## JAMES PATTERSON

questionable ties to Tunisian oligarchs, corrupt presidents of former Soviet republics, and Mu'ammar Gadhafi, among other entanglements, many of which were explored in a Vanity Fair article headlined THE TROUBLE WITH ANDREW.

"The duke has a record of being loyal to his friends," a "royal source" told Vanity Fair's Edward Klein. "Take his feelings for Sarah Ferguson. If you are a prince and you bring a woman into the royal life and, for whatever reasons, she's spit out, you might have feelings of debt toward her. The duke feels that she's been spattered and rejected. His close relationship with the Duchess of York is problematic, and there have been many problems over the last 5 to 10 years, all of which stem from the duchess. Some of the behavior of the duchess is inconsistent with being mar- ried to, or an ex-wife of, the duke. There's no question but that Sarah's been a financially self-destructive element in the duke's life."

"The same kind of loyalty manifested itself last December, when the duke visited Epstein at his home in New York," said a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace. "Epstein was a friend of the duke's for the best part of 20 years. It was the first time in four years that he'd seen Epstein. He now recognizes that the meeting in December was unwise."

"Don't expect to see a photo of the two of them together," another "royal source" would say.

But one more story about the prince's dealings with Jeffrey Epstein had already emerged.

At a dinner party at Epstein's town house, the prince dished about the wedding of his nephew Prince William to Kate Middleton.

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