An email from Sarah Ferguson suggests Jeffrey Epstein may have had a secret child.
The former Duchess of York wrote to Epstein in 2011, shortly after his release from jail, saying she had been told he had become a father to a “baby boy.”
She said she had heard the news from “The Duke,” her ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and contacted Epstein via BlackBerry Messenger despite having fallen out of touch.
“Don’t know if you are still on this BBM but heard from The Duke that you have had a baby boy. Even though you never kept in touch, I am still here with love, friendship and congratulations on your baby boy. Sarah xx,” she wrote in the message, sent about 14 years ago on Sept. 21, 2011.
Although the email implies Epstein had a son, it has never been proven that he fathered any children. During his lifetime he did not acknowledge having offspring, though more than 100 people have reportedly since claimed to be his children and have tried to claim a share of his estate.
A second email from Ferguson, also sent in September 2011, shows her accusing Epstein of vanishing and using her as a way to reach Mountbatten-Windsor. “You have disappeared. I did not even know you were having a baby. It was sooooo crystal clear to me that you were only friends with me to get to Andrew. And that really hurt me deeeply [sic]. More than you will know,” she wrote.
Separate correspondence in the files shows that a few years before, Epstein directed a private investigator to dig into Ferguson’s affairs. In an email dated Aug. 20, 2009, an associate told him: “Fergie data collection remains slow.”
Epstein’s response was: “Keep on it.”
In a follow-up message, the same person complained about the state of her finances. “Getting financials for Fergie is painful. Incredible mess. I’m on it but for sure completeness will always remain questionable,” the email said. The exchanges indicate Epstein was gathering sensitive information on Ferguson even while maintaining a public friendship with her.
The Ferguson correspondence is among about 3 million Epstein records released by the Department of Justice, along with roughly 180,000 photographs and 2,000 video files, on Friday. The material is being disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which ordered the department to publish all documents related to Epstein by Dec. 19, though officials have missed that deadline and are releasing material in batches.
Ferguson features repeatedly in the latest tranche. The files indicate she stayed in contact with Epstein after his conviction and offered him and his associates VIP visits to Buckingham Palace.
The papers further confirm that Mountbatten-Windsor’s dealings with Epstein continued long after the royal later claimed to have cut ties. The files show that their association continued until at least 2017, around seven years after he said he had ended contact. Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his remaining royal titles by the kng last year, is shown in one newly released image kneeling over a woman whose identity is obscured.
Newly released images also show the former prince crouched on all fours over an unidentified woman, whose face is redacted. Other documents describe Epstein offering to introduce Mountbatten-Windsor to a “beautiful” 26-year-old Russian woman named Irina.
The Ferguson email referring to a child will add to competing claims over Epstein’s fortune. His last known girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, was named as the main beneficiary in a will he altered shortly before his death in a New York jail in 2019, with plans for her to receive most of his assets, including his homes and private island.
One newly released file records a woman telling investigators she had “created” a daughter with Epstein in a “beautiful fertility ritual.” Officials have not verified the story, and the Department of Justice has warned that the cache of records contains numerous “untrue and sensationalist” allegations which should not automatically be treated as factual.
Want more royal gossip, scoops and scandal? Click through to follow all Tom Sykes’ reporting at The Royalist on Substack.
