Sarah Ferguson has been axed by seven charities after an email she purportedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein was revealed.
The Duchess of York, 65, came under fire for allegedly sending Epstein an email in 2011 in which she called the sex offender her “supreme friend” and seemed to apologise for publicly cutting ties with him, according to the Mail on Sunday.
Now, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew has been dropped as patron or ambassador by a series of charities following the backlash.
Children’s hospice Julia’s House was the first to remove Sarah after the email emerged, saying it would be “inappropriate” for her to continue in her role.
The Teenage Cancer Trust, the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the Children’s Literacy Charity, the National Foundation for Retired Service Animals, and Prevent Breast Cancer have all also dropped the duchess as a patron.
The British Heart Foundation followed suit and confirmed she would no longer serve as its ambassador.
“We are grateful for the Duchess’s support for our work and thank her for her past efforts to help us save and improve lives by funding pioneering research into cardiovascular disease,” they added.
According to the BBC, Sarah’s spokesperson declined to comment on the charities’ decisions.
It comes after the Mail on Sunday published a 2011 email purportedly sent by Sarah to Epstein after she publicly claimed to have cut ties with him.
Sarah had previously told journalists, “I will never have anything to do with [Epstein] again,” after mounting pressure over her and her ex-husband, Prince Andrew’s links to the paedophile.
Speaking to the Evening Standard at the time, she had apologised for accepting £15,000 ($30,000) from Epstein and described it as a “gigantic error of judgement”.
However, just a month after making the remarks, Sarah allegedly wrote to Jeffrey and told him she had given the interview to protect her career as a “children’s philanthropist”.
“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 added.
In another email, sent before her March 2011 interview, Sarah allegedly thanked her “dear, dear friend Jeffrey” for the loan to help her pay off her debts.
“Sometimes the heart speaks better than the words. You have my heart. With lots of love, dear Jeffrey,” it purportedly read.
In June 2008, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail on charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from someone under 18.
After his release from jail, Epstein faced allegations from multiple women claiming to be his victims, and he was arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2019.
He was accused of paying underage girls for massages and molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and, as he awaited trial, he was found dead inside his New York cell in August 2019. Investigators said he killed himself.
In December 2021, Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was found guilty of helping Epstein sexually abuse young girls.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022, and her appeal against her sex trafficking conviction was rejected by a US court in September 2024.
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