When news broke at the weekend of the Duchess of York‘s secret ongoing association with the financier Jeffrey Epstein even after he’d been convicted of paedophilia, Fergie’s many children’s charities had to think fast.
How could they possibly carry on an association with a woman who, as the Mail on Sunday revealed, had described Epstein as ‘my dear, dear friend Jeffrey’ in emails sent at a time when she was in full knowledge of his child sex offences and subsequent imprisonment.
The children’s hospice Julia’s House was the first to realise that any further relationship with a woman who had so clearly misled everyone about the true extent of her relationship with the toxic Epstein was untenable. Saying that any further involvement with the Duchess would be ‘inappropriate’, it dropped her as its patron.
Within hours, six other charities had followed suit, including the Teenage Cancer Trust. But perhaps the most telling move from Fergie’s point of view was the decision by The Children’s Literacy Charity to ask her to step down as patron.
Where does this decision leave the bosses at New Frontier Publishing, who have just announced the November release date of her latest book, Kindness Along The Way, a work aimed at young children?
Quite apart from what impact going ahead with publication might have on their brand, how can they now, in all conscience, release a book written by an author exposed as being a confidante of a convicted sex offender?
After all, Fergie even admits in her grovellingly apologetic emails to Epstein that she only distanced herself from him ‘to save her own reputation and her career as a children’s author‘.
No charity executive could possibly read Fergie’s emails and not come to the conclusion that she is now completely beyond the pale. Far from living up to her vow to ‘have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again’, she resumed contact with him within weeks via a series of gushing emails.
Seven charities have cut ties with Fergie after her emails to Jeffrey Epstein were uncovered by the Mail on Sunday
In one email, she described the convicted paedophile as ‘my dear, dear friend Jeffrey’
She not only referred to him as my ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’, but added – in the language of a lovestruck schoolgirl – ‘Sometimes the heart speaks better than the words. You have my heart. With lots of love, dear Jeffrey’.
It doesn’t take someone with a master’s degree in crisis management to realise that the emails sound the death knell for Fergie’s credibility – insofar as she had any left.
Outside palace doors – in the real world – if any patron or CEO of a charity maintained an intimate level of contact with such a sinister and poisonous individual, they would be given their marching orders so fast their feet wouldn’t touch the ground.
Now Fergie’s craven duplicity has been revealed for all the world to see, her reputation is trashed for ever.
Such is the impossibility of her position she might even be forced to sack herself. How can she possibly remain as patron of Sarah’s Trust, the charity she established in 2020 with a mission to support ‘vulnerable families and children’.
In the decades since she married Prince Andrew in 1986, Fergie has committed many legendary missteps but in first befriending a man such as Epstein and then secretly carrying on their friendship when she knew exactly what sort of monster he was is surely the most egregious of them all and one from which she must not be allowed to recover.
The sad thing is that her actions do not just damage her reputation but the reputation of the institution of the monarchy itself.
In indulging this reckless loose cannon and her worthless ex-husband for so many decades, King Charles and the rest of the Royal Family have tacitly accepted their outrageous excesses.
In indulging this reckless loose cannon and her worthless ex-husband for so many decades, King Charles and the rest of the Royal Family have tacitly accepted their outrageous excesses, writes Amanda Platell
What Charles doesn’t get is that every time he is pictured with the Yorks his reputation and that of the monarchy is diminished, writes Amanda Platell
Not so the irascible but perceptive Prince Philip who, according to Andrew Lownie – the author of a brilliantly revealing biography of Prince Andrew that was recently serialised in the Daily Mail – questioned Fergie’s motives for marrying Andrew from the start. In Philip’s view, she was a dim-witted ‘girl on the make’.
If only Charles had shown even a smidgen of his father’s insight. Instead of side-lining his greedy, scandal-riven brother Andrew in the wake of Epstein’s conviction on sex charges, the forgiving Charles – all too often too kind for his own good – allowed him and his wife to attend and be photographed at family occasions.
Not only were they welcomed back into the fold to the extent that they were included in the traditional walks to church at Christmas and Easter but, only last week, given front row seats at the funeral of the Duchess of Kent, where they proceeded to embarrass William and others.
What Charles doesn’t get is that every time he is pictured with the Yorks his reputation and that of the monarchy is diminished.
They have come to represent everything the general public has come to resent: unearned, inherited privilege coupled with a lust for excess.
The King should be less worried about breaching ancient royal protocol by banning Andrew and Fergie from ‘family’ events and more concerned with the feelings of his subjects.
At a time when polls are showing that support for the monarchy – not only among the young but even among devout loyalists – is sinking fast it is vital that he looks to the consequences his behaviour is having on his own credibility.
Instead of wringing his hands and indulging his worthless parasite of a brother and his serially disgraced ex-wife, Charles should be focusing on the future of the monarchy.
It is no exaggeration to say that, in the medium to long term, the very survival of the Windsors as a royal house could be at risk.
In the circumstances, no right-minded person – even a staunch monarchist like myself – will tolerate anything less than the complete removal of the Yorks from public life in perpetuity.
Yes, the British monarchy has survived more than 1,000 years, but does Charles not realise that we live in a world of #MeToo cancel culture, and that the Yorks’ association with a paedophile is the most damaging scandal to hit them in many years.
Fergie may have been uncharitably christened the ‘Duchess of Pork’ due to her ongoing problems with her weight but now the expression relates to her legendary greed and taste for opulent living.
From the very beginning she has been a blue-blood leech sucking the Royal Family dry. Now she is dragging them into a scandal which, in this woke world, I fear the monarchy may never fully recover from – unless action is taken now.
The King must rue the day, three months ago, when he gave the duchess a very public display of endorsement at Ascot’s royal enclosure, almost genuflecting as he kissed the Duchess of York’s hand.
It’s a picture that may well come back to haunt him.
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