The Duchess of York has been removed as patron of a children's charity, following the emergence of an email in which she called sex offender Jeffrey Epstein her supreme friend.
Julia's House, a children's hospice charity serving families in Dorset and Wiltshire, has removed Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Prince Andrew, from her role as patron.
Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York's correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia's House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity, said a charity spokesperson.
We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support.
A spokesperson for the duchess said she was not commenting on the charity's decision.
The charity's ending of its links with the duchess follows the publication of an email from her to Epstein in 2011, which appears to have been sent after she had publicly broken off contact with him.
The email appeared to privately apologise for her public rejection of Epstein, saying: You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.
That seemed to contradict her earlier public denunciation of Epstein in an interview in 2011, where she had labelled her involvement with him as a gigantic error of judgement and stated, What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.
A spokesperson for the duchess noted that the email describing Epstein as a friend was sent to counter a threat from him to sue her for defamation and that she deeply regrets any association with him.
This email was sent in the context of advice the duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats, explained her spokesman after the email's publication.
The duchess became patron of Julia's House in 2018 and had visited one of its hospices. However, she is now absent from the charity's website, which highlights other patrons, including football manager Eddie Howe, actor Nigel Havers, and designer Jasper Conran.
