Newly released emails have sparked fresh outrage after revealing claims that Sarah Ferguson took her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, to visit convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein just five days after his release from prison.
According to the emails, the former Duchess of York visited Epstein in July 2009 at his Palm Beach mansion, less than a week after he walked free from a Florida jail where he had served 12 months for soliciting a child for prostitution and was placed under house arrest. At the time, Beatrice was 20 and Eugenie just 19.
The meeting was confirmed in an email Epstein sent to his then partner Ghislaine Maxwell on July 28, 2009, where he bluntly wrote that “ferg and the two girls” had come to see him the previous day.
Emails also show that the visit was personally arranged by Ferguson herself. In one message sent the day before, she asked Epstein what address they should come to, noting it would be herself, Beatrice and Eugenie, and casually asking whether they would be having lunch together.
The correspondence suggests the trio met Epstein at his lavish Palm Beach home, where he reportedly served vegetable lasagne prepared by a Parisian chef. In later emails released in October, Epstein complained that Ferguson failed to publicly defend him after his conviction, despite being the first to visit him following his release, even with a police officer stationed at his front desk.
The documents form part of more than three million files released by the US Justice Department and also hint at Epstein attempting to orchestrate meetings between the York sisters and his goddaughter, Celina Dubin, the daughter of billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin.
The revelations are said to have deeply distressed Beatrice and Eugenie. Sources close to the sisters say they are “aghast”, “appalled” and “mortified” by their mother’s emails and the extent of her relationship with Epstein after his conviction.
One insider said the sisters were horrified by what they read and embarrassed by how close their parents appeared to be to Epstein, adding that they had little understanding of the full picture until the latest release of documents.
The emails also revive earlier controversies, including messages in which Ferguson praised Epstein, referred to him as a “legend”, joked about marrying him, and even congratulated him on supposedly having a baby boy — fuelling speculation he may have had a secret child.
The disclosures come as renewed scrutiny falls on the York family’s long-standing links to Epstein, with public reaction once again focusing on the impact the scandal has had on Beatrice and Eugenie, who insiders insist were innocent parties dragged into their parents’ deeply damaging associations.
