Sarah Ferguson has been dropped by six major charities after an email surfaced revealing she apologized to Jeffrey Epstein for publicly distancing herself from him. The revelations ended the decades-long patronage of Britain's Duchess of York with organizations including the British Heart Foundation, Teenage Cancer Trust, and Prevent Breast Cancer, the Telegraph reports. In the 2011 email, Ferguson described the convicted sex offender as a "steadfast, generous and supreme friend."
Several charities said Ferguson's continued patronage would be "inappropriate." Charity leaders, such as the founders of the Natasha Foundation, said they were disturbed by the content of her emails. Ferguson, the ex-wife of the UK's Prince Andrew, was attempting to repair relations with Epstein shortly after she publicly condemned him in light of his conviction for procuring a child for prostitution. In the emails, she sought to reassure Epstein and clarify she had not explicitly called him a pedophile. Ferguson's spokesperson said that she broke ties with Epstein as soon as she learned the full extent of the allegations against him, and that her conciliatory message was sent under legal pressure after threats from Epstein.
The email was published over the weekend in the Mail on Sunday and Sun newspapers. Months before writing the email, per the BBC, Ferguson said in an interview that her involvement with Epstein had been a "gigantic error of judgment," saying, "What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed." Her ex-husband similarly lost his royal patronages and other public duties over his relationship with Epstein and accusations of sexual abuse.
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