to thank you now.’

A friend of the duchess has said she had ‘acted on advice’ when sending the grovelling email in an attempt to appease Epstein, adding: ‘Epstein aggressively threatened to sue her. He was a nasty, unpleasant and very threatening man.

‘She acted on the advice she was given [in writing the emails] to try and get him to drop the threat, which he subsequently did.

‘She stands by what she said many years ago. She deeply regrets any association with him and abhors paedophilia. She has worked for many years to support vulnerable young people.’

A spokesperson 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. She does not resile from anything she said then.

‘This email was sent in the context of advice the Duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats.’

Best known for her Budgie the Helicopter, Little Red and Helping Hand series, Sarah Ferguson has published more than 50 children and young adult books.

In November, she is due to publish Kindness Along The Way, the second book in her new series of Flora & Fen picture books.

She announced the first book of the series last year with a post on Instagram in which she appeared to be standing on the balcony of a luxury Alpine chalet or hotel.

Royal biographer Andrew Lownie has suggested the latest revelations could lead to publishers and charities severing their ties with the Duchess.

Andrew has long been tarnished by his associations with Epstein, especially the notorious 2001 photograph of him with his arm around 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, who accused the billionaire of trafficking her.

Sarah Ferguson is believed to have first met Epstein in the 1990s having been introduced by American British businesswoman Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the widow of banking tycoon Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, once one of Britain’s richest men.

In a testimony published last month, Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite jailed for 20 years for sex trafficking, described the Duchess as a ‘frenemy’ who lusted after Epstein.

Maxwell said of the Duchess: ‘She had a thing for him… and I thought that Sarah was trying to put the moves on Jeffrey.’

Epstein accuser Ms Giuffre died by suicide, aged 41, at her farm home near Perth in Australia.

She had previously told how Epstein and Maxwell kept her as a sex slave while flying her around the world and offering her to their powerful associates ‘like a platter of fruit‘.

She alleged they trafficked her to the Duke of York when she was 17 and was three times sexually assaulted by him – a claim which Prince Andrew has denied.

The prince reached an out-of-court settlement with her in 2022.

Andrew has denied her allegations and said he could not recall ever meeting her.

A photograph has been widely shared of them together in a London townhouse, his arm around her bare midriff, and was included in Ms Giuffre’s lawsuit against him.

Epstein killed himself in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14.