Prince Andrew, ex-wife Sarah Ferguson escape on luxury vacation as their links to Epstein come under intense scrutiny
A “panicked” Prince Andrew is said to have taken off to Spain with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson Wednesday amid increased scrutiny over his friendship with billionaire investor and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein who was found dead from an apparent suicide on Saturday, August 10, inside his cell at Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York.
The duo, who are divorced but are believed to have rekindled their relationship, was seen getting off a private jet at Malaga Airport on August 14.
They then took a limousine to their £38 million ($45.9 million) private villa in the luxury Sotogrande resort—one of their favorite vacationing destinations since 2009, Daily Mail reported.
Although the Duke of York was scheduled to stay at Balmoral, the Queen's Scottish estate, for the whole week, there was a sudden change of plans and on Wednesday he took a private jet from Aberdeen to the Spanish south coast.
Ferguson is also said to have left Balmoral all of a sudden on Sunday after Prince Philip turned up to spend the summer holidays in Scotland and reportedly refuses to stay under the same roof as his former daughter-in-law.
“The Duchess insisted she go on holiday with the Duke to look after him and show the world she stands by him,” a royal insider said.
It is believed that the Duke met Ferguson at Farnborough Airport in Hampshire, after which they flew together to Malaga.
After the documents linked to Epstein's case alleging that Prince Andrew slept with a 17-year-old girl were thrown out of court and ordered to be struck from the record as being “immaterial and impertinent,” more accusers have come forward.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's accusers, also claimed to have had sex with Prince Andrew "three times."
Her allegations of sexual assault were corroborated by another woman called Johanna Sjoberg.
Sjoberg said she was approached by “perfect stranger” Ghislaine Maxwell—a British socialite known to be procurer of underage girls for Epstein—who “lured” her to Epstein’s home with the promise of a “legitimate job" when she was 21 years old.
However, according to her, what went down at Epstein's house was something she had not consented for.
“I just remember someone suggesting a photo, and they told us to go get on the couch. And so Andrew and Virginia [Giuffre] sat on the couch, and they put the puppet on her lap," she said. “And so then I sat on Andrew’s lap, and I believe of my own volition, and they took the puppet’s hands and put it on Virginia’s breast, and so Andrew put his on mine.”
After his death, the FBI got their hands on Epstein's "little black book" which contained a cache of more than 1,000 phone numbers and email addresses of hundreds of famous people from across the globe.
In the list were 16 phone numbers for Prince Andrew including a mobile number and landlines for Sandringham and Balmoral, and 18 numbers for the Duchess of York.
The Buckingham Palace has categorically denied the allegations against the second-born son of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip.
"This relates to proceedings in the United States, to which the Duke of York is not a party. Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue," a spokeswoman for the palace told NBC.