Loose Women panel slams Sarah Ferguson over Epstein ties, calling her a 'babbler' who 'got what she deserved'

The Loose Women panel on ITV delivered a blistering verdict on Sarah Ferguson's ties to Jeffrey Epstein after reports that she continued to correspond with Epstein after his conviction. The Mail on Sunday reported that in 2011 the Duchess wrote to Epstein weeks after publicly disowning him to issue a grovelling apology, describing him as her 'supreme friend' and saying she had only publicly cut ties to protect her career as a children's author. The lunchtime program tackled the revelations as Charlene White, Katie Piper, Janet Street-Porter and Jane Moore weighed in.

Jane Moore acknowledged Sarah Ferguson's history of missteps in the public eye, but said this scandal was inexcusable. "I have met Sarah several times, she has been on this show, she's a very nice, very positive person and a lot of the mistakes she's made over her life in the royal goldfish bowl and certainly outside of it could be forgiven as human frailties," she said. "But on this occasion, I don't think so, because two years after she made a public apology for remaining friends with him, after he had been convicted and gone to prison, she did this public thing, disowning him, and one month later she sends this email behind the scenes. She's saying 'you're a supreme friend, sorry I publicly disowned you but I was going to lose my children's book deal.' I don't think this is a human frailty situation anymore, I think she got what she deserves."

Janet Street-Porter agreed, describing the Duchess as lacking both discretion and judgement. "The problem with Sarah Ferguson is she's a babbler, she doesn't seem to listen to people giving her good advice," she said. "That's one of the reasons why Prince Philip wanted nothing to do with her, he wanted her removed from the royal family. She lacks judgement, she lacks judgement with her choice of friends, you might say she lacked judgement with her choice of staying with her ex-husband, and now she's dragged her daughters into a scandal which is not of their making."

However, Katie Piper appeared to offer a note of defence, pointing to Sarah's charitable work and suggesting the press delights in vilifying women. "I think it's tough when we see the demise of women being celebrated in the press," she argued. But Jane pushed back: "But [Peter] Mandelson got taken down for the same reasons and he's a man and not a minority." Katie responded: "Yeah, but we relish women being taken down, I haven't worked with Fergie myself but her daughter has been really supportive of my charity." Jane retorted: "But that's not the point, is it, with this story?" Katie concluded: "No but it's tough with charities, when you get major donors they are often very wealthy and very powerful."

In a final word, Jane said: "But do you take those donors warts and all? Even if they are fraternising with convicted paedophiles?" The discussion underscored the tension between public forgiveness and private fundraising, as viewers debated how much a donor's personal ties should influence charitable work. Loose Women airs weekdays on ITV1 from 12:30pm and is available to stream on ITVX.