Prince Andrew and Epstein had a relationship that was questioned in the Newsnight interview (Picture: Getty)
Sarah Ferguson’s former lover John Bryan said Jeffrey Epstein’s ultimate aim was to extort money out of the Queen by blackmailing Prince Andrew, he claims.
Mr Bryan – who was famously caught by paparazzi sucking Fergie’s toes on holiday in the south of France– claims Prince Andrew and Epstein’s relationship was an ‘extortion plot’.
The 67-year-old US businessman gave his ‘honest’ advice to Fergie in the wake of the bombshell BBC interview with Prince Andrew, he said.
Mr Bryan, told the Mail on Sunday: ‘People always ask how Epstein made his money. He was supposed to be this tax wizard. But it was all a con.
Fergie’s former lover John Bryan has said he believes Epstein was trying to use Prince Andrew to extort the Queen (Picture: AP)
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‘He blackmailed rich men and then made them pay to avoid scandal. He made hundreds of millions of dollars this way.
‘Epstein tried to lure Andrew into his web, but I believe his ultimate mark was the Queen.
‘I believe Andrew is innocent. If he genuinely was involved in ‘orgies’ as has been alleged, then Epstein would have used that to try and bribe the Queen into paying out millions to protect her family. Andrew has never had any money. The Queen was the one with money.
‘I truly believe Epstein was going after her but Andrew never gave him the ammunition to do so.’
The photographs were taken in the wake of the public announcement of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s split in 1992.
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The couple were married from 1986 until their divorce was finalised in 1996.
However, Mr Bryan has claimed he was asked for his ‘honest’ advice on how to reassemble the Duke of York’s reputation following the notorious interview, which led to his stepping back from royal life.
Mr Bryan had maintained a close relationship with the Duchess through the years, and was holidaying with Sarah, and the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, in 1992.
During his disastrous interview, Andrew told how he was introduced to Epstein in 1999 by the paedophile’s ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Duke said he would see Epstein up to three times a year.
He admitted that he hosted him and Maxwell at Sandringham in December 2000 for ‘a straightforward shooting weekend’, and that he stayed in Epstein’s mansion in New York in 2010, when he visited to cut ties with the paedophile.
Epstein took his own life in a New York prison in 2019 before he could be put on trial for sex trafficking.
Maxwell was jailed in June for 20 years for procuring teenage girls for Epstein to abuse.
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Mr Bryan infamously was caught by paparazzi sucking the toe of Sarah Ferguson on holiday in France in the 1990s.
