ATTERSON

## FILTHY RICH

in a yacht surrounded by topless

suit, Epstein had forced her into
Jeff's.

British press were using another x Island. The Guardian reported slands-based corporations owned wife of the governor of the Virgin 3 involving a million-dollar dona- o the governor's reelection cam- oberts's claim that she had been rince on the island as well as in

1 of Prince Andrew with his arm very young-looking Virginia Rob- ared in the tabloids.

hat the Duke of York had any form
ship" with Roberts, Buckingham
ay. "The allegations made are false

h Ferguson, the Duchess of York, e prince and their daughter Euge- ters, "He is the greatest man there of my life in 1986 when I married st in the world."

se I know what it feels like to have you-and not support him so pub- shockingly accusatory allegations,

which I don't think is right," she said a few days later when inter- viewed by Today host Matt Lauer. "It's a defamation of character, and as a great father and a humongously good man and all the work he does for Britain I won't stand by and let him have his character defamed to this level."

But at the same time, a certain schadenfreude attended the good man's fall from grace, and former associates kept coming out of the woodwork to dish to the press.

"I've seen him treat his staff in a shocking, appalling way," said a former aide to the prince. "He's been incredibly rude to his personal protection officers, literally throwing things on the ground and demanding they 'fucking pick them up.' No social graces at all. Sure, if you're a lady with blond hair and big boobs, then I bet he's utterly charming."

Despite all this, the prince had stuck by Epstein. There was even a photo, frequently trotted out by the tabloids, of the two of them strolling in Central Park.

Some few months before it was taken, a reporter posing as a businessman had secretly taped Sarah Ferguson's demand for five hundred thousand pounds in return for access to the prince.

"If you want to meet him in your business," she'd said then, "look after me, and he'll look after you. You'll get it back tenfold."

"Once again," she said afterward, "my errors have com- pounded and rebounded and also impacted on the man I admire most in the world: the Duke."

Prince Andrew had had his troubles already-with shady real estate deals, sticky romances, highly embarrassing docu- ment dumps (courtesy of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks), and

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{"people":["jeffrey epstein","virginia giuffre","prince andrew","sarah ferguson","matt lauer","julian assange"]}