Jeffrey Epstein’s brother is pushing back on speculation that the sex trafficker had a secret child.
An email from Sarah Ferguson in the latest Epstein files release suggested that Epstein may have fathered a child.
The former Duchess of York wrote to Epstein in 2011 saying she had heard from “The Duke,” her ex-husband Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, that he had become a father to a “baby boy.”
“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 via BlackBerry Messenger on Sept. 21, 2011.
The email sparked speculation that the disgraced financier, who died in jail while awaiting trial in 2019, may have had a child, who would be a teenager today.
But Epstein’s younger brother shut down the rumor on Monday.
“He doesn’t have any kids,” Mark told the Daily Beast. He claimed that Ferguson’s email “wasn’t directed at Jeffrey, it was directed at somebody else.”
Mark added that it “doesn’t make any sense” that “Fergie was the only person on the planet that saw Jeffrey had a fictitious kid.”
It has never been proven that Epstein 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.
Another message Ferguson, now 66, sent on the same day in 2011 also refers to the supposed baby.
“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,” Ferguson wrote to Epstein.
The Ferguson correspondence is among about 3 million Epstein records released by the DOJ, along with roughly 180,000 photographs and 2,000 video files, on Friday.
One newly released file records a woman telling investigators she had “created” a daughter with Epstein in a “beautiful fertility ritual.” But officials have not verified the story, and the DOJ has warned that the cache of records contains numerous “untrue and sensationalist” allegations which should not automatically be treated as factual.
Epstein’s 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. Shuliak, a Belarus native, came to the U.S. as a 20-year-old in 2009 and is believed to have entered Epstein’s circle shortly afterward, according to The Independent.
Epstein’s beneficiaries ultimately did not receive his money or property. ABC News reported that $288 million was to be distributed, but Epstein’s estate has only $127 million left after paying out victim settlements. That remainder is tied up in the U.S. Virgin Islands court system.
