Sarah Ferguson organized a trip to visit convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in the United States just 48 hours after his release from jail, bringing her daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie with her, newly released documents have revealed.
Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff sent an email on July 24, 2009 requesting approval to purchase flights for the Duchess of York and her two daughters from Heathrow to Miami and from New York back to London. The correspondence, released in the Epstein Files, detailed travel costs totalling nearly $15,000.
According to the email, Fergie would fly business class at a cost of $9,244.16 whilst her daughters would travel in economy class with combined tickets costing $4,835.94. Groff asked Epstein: “Do I have your permission to purchase these tickets!?”
The trip took place just two days after Epstein completed a 13-month sentence for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14. It remains unclear whether Epstein approved payment for the flights, though the former Duchess of York and her daughters did make the journey to America.
The released documents also revealed emails in which Ferguson suggested Epstein should marry her on multiple occasions during the months following his release from prison. In one message sent on September 17, 2009, she described a single female friend to the sex offender, writing: “You can marry her too. She is single and [sic] a great body.”
Ferguson added in the same correspondence: “Ok well marry me and then we will employ her,” suggesting the mystery woman could join them as a staff member.
Additional emails released in the Epstein Files show the paedophile financier repeatedly arranged accommodation for Ferguson during visits to the United States. In July 2010, Epstein offered her a place to stay for a second week, according to the correspondence.
Ferguson sent a series of emails to Epstein in July 2010 after being caught in a tabloid newspaper sting appearing to accept $500,000 in return for securing access to Prince Andrew, who was then serving as a UK trade envoy. She described feeling isolated and under attack from the British press and royal establishment.
In one message, Ferguson thanked Epstein for being her “pillar” and stated she was “totally on my own now” and about to be “exterminated” in the UK. She wrote that the Palace couldn’t “behead” her so would instead “discredit me. Totally to obliteration,” making reference to the executions of Henry VIII’s wives Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard.
“I am now 1000 per cent being hung out to dry, just as I predicted you will see, the Press will have me exiled,” she wrote to the convicted sex offender.
At the time of the correspondence, accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers were auditing Ferguson’s financial accounts. She had agreed to an interview with Oprah Winfrey in which she discussed facing bankruptcy and being unable to pay rent, leading her to take a room in her ex-husband’s Royal Lodge home.
It subsequently emerged that Epstein had paid off some of Ferguson’s debts, though she later described the arrangement as a “gigantic error.”
