Pressure is mounting on Sarah Ferguson to testify in the US over her links to Jeffrey Epstein, although there has been no formal request for her to do so.
Files released by the Department of Justice in January revealed she remained in contact with the disgraced financier, including just 17 days before his release from a Florida jail for soliciting sex with minors.
US lawmakers have repeatedly called for Ferguson’s former husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, to answer questions about his links to Epstein, and she is now facing calls to do the same.
Despite the renewed scrutiny, Ferguson, 66, has kept a low profile in recent months, fuelling speculation over whether she could be asked to give evidence.
Some insiders believe she will instead stay out of the spotlight and avoid appearing before any congressional committee in what insiders see as a final act of loyalty to Andrew.
Jonathan Coad, a media lawyer who has previously represented Ferguson in defamation and privacy cases, said there was ‘no chance’ she would travel to the US.
‘Of course she won’t, and if she were still my client, my very strong advice to her would be not to go,’ he told the BBC.
‘It would be a disaster for her, for her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie – and also for Andrew, as it would show him up for not going.’
Pressure is mounting on Sarah Ferguson to testify in the US over her links to Jeffrey Epstein. Pictured: Princess Beatrice of York, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and Princess Eugenie of York
US lawmakers have repeatedly called for Ferguson’s former husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, to answer questions about his links to Epstein and she is now facing calls to do the same
Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, a member of the House Oversight Committee investigating the handling of Epstein’s prosecution, said he now believed she had ‘information related to the investigation’
He added that Ferguson should give sworn testimony to the committee.
There is no legal mechanism to compel Ferguson to testify in the US.
But Subramanyam said that lawmakers would be happy to work out terms that work for her as long as she was under oath.
Subramanyam’s calls were echoed by Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, who urged anyone with information of wrongdoing by Epstein and his associates to cooperate in order to ensure justice for the survivors.
The family of prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre also said they ‘strongly believed’ the former Duchess of York should go to the US to answer questions.
Speculation about Ferguson’s next move has sent the rumour mill into overdrive, with some claiming she’s been offered six-figure sums from US networks for an interview.
There have also been whispers that Ferguson has been considering writing a tell-all memoir.
Earlier this month, Ferguson was snubbed for a £1.5million book deal in America as no one wanted to enable her to ‘cash in on the Epstein scandal’, according to Hollywood sources.
She had pitched the idea of a tell-all memoir to major US publishing houses looking for a deal ‘in the region of $2million (£1.49million)’, but all of them have rejected her, the source said.
Following the revelations in the files, sources say Fergie has been looking to cross the pond to try to publish her side of the story in a new book.
Hollywood sources told The Sunday Express: ‘She ended up with a string of rejections and zero response in a few cases.
‘It seems no one is remotely interested in being seen to be enabling her to cash in on the Epstein scandal that has torn her family apart and ruined her ex-husband.’
It’s a far cry from her previous foray in the States, where she has worked as a correspondent for NBC’s Today show and appeared as the face of Weight Watchers in adverts.
Ferguson has a history in the publishing sphere as well as a prominent children’s book author – most recently in 2024 with a kiddies’ book called Flora and Fern, following her 2023 romance novel A Most Intriguing Lady.
In her numerous mentions in the Epstein files, it appears he had been financially supporting her for over a decade and a half.
Files released by the Department of Justice in January revealed she remained in contact with the disgraced financier, including just 17 days before his release from a Florida jail for soliciting sex with minors
Pictured: Andrew kneeling over an unidentified woman in an image that appears in the Epstein Files
In one 2009 email, she is thought to have said to the paedophile financier: ‘I urgently need 20,000 pounds ($27,521) for rent today.
‘The landlord has threatened to go to the newspapers if I don’t pay. Any brainwaves?’
The same year, emails suggest that the then-Duchess of York had been enthusiastically updating Epstein on opportunities for books and other brand deals opening up.
In one gushing message, she appears to say ‘Just marry me’ after a string of compliments to the paedophile who had been convicted of soliciting sex from a minor the year before.
Ferguson even seemed to reference her own children with Epstein, apparently talking of then-19-year-old Eugenie coming back from a ‘s****ing weekend’ in 2010.
She is also believed to have introduced her then-22-year-old goddaughter to Epstein following his release from prison.
On her apparent failed book deal, one Sunday Express source said: ‘Any notion she might have had about keeping her American dream alive now seems to have been killed off completely.
‘Commercially, as the failed book deal shows, she has become a pariah.’
