Sarah Ferguson has landed in hot water after an email resurfaced from 2011, where she refers to Jeffrey Epstein as her "Supreme Friend" and apologises for criticising him publicly.
Following the shocking revelation, as of Monday, September 22, the Duchess of York has been dropped by seven charities as a patron or ambassador.
Julia's House, a children's hospice, was the first to remove Sarah from their patron list, sharing that it would be "inappropriate" for her to continue in the role amid her alleged link with the disgraced financier.
The Teenage Cancer Trust — where she had been a patron for 35 years — has also announced her removal alongside other charities, including the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, Children's Literacy Charity, National Foundation for Retired Service Animals and Prevent Breast Cancer.
Furthermore, the British Heart Foundation said she would no longer be its ambassador.
The shocking setbacks came after multiple outlets published a 2011 email from the duchess to Epstein, which appears to have been sent after she had publicly claimed to have broken off contact with him.
In the email, she seemingly apologised for her public rejection of the sex offender, penning, "You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family."
The disturbing statement contradicted her public denunciation of Epstein in an interview, in which she had said her involvement with him, including borrowing money, had been a "gigantic error of judgement".
Moreover, in the interview, the Duchess of York noted, "What he did was wrong, and for which he was rightly jailed."
A rep for the duchess said her subsequent email to Epstein, describing him as a friend, was written to counter a threat from him to sue her for defamation, and that she still really regretted any association with him.
On the other hand, Sarah Ferguson's former husband, the Duke of York, was previously forced to step down as a working royal and lost his patronages due to his own link with Jeffrey Epstein.
