Jeffrey Epstein‘s years of bailing out Sarah Ferguson became a joke with the billionaire paedophile who was sent a tongue-in-cheek email about how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor would ‘sell his daughters’ to see his ex-wife debt-free.
The former Duchess of York, 66, accepted at least £115,000 ($150,000) from Epstein even after he had been convicted of soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.
During 15 years of his financial patronage, Fergie also allegedly took Epstein’s cash to pay her rent, her personal assistant’s wages as well flights to the US for her and Beatrice and Eugenie to visit him days after his release from prison in 2009.
But in a period when Ms Ferguson called him her ‘supreme friend’ and the ‘brother I have always wished for’, privately her debts were the butt of jokes with Epstein.
And her ex-husband Andrew’s desire for the sex offender to clear her debts – instead of him – was clearly a subject of mirth too.
In an Epstein Files document unearthed today, the financier was sent a joke about the Yorks described as so funny it was the ‘best one yet’.
An unnamed friend of Epstein sent him a newspaper headline entitled: ‘Andrew sold daughters to pay Fergie debts’.
Writing to Epstein’s personal email address, the friend said of the story: ‘It caught me off guard I laughed so hard I choked and shot snot out of my nose!’.
And suggesting stories about Andrew and Fergie were a source of fun between them, they signed off: ‘Best one yet!!!’.
It is not clear if the headline in March 2011 was from a genuine news story or satirical, given how Beatrice and Eugenie were repeatedly dragged into their parents’ dealings with Epstein.
Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s reliance on Epstein to clear her debts appears to have become a butt of jokes with the paedophile
Epstein was a convicted sex offender when Ms Ferguson (right in the files) was bailed out by him
In an Epstein Files email unearthed today, the financier was sent a headline about Fergie and Andrew described as the ‘best one yet’ – suggesting her debt pile was a butt of jokes. It is not clear if the headline was from a genuine news story
In her numerous mentions in the Epstein files, it appears he had been financially supporting her for over a decade and a half.
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.
Her ex-husband Andrew also sought Epstein out to settle Fergie’s debts.
Emails released in the Epstein Files shed new light on the former Duke of York’s walk in Central Park with the convicted paedophile, and what he was still willing to do to help his big spending ex-wife.
The infamous picture from December 2010 came at a time when Fergie was mired in debt – but it was their old friend Epstein who bailed her out again.
Andrew told Epstein, then convicted of child sex offences, they would ‘play some more soon’ as they discussed settling her debts, one document shows.
‘It would seem we are in this together’, the disgraced royal told his paedophile friend.
Fergie’s personal assistant of almost 20 years, Johnny O’Sullivan, had been owed $126,721 in wages and the tuition costs for an MBA at Columbia University that his boss had promised to pay for.
Three months after Andrew and Epstein strolled through Central Park, the convicted sex offender brokered a deal with Mr O’Sullivan for around half the money, although he dragged his heels about paying and called Fergie’s loyal aide a ‘little sh*t‘.
Fergie would later claim having Epstein pay her bills was a ‘gigantic error of judgement’ and branded him a paedophile.
Behind the scenes she was then furiously backtracking with Epstein to claim she didn’t think he was a child sex offender.
After speaking with Andrew, Epstein had stepped in to broker the deal with Mr O’Sullivan – and kept Andrew directly up to date.
In an email to Andrew he wrote: ‘He [Johnny] said he would take 60k in wages, pay tax and be done.. I don’t trust him at all, and a payment from me at the moment if disclosed to the press would look like a payoff for the little sh*t.’
Andrew replied: ‘I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me!’.
It was signed ‘A’, for Andrew.
Epstein appears to have paid – but initially resisted. A 2015 picture of Epstein’s desk showed on it was a letter that titled ‘Settlement – John O’Sullivan’.
It stated that an agreement for the reimbursement of $59,933 (around £44,433) had been made between Mr O’Sullivan, and the former Duke and Duchess.
Another email, suggests that he did.
Epstein wrote: ‘Whatever we think of him we are going to have to deal with him one way or another.’
He added: ‘He wants to get as much money as he can, I am trying to structure something where he signs papers and they are held until his money is received, otherwise he will get the money not sign and use the money to sue.
‘He is trying to divide and conquer I hope you can deal with him as I don’t think I can do anymore my end’.
Since the Epstein files were released, she has become somewhat of a pariah.
Last seen out in public in London on December 12 for the St James’s Palace christening of her youngest granddaughter Athena Mapelli Mozzi, the former Duchess of York has dramatically disappeared from view.
Now, three months on, and with speculation at fever pitch about where she might be.
There have been possible sightings in Dubai, Switzerland and Ireland. Her old friend Priscilla Presley has been forced to deny that she is putting her up in LA.
Pictured: Andrew kneeling over an unidentified woman in an image that appears in the Epstein Files
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 and Princess Eugenie of York
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.
