Sarah Ferguson Called Epstein a “Supreme Friend” in Leaked Email, but There’s a Backstory

An email exchange from 2011 between the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, and the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein was leaked to the Daily Mail in mid-September 2025. The message was so disturbing that several charities have since dropped Fergie as an ambassador. While this isn’t the first time a member of the British Royal Family has been tied to Epstein, but it’s the way Fergie referred to him as a “supreme friend” that has raised concern.

The timing of the email makes it even stranger, considering she had just publicly called her involvement with him a “gigantic error of judgment” shortly before sending that email. But there’s apparently a backstory behind why she sent it in the first place. Here’s what prompted it.

The email Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 carried an apologetic tone, almost as if she were trying to make amends for publicly criticizing him just weeks earlier during a March 2011 interview with the Evening Standard, per The Guardian.

In the email, Fergie wrote, “You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.” She also added, “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.”

What makes this apology email particularly disturbing is that by 2011, many of Epstein’s schemes were already known, even though it wasn’t until July 2019, a month before his suicide in jail, that he was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges. He had also served some jail time, mostly in a work-release program in 2008 for soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution of a minor, according to News Nation. So, basically, his misconduct wasn’t a secret.

Now, the email, in which Fergie called Epstein a “supreme friend,” was reportedly sent after she had publicly described her involvement with him, including accepting £15,000 to cover some of her debts, as a mistake in that March 2011 interview. She also reportedly called him a pedophile at one point, though she later told him she did not use that word to describe him.

So, why send an apologetic message after publicly criticizing him? According to Daily Mail, it appears Epstein had made threats, and she felt obliged to respond in a way that would smooth things over.

Fergie’s spokesman and advisor, James Henderson, told the Daily Mail that after Fergie spoke negatively about Epstein publicly, he threatened her, saying he “would destroy the York family.” Henderson, who spoke with Epstein directly, recalled that he had threatened legal action for her comments.

“He [Epstein] said he would destroy the York family, and he was quite clear on that. He said he would destroy me. He wasn’t shouting. He had a Hannibal Lecter-type voice. It was very cold and calm and really menacing and nasty,” Henderson said, calling the call “chilling” and saying he remembered every detail.

While Fergie may have been acting out of desperation to protect her family, not everyone sees it that way.

Any connection to Epstein, especially sending an email apologizing to him and praising his friendship, is not something the public takes lightly. As a result, many charities Fergie is involved with have cut ties.

According to the BBC, Julia’s House, The Teenage Cancer Trust, National Foundation for Retired Service Animals, The British Heart Foundation, Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the Children’s Literacy Charity, and Prevent Breast Cancer have all ended their association with the Duchess of York.