.jpg){kind=link}
Sarah Ferguson has leapt to the defence of her former husband Prince Andrew, insisting that allegations he had sex with a teenager purportedly groomed by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein are “all nonsense” in an interview for Vogue Arabia.
The Duchess of York, who has two daughters with the prince, said what he had done for the country was “incredible”.
The duchess told the magazine:
“The last six months have been hard on the girls and me. To see such a wonderful man go through such enormous pain… He is the best man I know. It’s just incredible what he has done for Britain, and it’s all nonsense.”
Sarah Ferguson added:
"When I talk about Prince Andrew, I talk about family because the last six months have been hard on the girls and me.”
The Duchess was referring to her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Beatrice, 31, is reportedly feeling the fallout from revelations that her father, Prince Andrew, was connected to Jeffrey Epstein.
Princess Beatrice and her fiancé, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, have yet to set a wedding date after the official engagement announcement back in September – mostly due to the Duke of York’s scandalous interview, the Daily Mail reported, citing sources.
The Duchess of York divorced the prince in 1996, but the two have remained close and live together in Windsor.
Disgraced Prince
The crisis surrounding the embattled Duke of York over the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has led to Buckingham Palace suspending the prince from all royal and public duties.
A statement on 20 November announcing that the Duke of York was “stepping back from public duties for the foreseeable future” with the Queen’s permission.
He has also resigned from his role from a number of organisations – including as royal patron of the York Minster fund and the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service, and as chancellor of Huddersfield University.
The ‘Sex Slave’ Scandal
Prince Andrew's accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, is one of a number of women to come forward with allegations about disgraced American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Giuffre alleges she was forced to sleep with Prince Andrew on a trip to London in 2001 when she was 17-years-old.
On 2 December Giuffre gave her first UK television interview for BBC Panorama on the Epstein scandal, claiming she was an underage trafficking victim forced into sex with the prince on three occasions.
The Duke of York has denied ever having had a sexual relationship with one of Epstein’s alleged sex slaves and claims he had no knowledge of crimes committed by the financier.
However, fallout from the prince’s ill-fated interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis, in which he failed to say he regretted his relationship with Epstein and fell short of expressing sympathy for his victims, did little to further his cause.
Convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein had been under investigation for nearly two decades at the time of his suspicious death in custody earlier this year.
The paedophile’s death in jail was ruled a suicide by a coroner but generated a degree of suspicion due to the fact the influential American billionaire was reportedly linked to many ‘high and mighty’ people.