“I believe Prince Andrew”: Fergie’s ex speaks in bombshell interview
<p dir="ltr">Sarah Ferguson’s former partner has made bombshell allegations about Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew and the late Queen, including claims that the convicted sex offender planned to blackmail the monarch.</p>
<p dir="ltr">John Bryan, who was in a relationship with Ferguson for four years in the 1990s, made the claims in his first tell-all interview, per <em>The Sun</em>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The US businessman said that Epstein earned some of his wealth by blackmailing others in powerful positions into giving him money in exchange for his silence over their illicit behaviours.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“People always ask how Epstein made his money. He was supposed to be this tax wizard. But it was all a con,” Bryan told the <em>Mail on Sunday</em>.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“He blackmailed rich men and then made them pay to avoid scandal. He made hundreds of millions of dollars this way.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Bryan also claimed he was secretly drafted for crisis talks with Prince Andrew after the royal’s disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview, including that he was smuggled into the Royal Lodge to advise the royal in the wake of the Epstein scandal and amid claims he had sex with then-teenager Virginia Giuffre.</p>
<p dir="ltr">He said the conversation involved probing Andrew about his relationship with Epstein and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Andrew’s television interview had been a catastrophe so they needed an honest strategic plan that everyone could buy into,” Bryan recalled.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“[Fergie] invited me to come over. She was desperate. She told me that Andrew was in terrible shape.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“He was distraught. They were distraught.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">He claimed that he helped the family come up with a “long term strategy” called “House of Kroy”, a backwards spelling of York.</p>
<p dir="ltr">During the interview, Bryan said Epstein’s “ultimate” aim was to blackmail the Queen using the allegations of child sexual abuse and other sexual activities made against Andrew.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Epstein tried to lure Andrew into his web, but I believe his ultimate mark was the Queen,” Bryan said, adding that Epstein’s plan to target the Queen supported his belief that the allegations against Andrew were unfounded.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“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,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Andrew has never had any money. The Queen was the one with money.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I truly believe Epstein was going after her but Andrew never gave him the ammunition to do so.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">The financial advisor recalled another meeting with the royals, including Andrew, Princess Beatrice, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Bryan claimed Princess Beatrice told Andrew, “you’ve hurt our family”, and that Andrew was “downcast” and yelling: “I don’t care anymore, I don’t care. I am being treated unfairly.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">He added that the Duke was in a state he had never seen him in before after the interview.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“In the four years I dated Sarah I never once heard him raise his voice or lose his temper,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“It showed what strain he was under, how much he cared about the damage this was doing to the Royal Family.”</p>
<p dir="ltr">Bryan added that he had only seen Andrew with women aged in their mid-20s while he was dating Fergie, and that he believed there was “no hint” of “anything untoward going on”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I truly believe if there was anything untoward going on I would have known about it, Sarah would have known about it,” he said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“But there was never a hint of that. I remain and will always remain an outsider, so let me be the first outsider to say that I believe Prince Andrew – and I don’t say it lightly.</p>
<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-373a09ae-7fff-0a73-c907-818fd09b7e40"></span></p>
<p dir="ltr">“This outsider has a lot of inside knowledge.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>
