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Prince Andrew told Jeffrey Epstein ‘we’re in this together’ and will ‘rise above’ in email

Left: Jeffrey Epstein and right: Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.
Left: Jeffrey Epstein and right: Prince Andrew, the Duke of York (Picture: AP/EPA)

Prince Andrew emailed Jeffrey Epstein in glowing terms months after he had supposedly visited him to end their friendship, it is claimed.

He is said to have written to him the day after the infamous photo of him with his arm around Virginia Giuffre in London, taken by Epstein, was published in the Mail on Sunday.

The message read: ‘I’m just as concerned for you! Don’t worry about me! It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it.’

Despite claiming he had visited the paedophile billionaire in New York to sever ties, he told Epstein to ‘keep in close touch’ and added: ‘We’ll play some more soon!!!!’

The email made no mention of the photo of the Prince with a teenaged Ms Giuffre allegedly being falsified, something which has been suggested on other occasions.

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Ms Giuffre, who killed herself earlier this year, has alleged she was flown to London with Epstein as his ‘sex slave’ aged 17, and taken to Ghislaine Maxwell’s townhouse where she was informed she would be meeting the prince.

The email was reportedly sent the day after this photo was published in the press (Picture: AFP or licensors)

In court documents, Giuffre said she was the victim of sex trafficking and abuse by Epstein from the age of 16.

Part of the abuse involved being lent out to other powerful men – including Prince Andrew, she alleges.

Ms Giuffre says the duke sexually assaulted her on three occasions when she was under the age of 18, the first time being in 2001 in London. 

The royal has denied Giuffre’s allegations. In 2022, they reached an out-of-court settlement after she sued him for sexual assault – just days before the civil trial was expected to begin.

Prince Andrew has since been been unable to shake off the scandal, despite trying to publicly distance himself from Epstein.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre, with a photo of herself as a teen, when she says she was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew, among others (Picture: Getty/TNS)

During an interview with BBC Newsnight in 2019, the Duke claimed he had not had any contact with him after being photographed walking in a park with him in New York in December 2010, saying he had only gone there to inform him in person that he wanted to end the friendship.

But the email claiming ‘we’re in this together’ was sent on Februry 28, 2011, the Sun reported, several months after their contact was said to have ceased.

This is not the first time that this email has been in headlines.

It was revealed in court after former Barclays boss Jes Staley was banned from holding top financial roles in the UK because of his links to convicted sex offender Epstein, including working as his private banker.

Mr Staley appeared against the decision to ban him by the Financial Conduct Authority, and as part of the case, the email was referred to.

An excerpt was quoted in legal filings, said to be from ‘a member of the British Royal Family’, however details about its sender and full contents were not confirmed at the time.

Last month, Prince Andrew’s ex wife Sarah Ferguson was fired from her position as patron for a children’s hospice after calling Epstein a ‘supreme friend’ in an email months after publicly distancing herself from him.

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