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UK charity axes Prince Andrew's ex-wife over Epstein email / Photo: © POOL/AFP
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UK charity axes Prince Andrew's ex-wife over Epstein email
A UK children's charity said Monday that it had severed ties with Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of disgraced Prince Andrew, after an email emerged between her and convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In the 2011 message obtained by The Mail on Sunday, Ferguson -- widely known by her nickname Fergie -- called him a "steadfast, generous and supreme friend" and apologised for disowning him.
The Duchess of York told Epstein she had been instructed to give a critical interview about him weeks earlier to protect "my career as a children's book author and children's philanthropist".
In that interview, Ferguson vowed to "never have anything to do with" Epstein again and called a £15,000 ($20,000) loan the billionaire had made to her "a gigantic error of judgment".
Ferguson, 65, has previously said Epstein gave her the loan to help her pay off debts.
On Monday, the children's hospice charity Julia's House said it had ended its relationship with Ferguson "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," it said in a statement.
"We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support."
Ferguson, who married Prince Andrew in 1986 before the couple divorced a decade later, has since reinvented herself as an author, media personality and charity patron.
She has remained close to Andrew -- whose elder brother is King Charles III -- and stayed loyal to him after his public downfall over his own Epstein links.
The pair, who still live together at Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, west of London, had been making a tentative return to the public spotlight, both appearing at the Duchess of Kent's funeral last week.
Following the reports about her 2011 email, a spokesman for Ferguson said it was sent "in the context of advice the duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats".
Reports have said he had been considering a defamation lawsuit against her over the interview.
R.Zakrzewski--GL
