Sarah Ferguson has been blamed for Prince Andrew’s disastrous interview with BBC Newsnight.
The Duke of York broke his silence over his friendship with disgraced financier and convicted convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
WATCH: Prince Andrew says he’s ‘never really partied’ and that he was ‘very happy’ with Sarah Ferguson
One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Roberts said she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times between 1999 and 2002, in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein. At the time she was under-age according to Florida state’s law.
Another woman called Johanna Sjoberg has accused Andrew, father to Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, or groping her breast while they sat on a couch in Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.
Now a source claims the Duchess of York is being blamed for the car crash interview, as she reportedly “encouraged” and “convinced” the prince to take part in the interview.
A royal source told Daily Mail: “Andrew has been relying on Sarah heavily. In fact she’s been the prince’s biggest champion and he values her opinion and experience.
“When the possibility of this interview arose, Sarah felt that it could be the best way of clearing his name while presenting the public with a look at the real Andrew.
“The interview gave him the chance to address the negative headlines rather than leave them unanswered and present his version of events.
“Given how damaging this scandal has been in the past six months, Sarah felt Andrew needed to get ahead of the matter to give his public image a better chance of recovery.
“She backs him to the hilt; and while this is unusual for a prince to go on TV, she felt that these were exceptional times and unusual circumstances.”
Earlier this month, Virginia Roberts Giuffre spokes out about being Epstein’s sex slave in an interview with 60 Minutes, and called on Prince Andrew to “stop with the lame excuses”.
In the explosive TV interview, she spoke of her life as Jeffrey Epstein’s sex slave and described in detail how she was “trafficked” to the Duke of York when she was 17.
During the interview, Virginia, now 35, pulled out the infamous photo of her with the prince that she says was taken the night she had sex with him.
While Andrew has consistently said the photo is fake, Virginia disagreed.
“This photo has been verified as an original and has since been given to the FBI and they’ve never contested that it’s a fake,” she said.
“I know it’s real and he needs to stop with all of these lame excuses, we’re sick of hearing it.
“This is a real photo. That’s the very first time I met him.”
In August, Prince Andrew’s legal team cast doubt over the photograph saying he has “absolutely no recollection” of it being taken, with sources close to the prince questioning whether the photo was real, pointing out that his fingers “don’t look right”.
Virginia went on to describe the events leading up to her alleged first sexual encounter with Andrew, which she said started when she was taken to a club in London.
“We went to Club Tramp, he danced with me, and he sweats a lot and he smells funny.
“And then we get in the car and Ghislaine [Epstein’s partner] tells me in the car that I have to do what I do for Jeffrey for Prince Andrew.
“And that’s when I learned what was going to happen.”
Virginia claims she had sex with Andrew three times, once in London, another time at Epstein’s New York City mansion, and again at Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
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