Prince William and his father are at odds over whether to banish Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew over their friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a royal source has told the Daily Mail.
King Charles doesn’t want to completely disown the Duchess of York and his brother because he they have been loyal to him and the Crown – unlike Harry and Meghan.
The monarch is facing huge pressure to expunge Fergie over the grovelling messages she sent to her ‘supreme friend’ Jeffrey Epstein.
So far seven charities publicly severed their partnerships with the Duchess of York in 24 hours, with others still reviewing their positions.
But the more hardline Prince of Wales considers his uncle and aunt to be ‘pair of chancers’ and had enough of them long before the Duchess of York’s latest scandal.
‘His face as he stood next to Andrew at the Duchess of Kent’s funeral said it all’, an insider said.
‘William feels even more strongly than the King that Andrew and Fergie are an embarrassment and will be urging his father to act’, the source claimed.
‘The optics of that pair of chancers guffawing away [at events] look terrible’.
However, for now, Charles is said to not want to cut all ties to repay their loyalty, ensure his sister-in-law doesn’t go rogue like the Sussexes and respect the wishes of his late mother the Queen.
Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has been engulfed by scandal again with the King under huge pressure to expunge her for good like so many charities have over Epstein and her calling him her ‘supreme friend’
Charles and William are said to have differing views on how to handle to Prince Andrew and his ex-wife with the Prince of Wales likely to be ‘urging’ his father to take the chance to cut them loose (pictured together at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent last week
But he will likely immediately ban the divorced couple from appearing in public with the Royal Family at events such as Christmas. He may also finally evict them from Royal Lodge, their Windsor mansion, which William is said to be demanding as a minimum.
‘The difference between the Yorks and the Sussexes is that Andrew and Fergie have never publicly criticised the monarchy or the King. Andrew’s friends say that even in private they’ve never heard him say a bad word about his brother’, the Mail’s royal source said.
‘The King doesn’t want to cut ties with his brother, former sister-in-law and that side of the family. The late Queen, conscious that Fergie was the mother of her granddaughters, always took that view, even if Prince Philip couldn’t bear to be in the same room as Sarah’.
But the monarch faces a battle with Prince William who will be ‘urging’ his father to take the chance to cut them loose and kick them out of their 30-bedroom home close to Windsor Castle.
William has his eye on the future of the Royal Family and for the good of the family they must never be seen at events again, the Mail’s insider has said.
The Prince of Wales is said to want them out of the Royal Lodge to fend for themselves. Andrew has reportedly refused to move to the much smaller Forgmore Cottage.
The royal source has suggested the Palace may advise Sarah Ferguson to do a mea culpa interview.
‘I think there’s plenty more to come out yet about Epstein and Andrew. Perhaps the Royal Household should be thinking about pre-empting it all by coming clean?’, the source said.
‘The Duchess of York can be extraordinarily charming. So I’m sure she will be backpedalling furiously. But this latest scandal threatens her ability to earn money as well as her charity patronages. Who can say what effect that will have on the Yorks’ ability to afford the costs of staying at Royal Lodge, where they live at opposite ends of the (30-room) house?’
Sarah, Duchess of York, is glimpsed in the back of a Range Rover as she is driven from Royal Lodge at Windsor on Monday
In emails revealed by The Mail on Sunday this weekend, she described Epstein as a ‘supreme friend’ and ‘humbly’ apologised for an interview in which she disowned him after a £15,000 loan he gave her came to light.
Astonishingly, she told Epstein she only tried to distance herself from him to save her reputation and work as a children’s author.
The Teenage Cancer Trust has dropped Sarah, Duchess of York as patron after 35 years.
Several charities severed ties with the duchess on Monday after it emerged she apologised to the sex offender in April 2011 after publicly disowning him in the media.
In a statement, the Teenage Cancer Trust said: ‘We have made the decision to end our relationship with the Duchess of York, and as of today she is no longer a patron of Teenage Cancer Trust.
‘We have communicated this decision to the Duchess. We would like to thank the Duchess of York for her support.’
The charity’s announcement followed similar statements from Wiltshire and Dorset-based children’s hospice Julia’s House, Prevent Breast Cancer, and The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, who all cut ties with the duchess on Monday.
The British Heart Foundation also said the duchess was no longer a serving ambassador for the charity.
Julia’s House was the first to announce its decision to end its association with the duchess, saying it would be ‘inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity’ – citing her correspondence with Epstein as a deciding factor.
Prevent Breast Cancer, which the duchess became a patron of last year, also announced it was cutting ties with her.
She joined forces with the charity following her own experience with breast cancer in 2023, but a spokeswoman confirmed she was no longer a patron and thanked her for her work.
Food allergy charity The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation also announced it had dropped the duchess as a patron, with the founders saying they were ‘disturbed’ to read her correspondence with Epstein.
The charity, which was launched after teenager Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died from a severe allergic reaction to eating a baguette, asked the duchess to become a patron when it was founded in 2019.
In a statement, founders Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse said: ‘We were disturbed to read of Sarah, Duchess of York’s correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein.
‘Sarah Ferguson has not been actively involved with the charity for some years.
‘She was a patron, but in the light of the recent revelations, we have taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue to be associated with the charity.’
A spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation thanked the duchess for her ‘support for our work’ and for ‘her past efforts to help us save and improve lives by funding pioneering research into cardiovascular disease’, as the charity also cut ties with her.
The Sun newspaper reported that the duchess ‘humbly apologised’ to Epstein for linking him to paedophilia in the media, describing him as ‘steadfast’ and ‘generous’.
Her spokesman said it was sent ‘in the context of advice the duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats’.
The email stemmed from an interview with the Evening Standard on March 7, 2011, in which she apologised for accepting £15,000 from the sex offender.
During the interview, she told the newspaper: ‘I 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.
‘Whenever I can, I will repay the money and have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.’
A little over a month later, the duchess sent a message to Epstein, in which she said: ‘I 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.’
It continued: ‘I 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’t want to hurt Andrew one more time. I was in over-riding fear. I am sorry.’
The duchess’s spokesman previously said she had spoken of her regret about her association with Epstein and ‘does not resile’ from condemning him publicly.
He added that Epstein had threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with paedophilia.
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.
