I've made another huge error: Prince Andrew's ex on taking cash from sex offender

Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are in the spotlight for their ties to a wealthy US sex offender - he for being pictured with an underage masseuse at the man's home and she for accepting money from the American to help pay off her massive debts.

Ferguson, the Duchess of York, confirmed in an interview in the Evening Standard newspaper on Monday that she did receive financial help from convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But she claimed to have known nothing about his background and vowed to repay the $24,000 he advanced to settle a debt to her former personal assistant, Johnny O'Sullivan.

"I am just so contrite I cannot say," Ferguson was quoted as saying.

"Whenever I can I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again."

The payment was handled through Andrew's office, the duchess said, and she wasn't directly involved.

There was no immediate comment from Andrew's office.

Meanwhile, Andrew has been under fire since British weekend newspapers carried photographs of the prince with his arm around a young woman, reportedly an erotic masseuse who worked for Epstein, who now claims to be one of Epstein's underage victims.

There has been no suggestion, however, that Andrew was involved in inappropriate relationships with underage women.

Much of the controversy in Andrew's life has involved his marriage to Sarah in 1986 and their divorce 10 years later. They have two daughters.

A key moment in the break up was the publication of photographs of a topless Sarah being kissed by a boyfriend.

Since then, the duchess has made and lost large sums of money, and she got into more trouble last year after an undercover newspaper reporter filmed her apparently offering to sell access to her ex-husband in return for £500,000 (about $A800,000).

I am just so contrite I cannot say. Whenever I can I will repay the money and will have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again

In Monday's interview, she said with Andrew's help she had settled all of her debts, which had been estimated at about £5 million ($A8.01 million).

"I have made another huge error in my life in order to get debt free but the duke and I are a united front on all that has happened over the last few days," the Evening Standard quoted her as saying.

"He, my girls and I are a unit who will always stick together even though we live separate lives."

The duchess said she had made "a terrible, terrible error of judgment" in accepting help from Epstein, though she said she had no direct contact with him.

"Once again, my errors have compounded and rebounded and also inadvertently impacted on the man I admire most in the world - the duke (Andrew)," she said.

"He has supported me and come to my rescue again and again and there is absolutely nothing that I would not do for him."

AP

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