PRINCE Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson is at Buckingham Palace for crisis talks after the Duke of York’s dramatic decision to quit his royal duties over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Sarah, 60, was videoed smiling at police officers who greeted her at the palace entrance late this afternoon.
The Queen returns to Windsor Castle from Buckingham Palace after Prince Andrew visited her this morning
She was driven into the palace about four hours after the Duke of York arrived for talks – the first time he’s been seen in public since he announced he would be stepping down from royal duties.
He married and divorced the bubbly, flame-haired Sarah “Fergie” Ferguson, who herself has generated some of the most humiliating royal scandals of modern times.
The duke has remained on good terms with his ex-wife who always refers to him as her “bestest friend”, and he has a close bond with their daughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
The pair were reunited on the same day that Epstein’s “teen sex slave” broke her silence vowing all sexual predators will soon be exposed as the “evil monsters” they really are.
Virginia Roberts tweeted her warning as Prince Andrew was spotted for the first time since the Queen sensationally sacked him yesterday.
The Duke of York, 59, put on a brave face just hours after releasing a bombshell statement revealing he was stepping down from his royal duties.
Andrew waved from behind the wheel of a car as he left his home in Windsor, Berks, this morning after being summoned to Buckingham Palace by his mother.
The embattled prince was stripped of his royal duties and 249,000sovereign grant in the wake of a car-crash Newsnight interview over his relationship with paedophile Epstein.
He had earlier strongly denied claims he slept with Roberts on three separate occasions – twice while she was underage under US law.
And there is absolutely no indication the mum-of-three was referring to the Prince in her no-nonsense tweet – posted in response to one of her supporters.
Roberts replied to a tweet today from a woman criticising former Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz who is currently suing her.
Prince Andrew has suggested that the photo of him with his arm around Roberts is fake
She has accused Dershowitz of sexual assault, but he has claimed they never met or had sex and that she has “made up the entire story for money.”
Roberts told the follower: “Bullying survivors and protecting the predators is a thing of the past. Time to evolve and expose these evil monsters for what they are!”
The under-fire Prince was earlier criticised for showing a lack of empathy towards Epstein’s victims and a lack of remorse over his friendship with the shamed tycoon in a “car crash” BBC interview.
Roberts – then aged 17 – claims she was forced by Epstein to have sex with the Duke in London, in the shamed financiers New York mansion and on his private island of Little St James.
When asked about the shocking allegations by the BBC the Duke claimed his innocence.
I dont think that could have happened at all, he told Emily Maitlis.
Roberts has claimed she partied with the royal in Tramp nightclub before having sex for the first time in Ghislaine Maxwell’s home in Belgravia, London.
However, he said the alleged encounter in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.
She also claimed she had sex with Andrew during a huge romp at Epstein’s exclusive Caribbean island retreat.
The third time I had sex with Andy was in an orgy on Epsteins private island in the US Virgin Islands, she wrote in a filing to a Florida court in 2015.
I was around 18 at the time. Epstein, Andy, approximately eight other young girls, and I had sex together.”
However, her allegations were struck from the US court record later that year.
In response to the outrageous claims, the Palace has said: “Any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors is categorically untrue.
“It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.”
It has since been revealed Roberts has given an interview to BBCs Panorama in which she is tipped to pile more pressure on the royal.
She is said to repeat claims the Duke of York bedded her and branded his recent denial of the claims as appalling.
Roberts – now living in Australia – is believed to be furious that her interview, filmed three weeks before Andrews BBC Newsnight chat, has not been aired.
Last night, a friend of Prince Andrew revealed: The Queen summoned the Duke to Buckingham Palace to tell him her decision.
It was a devastating moment for both of them. His reputation is in tatters. It is unlikely he will ever perform royal duties again. He is disgraced.
ROYAL SCRUTINY
The announcement followed days of media scrutiny after his attempts to defend himself in Saturdays disastrous interview were ridiculed.
A royal source said: The Queenwas privately very disappointed with Prince Andrew, despite the public efforts to rally round.
Its wrong to think that she just accepted his version of events, that the interview had gone well and there was nothing to worry about.
She saw the fallout and was very unhappy. She has spent her whole life protecting the monarchy and in just one week her sons actions threatened to tear it apart.
“Something had to be done to draw a line under all of this.
The Prince was also forced to retire as Chancellor of Huddersfield University after students passed a motion for him to resign with immediate effect.
The University said in a statement that he had “decided to step down immediately to allow the University to appoint a successor”.
“The Duke has informed the University that he continues to unequivocally condemn Jeffrey Epsteins activities and regrets his ill-judged association with him,” it read.
The Duke has also pledged to co-operate with authorities investigating Epstein – opening him up to serious criminal risk.
