Thomas Lanz
Sarah Ferguson introduced her goddaughter to Jeffrey Epstein after his first stint in prison for soliciting prostitution from a child, emails show.
The shamed former Duchess of York gave the late sex offender contact details for Poppy Cotterell, the daughter of her former lady-in-waiting, adding ‘Over to you!’
Ferguson, 66, who has been sheltering in a famous Swiss clinic as the growing Epstein scandal culminated in the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on Thursday, sent the late paedophile her goddaughter’s details on November 12, 2010 – 16 months after he was released from prison in Florida.
Epstein set up a meeting with the then 22-year-old, considered employing her and making a $100,000 donation in her name to a children’s health charity, emails released by the US Department of Justice as part of the latest tranche of Epstein files reveal.
Ms Cotterell’s mother Carolyn was a lady-in-waiting to the former duchess and godmother to her eldest daughter, Beatrice.
An email from ‘Sarah’, addressed to Epstein and titled ‘Poppy Cotterell’s contact info’, reads: ‘Over to you! Lots of love’.
Ms Cotterell, now 38 and a private psychotherapist and yoga teacher in London, met the sex offender at his Manhattan home.
Epstein had emailed his assistant telling them to organise a meeting. They soon replied: ‘Poppy Cotterell will come see you on Wed at 2:00 at the house.’ An email on the day of the meeting said: ‘Poppy Cotterell is here’.
Following the meeting, Epstein’s assistant wrote: ‘Poppy Cotterell would love to hear more and be introduced to Dr Merrell and his alternative medicine for children charity.’
They added: ‘I have put Poppy and Carinda at Dr Merrell’s office in touch with each other.
‘Poppy is thrilled. I will follow up to see when the tour will take place… also let Dr Merrell’s office know you would like to donate $100,000 in Poppy Cotterell’s name.’
Epstein, who committed suicide in his prison cell in August 2019, also offered Ms Cotterell a job.
An email from Mark Lloyd, a friend of Epstein, said: ‘Hi Jeffrey, I gather you might be employing Poppy Cotterell.’
Epstein replied: ‘What do you know about Poppy… good choice? Not good?’
Mr Lloyd said: ‘From what I hear she is both extremely bright and very pretty. I knew her late mother, but do not know her at all.’
Ms Cotterell, who has been engaged to the businessman Samuel Swire since 2023, told The Sun: ‘In 2010 at the age of 22, I was working in New York as an intern at an art gallery when I was introduced to Mr Epstein about a possible job looking after his art collection.
‘After meeting Mr Epstein he offered me a role, which I declined. I never met him again.
‘I was not aware of Dr Woodson Merrell’s charity before I met Mr Epstein, did not request a donation to be made to it and do not know if a donation was ever made.’
The revelations pile further pressure on Ferguson who has already faced scrutiny after it emerged she took her daughters Beatrice and Eugenie to meet Epstein a mere five days after he was released from prison for child sex crimes.
Other embarrassing emails show her begging Epstein to help pay off her mounting debts, even asking him to employ her as his house assistant as she ‘desperately’ needed cash – despite knowing he was still under house arrest in Florida for child prostitution.
In another email, she issued a grovelling apology for publicly denouncing him, claiming it had only been to protect her career as a children’s author, telling him he had been a ‘steadfast, generous and supreme friend’.
On Saturday, the Daily Mail revealed that Ferguson checked herself into the most expensive wellness clinic in the world as details about her close friendship with convicted Epstein ruined her.
While Andrew was photographed repeatedly in Windsor and then on the Sandringham estate, Ms Ferguson has not been seen in public since last year.
This prompted global speculation about where the former royal has been living – and the Daily Mail has now established that, for much of the time, she has been sheltering in a famous Swiss clinic.
Fergie secretly took refuge in the world-renowned £13,000-a-day Paracelsus Recovery Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland, over a month ago.
A Swiss source told the Daily Mail: ‘Sarah left for Zurich just after Christmas, and stayed until the end of January.
’She always feels at home at Paracelsus, and knows she’ll get love and attention there, as well as expert health treatment when she’s feeling at her most vulnerable.’
The lakeside clinic offers several different month-long recovery programmes for ultra-wealthy clients. Individuals will have access to 15 medical experts, as well as a chauffeur and a private chef.
Another friend in Switzerland told the Daily Mail Ms Ferguson – a regular Paracelsus client – was said to have been ‘absolutely crushed’ by the email exchanges being publicly released.
The friend said: ‘Sarah has built up a strong relationship with Paracelsus, so it was the obvious place for her to get away from everything.’
Following the prolonged stay at the clinic, thought to have lasted several weeks, the globe-trotting former royal is subsequently thought to have spent time in both the French Alps and the United Arab Emirates.
Following the release of millions of the so-called Epstein files by the United States’ Justice Department, Ms Ferguson’s entangled relationship with the financier became clear.
Emails revealed that the former duchess and her beleaguered ex-husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, had kept up their close friendship with the paedophile even after he was first convicted of procuring a minor for prostiution.
Insiders say she has since been ‘sofa-surfing on a global scale’ – relying on her daughters to help her keep a low profile by piggybacking on their work and social arrangements.
She travelled to Doha to be with Eugenie, who was at an Art Basel event in Qatar, then flew to Florida with her son-in-law Edo Mapelli-Mozzi as he attended a design conference in Palm Beach.
She moved on to a French ski resort to ‘get her head together’ with friends then thought to have hopped over to Switzerland to Eugenie’s ski holiday in Gstaad last week.
A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Sarah is sofa-surfing on a global scale by moving around every few days and deliberately not telling people where she has been staying until she’s left the location. She is paranoid her location will be discovered so is moving frequently.
‘She notifies friends of her last location only once she has safely moved on to the next. She wants to avoid being photographed. The girls would hate for their mother to be seen looking startled and fraught like former Prince Andrew.’
She is understood to be already scouting around for a new PR team to represent her as she plans her return to the UK, however, some friends are sceptical she would be able to restart her life here.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read the Full Story…
