Inside Epstein’s plot to ‘blackmail’ Sarah Ferguson over paedophile comments

Jeffrey Epstein was preparing to blackmail Sarah Ferguson after she used an interview to distance herself from the convicted paedophile publicly, new emails reveal. In 2011, days after Ferguson told the Evening Standard newspaper that she abhorred “paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children” and described accepting money from Epstein as “a gigantic error of judgment”, he collated a dossier of written exchanges highlighting their close relationship. The extracts were sent to Epstein’s lawyers and a public relations expert for the legal team and included a message in which Ferguson attempted to arrange a visit to Epstein with her daughters, then aged 19 and 20, at his Palm Beach home shortly after he was released from prison in 2010 for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Shorts Conversations captured in the Epstein Files suggest this incriminating information was used to attempt to pressure Ferguson into a public climbdown. A legal letter was written to Ferguson’s lawyer in April 2011, after the former royal’s comments sparked a flurry of reporting on Epstein, urging her to “reconsider her current stance”. If she did not, Epstein’s team said they would “undermine the credibility of those comments by pointing out that your client and her daughters were among the first to enjoy my client’s hospitality upon his release from prison and continued to do so until very recently”. The note was branded a threat by Ferguson’s representative, who described the tone of the email as “somewhat alarming”, adding that it “could be construed as attempted blackmail”. Accusations that Epstein was trying to ‘blackmail’ Ferguson were raised in correspondence between representatives working on behalf of the two figures (Photo Illustration: Lucie Wimetz/The i Paper/US Department of Justice) Other emails between Epstein and those advising him show they discussed ways to “turn up the heat” on Ferguson. As well as revealing that the former Duchess of York took her daughters to visit Epstein shortly after his release from prison in Florida, Epstein also collated messages in which she appeared to plead for his help, such as asking him to employ her and telling him “you are my pillar”. He added a note alleging Ferguson had used his Florida property to entertain one of her lovers and a millionaire businessman she was attempting to secure a lucrative deal with. When asked for a response to Epstein’s attempts to get her to publicly defend him, and to the claims made in his messages, Ferguson and her representative, who acted on her behalf in the 2011 emails, both declined to comment. Within days of Ferguson’s comments being published, Epstein began forwarding their intimate correspondence to his lawyers (Photo Illustration: Lucie Wimetz/The i Paper/US Department of Justice) Epstein’s anger at ‘very close’ friend Fergie “It doesn’t surprise me one little bit,” royal historian Andrew Lownie said of Epstein’s apparent threat to blackmail the former Duchess of York. “Epstein was very angry. He had given her lots of money and they were very close. He wanted loyalty from people and he thought he could buy that.” The author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, which charts the lives of Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as well as their relationship with the paedophile financier, explained that Epstein kept information on people for leverage, be it emails or photos. Last week, The i Paper revealed that a photo appearing to show Ferguson modelling as a young woman was framed and displayed in Epstein’s “playboy ranch” in the US. Apology for a ‘gigantic error’ Ferguson apologised publicly in the 7 March 2011 interview, after it emerged she had accepted around £15,000 from the convicted sex offender. She said: “I personally, on behalf of myself, deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me.” She added: “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf.” She would later be exposed in the Epstein Files as having potentially misled the public by claiming that she had not personally contacted Epstein for financial help following his 2008 conviction. Within days of her comments appearing in print, on 9 March 2011, the files show that Epstein appeared to hatch a plot to leak damaging information about Ferguson to the press, including details of how the then-duchess visited Epstein while he was imprisoned on a child sex offence. The suggestion of “leaking to London press the absurdity of Fergie’s statements, [and] there were law enforcement people in my office when I was on work release that let her in,” is raised by Epstein in an email to a public relations expert for his legal team. Epstein put in writing that Ferguson had been granted entry by law enforcement officers to visit him while he was in prison (Photo Illustration: Lucie Wimetz/The i Paper/US Department of Justice) On 10 March and 12 March, Epstein forwarded personal correspondence between himself and Ferguson to his team. Shortly after, on 13 March, Epstein, his lawyers and their media experts debated other ways of trying to pressure her. One of the legal team’s media experts wrote: “One of your good friends, a member of the Royal family, is calling you a pedophile… If gentle persuasion doesn’t work, it is my view that we need to turn up the heat even to the point of sending her a draft defamation lawsuit.” The tension between the pair rumbled on, with efforts to put her name to a letter of apology circulating between both sides into the summer of that year. He made his anger and expectations of Ferguson clear, writing on 27 March: “Your friend of 16 years has been put through hell, you should do everything you can to fix it including a statement of clarification.” Ferguson sent a number of emails to Epstein apologising directly, including one note that read: “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.” By 12 August, Ferguson and Epstein appear to be good friends once again, with him asking her to call him, and her replying: “I would love to call you”. A second email is sent from Ferguson, seemingly after their call. The former duchess writes to Epstein two words: “Big love”.