Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, visited the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein on two separate occasions while he was serving a jail sentence for child sex offences in 2009, according to emails and records released from the period.
Epstein was serving a 12-month term in a Florida facility for soliciting a child for prostitution when Ferguson met him at a Palm Beach office belonging to a company he had incorporated shortly before his sentence. Victims have alleged that Epstein carried out abuse at this same office while he was supposed to be in custody.
The work release programme that made the visits possible
Barely two months into his sentence in 2008, Epstein was granted a controversial work release programme by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The arrangement allowed him to leave his cell for up to 12 hours a day, six days a week, to work from an office at the Florida Science Foundation — a nonprofit he had incorporated just before his incarceration and dissolved shortly after his release. Critics of the programme have long argued that the lax supervision gave Epstein the opportunity to continue meeting women and potentially commit further abuse. The entity itself has drawn scrutiny: the Florida Science Foundation does not appear to have filed any public records with the IRS as a nonprofit, and a visitor log from the office during Epstein’s work release was later destroyed. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has faced multiple investigations into its handling of the arrangement.
It was under this regime that Ferguson visited Epstein. The first meeting took place in April 2009. On April 4 of that year, nine months into Epstein’s sentence, Ferguson emailed him asking if she could stop by for a “quick cup of tea” during a layover in Florida. She signed off the email chain with the line: “Love Sarah The red Head.!!” Epstein replied, giving her his office address and noting it was a short drive from the airport.
A second visit followed in May. According to the email record, Ferguson called Epstein from the UK on May 5, 2009, and then visited him in person on May 13. Epstein’s driver collected her from the airport, possibly accompanied by her then chief of staff, Martin Huberty. A further plan for Ferguson to visit Epstein’s office on her journey from Grenada to Canada fell through. On the day that meeting was scheduled, Epstein was due to see his sex addiction therapist at the office.
The tone of the correspondence
The emails between the two reveal an affectionate and familiar relationship during this period. Days after her April visit, Epstein told Ferguson she looked “great” and that he had read “everything you gave me”. He added that she should be the one running his company. Ferguson responded: “My dear spectacular and special friend Jeffrey. You are a legend, and I am so proud of you. Thank you for looking after me so well.”
Beyond the warm language, the emails show that the discussions centred on Ferguson’s business ambitions — particularly her proposed venture called “Mother’s Army”, which she intended to use to “amplify the voices of Mothers all over the world”. Epstein gave feedback on her plans, urging her to focus on financial projections and to recruit high-profile women to the initiative. She also sought his financial advice more directly. At one point she told Epstein she urgently needed £20,000 for rent, saying her landlord had threatened to go to the newspapers, and discussed her potential personal bankruptcy. It has been reported that Epstein later helped Ferguson avoid bankruptcy by paying £15,000 to an employee she owed money to, and that he may have bankrolled her for more than 15 years.
The emails also contain references to Ferguson suggesting on multiple occasions that Epstein should marry her.
There are separate reports that Ferguson may have taken her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, to visit Epstein in New York in February 2010 while he was under house arrest. Emails released in February 2026 further suggested that Ferguson might have taken her daughters to see Epstein in Miami in July 2009, days after his release from prison. The cost of flights for Ferguson and her daughters during that period was reportedly covered by Epstein.
Ferguson’s expressed regret
A spokesman for Ferguson has previously told the BBC that the Duchess spoke of her regret about her association with Epstein many years ago, and that her first thoughts have always been with his victims. The spokesman said: “Like many people, she was taken in by his lies. As soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations against him, she not only cut off contact but condemned him publicly, to the extent that he then threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with paedophilia.”
Ferguson herself has described her association with Epstein as a “gigantic error of judgment”. However, emails released in 2025 and 2026 revealed that in March 2011 — after she had already publicly distanced herself from him — she sent Epstein an email apologising for her remarks and calling him a “steadfast, generous and supreme friend”. Her spokesperson stated that this apology followed a threat from Epstein to sue her for defamation, a claim that aligns with the earlier statement about legal pressure.
