Sarah Ferguson has been accused of “putting the moves” on the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell in new transcripts released by the US Department of Justice.
The Duchess of York, Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, was described as a “frenemy” by Mr Epstein’s former girlfriend.
Ms Maxwell, a British socialite, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in the US after being found guilty of child sex trafficking and other offences relating to Mr Epstein in 2021.
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In an interview with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche from July, the 63-year-old claimed Sarah Ferguson had pursued ties with the New York financier.
Sarah Ferguson has been accused of 'putting the moves' on Jeffrey Epstein by Ghislaine Maxwell
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“I thought that Sarah was trying to put the moves on Jeffrey, if I’m being honest, and I thought the whole thing was annoying and I was p****d off,” Ms Maxwell alleged.
To that end, the 63-year-old claimed it was Fergie who had sought to connect her then husband, Prince Andrew, with Mr Epstein.
She continued: “I think Sarah is the one that pushed that. And they met and hung out, I want to say two or three times that had nothing to do with me.”
Ms Maxwell explained that she believed Fergie: “Liked Mr Epstein.”
Ghislaine Maxwell made the claims in a US Department of Justice interview in July
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Conversely, the 63-year-old suggested that the Duchess had not “liked me very much” and described her as a “frenemy”.
GB News has approached the representatives of Sarah Ferguson for comment, who declined to do so, and those of Prince Andrew, who has yet to respond.
Ms Maxwell claimed she did not have a close relationship with Prince Andrew, adding that the Duke’s friendship with the Mr Epstein had left her frustrated.
“I wasn’t communicating with Andrew, I wasn’t in touch with him,” she told Blanche.
Ms Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for crimes committed in connection to Mr Epstein
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“I know this because I was annoyed and I felt left out, and I felt disrespected and I was like, this is weird. I couldn’t even imagine Epstein and Andrew together,” Mrs Maxwell added.
Andrew’s link with Mr Epstein has been the subject of intense scrutiny, intensified by his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019.
In the interview, the Prince suggested he had met the New York financier “through his (Epstein's) girlfriend back in 1999” who he’d known “since she was at university in the UK”.
However, Mrs Maxwell denied the Duke’s account of his friendship with Mr Epstein, rubbishing the suggestion that it was she who had brought them together.
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Prince Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing relating to his relationship with Mr Epstein
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“First of all, let’s just state, I did not introduce him to Prince Andrew. I did not introduce him to Prince Andrew or to Sarah Ferguson. That is a flat untruth. I’ll start with that,” she claimed.
The Duke of York was sued for unspecified damages by one of Mr Epstein’s first accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre.
The case was settled out of court by Prince Andrew who has consistently denied any wrongdoing.