Jeffrey Epstein urged to 'avoid any involvement' with 'disastrous' Andrew and Fergie, new emails reveal

Newly-released files relating to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein reveal he was advised to avoid contact with Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Sarah Ferguson because it would be "disastrous" for his image.

A public-relations firm tasked with trying to rebuild Epstein's reputation after his stint in prison said it would be in the financier's best interests to keep his distance from the couple.

In an email from 2011, advisors from Osborne & Partners LLP told Epstein some British newspapers would focus on his past friendship with the former prince and his ex-wife, suggesting the issue would become too much of a distraction.

Epstein had been jailed following his 2008 guilty plea to child sex trafficking offences and hoped to have his image restored following his release.

The email said: "Since it is an unambiguous objective of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday to take down Prince Andrew, it is disastrous for you to be seen in any way to facilitate his lifestyle, or to help with his well documented issues.

"You need to studiously avoid any involvement whatsoever with the couple, which will lessen the interest and we can establish a constructive relationship on your behalf with them.

"In the fullness of time, it will be possible to run a positive piece about your philanthropy."

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Epstein later died of suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.

Thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein's estate have been released by the US House Oversight Committee, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and President Donald Trump.

The US House of Representatives is now ordering President Trump's Justice Department to publicly release all of its investigative files into Epstein.

Andrew, who until late October was known as the Duke of York, told the BBC he had cut off all contact with Epstein in December 2010.

But an email revealed the former prince kept in touch with Epstein until at least February 2011.

That email sent by Andrew to Epstein containing the promise that they would "play some more soon" ultimately sealed his fate.

King Charles stripped all of Andrew's royal titles and evicted him from Royal Lodge.

Ferguson, too, is now looking for new accommodation.

In September, Ferguson was dropped from multiple charities after it emerged she had described the late convicted sex offender a "supreme friend"

"I know you feel hellaciously let down by me from what you were either told or read and I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that," she wrote.

A spokesperson for Ferguson later said she was simply following advice to distance herself from Epstein.

She had apologised to Epstein, the spokesperson said, because he "threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with paedophilia".

Months before that email was sent to Epstein, Ferguson had told a UK newspaper she had made a "terrible, terrible error of judgment" in being friends with Epstein and accepting his money to pay off her debts.

Ferguson told the Evening Standard newspaper she would have "nothing ever to do" with Epstein again.

"I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf," she said.

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