In a confidential exchange, Prince Andrew informed the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, “we are in this together” following the initial publication of the contentious photo depicting the Duke with his supposed young sex victim by The Mail on Sunday, as revealed by a pivotal email.

The email, which was quite revealing, showed Andrew expressing his ‘concern’ regarding the consequences of the newspaper’s disclosure on his relationship with Epstein, yet he assured the notorious financier that they would ‘overcome’ the negative attention from the media. 

It was sent to Epstein 12 weeks after Andrew had supposedly ceased all contact with the convicted sex offender.

This leaked message delivers irrefutable evidence that contradicts the Duke’s assertion during his BBC Newsnight interview, in which he stated he had ‘no further contact’ with Epstein after the two were snapped strolling in New York’s Central Park in December 2010.

This revelation surfaces just shortly after the MoS unveiled how the Duchess of York expressed adulation for Epstein in a note, calling him her ‘supreme friend’ – contradicting her public claims of severing ties with him.

The highly embarrassing email is likely to intensify the demand on the Royal Family to break off all connections with the disgraced Yorks and provoke new inquiries regarding their occupancy at Royal Lodge, a sprawling 30-room residence in Windsor Great Park.

Andrew’s email to Epstein, dated February 28, 2011 – just a day subsequent to the MoS’s publication of the infamous image with a young Virginia Giuffre that preceded his downfall – read: ‘I’m equally worried about you! No need to worry about me!

‘It would seem we are in this together and will have to rise above it.

‘Otherwise keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon!!!!’

Andrew signed off with: ‘A, HRH The Duke of York, KG’.

KG refers to Duke’s ‘Knight of the Garter’ – a prestigious position he has held since 2006 and which he still retains.

The MoS has verified the email address used by Andrew, while Epstein’s email address has repeatedly appeared in court documents. Prince Andrew last night declined to comment.

Historian A N Wilson said Prince Andrew’s behaviour is a ‘major crisis for the Monarchy…perhaps the gravest since the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936.’

Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, he added: ‘The King and the Prince of Wales cannot be seen to support or underwrite Andrew any more. 

‘His very existence as an official Royal is a scandal. So they must cast him out, for if they show him mercy, they are themselves implicated, and we are only a hair’s breadth away from a republic.’

The Duke sent Epstein the supportive message as the pair were reeling from the MoS publishing its world exclusive picture of Andrew with his arm around the naked waist of 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre at the London home of socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Ms Giuffre, who had never before been identified, told this newspaper she had been sexually abused by Epstein for four years and that she was introduced to Prince Andrew during a six-week trip to Europe.

Recalling how they drank tea at Maxwell’s mews house before going dancing at Tramp nightclub in Mayfair, Ms Giuffre said: ‘Ghislaine served tea from a porcelain pot and biscuits. She knew Sarah Ferguson and they talked fondly about Andrew’s daughters. 

‘Then Ghislaine asked Andrew how old he thought I was and he guessed 17 and they all laughed. 

‘Ghislaine made a joke that I was getting too old for Jeffrey. She said, “He’ll soon have to trade her in.”

Ms Giuffre later alleged that having trafficked her to London, Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew, which the Duke has vehemently and consistently denied.

In his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019, Andrew suggested the picture with Ms Giuffre was a crude forgery, saying: ‘Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored but I don’t recollect that photograph ever being taken.’

But in 2023 an investigation by this newspaper provided incontrovertible proof that the photograph is genuine.

And crucially, it can now be shown that the Duke did not question its authenticity in his shocking email to Epstein on the day after its existence was revealed.

In 2022, the Duke reached a reported £12 million civil settlement with Ms Giuffre – who committed suicide earlier this year – with no admission of guilt.

Last night Norman Baker, a former Minister and expert on royal finances, called for Andrew to be stripped of his remaining titles and removed from Royal Lodge.

‘It is long overdue for him to have all his official titles removed, including HRH, and if that requires Parliamentary action, then it requires Parliamentary action. This can no longer be ignored by the Royal Family.

‘He needs to understand that he hasn’t got squatters’ rights at Royal Lodge. He needs to be removed to somewhere smaller. The days of privileges should be over.’

Mr Baker also called for the Duke to issue a new statement about his relationship with Epstein as his previous pronouncements are ‘dubious’.

The email was first referred to in court documents from a case brought by the Financial Conduct Authority against Epstein’s personal banker Jes Staley. 

But its contents have, until today, never been revealed. The legal papers only said the email had been sent by ‘a member of the British Royal Family’ without naming Andrew.

In separate emails, sent a day earlier on February 27, 2011, Epstein attempted to arrange a meeting between Andrew and Staley, a former Barclays boss who is now banned from top financial jobs in the UK over his links to Epstein.

The financier wrote: ‘Jes staley will be in London on next tue afternoon, if you have time’, to which Andrew responded: ‘Jes is coming on 1st March or next week?’.

The emails demolish Andrew’s claim during his Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis that he visited Epstein in New York in December 2010 to break off their friendship. The Prince spent at least five days at Epstein’s £60 million mansion during the visit.

Describing his walk with Epstein in Central Park Andrew said: ‘We decided that we would part company and I left, I think it was the next day, and to this day I never had any contact with him from that day forward.’

Ms Maitlis asked ‘Did you see him or speak to him again?’, to which Andrew replied ‘No’.

Asked why he stayed at the house of a sex offender, Andrew claimed it was a ‘convenient place to stay’, adding: ‘I felt it was the honourable and right thing to do and I admit fully that my judgement was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honourable.’

Author Andrew Lownie, who recently published a bombshell biography of the Yorks, said: ‘This new disclosure is further evidence that Andrew lied in his Newsnight evidence, just as his ex-wife’s public pronouncements about cutting links with Epstein proved to be untrue. 

‘From my own research, over four years, I learned not to trust a single thing the couple said.

‘It also confirms what I discovered writing Entitled that Andrew was much more deeply involved with Epstein than he has hitherto admitted and I fear it is only going to get worse. This email is the tip of the iceberg and there are many more revelations still to come.’

Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019, while Maxwell was jailed for 20 years in 2022 for finding girls for Epstein to abuse.

Well-placed sources told the MoS last month that further potentially ‘incriminating’ emails between the Duke of York and the convicted paedophile are contained in hundreds of thousands of documents being reviewed by the US Congress before they are made public.

It is understood that the Duke and Duchess of York will not be welcome at the Royal Family’s Christmas celebrations at Sandringham this year as the King tries to keep the pair at arm’s length.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that Sir Tony Blair met with Epstein in Downing Street while he was Prime Minister after lobbying from Lord Mandelson.

The meeting in May 2002 took place six years before Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Daphne Barak is a renowned interviewer and documentary film maker, whose subjects have included Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, Johnny Depp and Michael Jackson among many others.

Daphne is also a cancer survivor. She has a fast-growing charity with the University of California, San Diego. www.gamechangerevents.org

For more about this story, see Prince Andrew and The Epstein Email Scandal, Monday October 13, 9pm on 5