By Ed Holt,Editor

Copyright dailymail

This week, the Duchess of York has found herself embroiled in what could become her most damaging scandal yet. In newly uncovered emails, revealed by the Mail on Sunday, Sarah Ferguson referred to Jeffrey Epstein as a ‘supreme friend’.

Since the email, which also included a private apology for Fergie’s public rejection of Epstein, was made public seven charities have dropped the duchess as a patron. Other charities are reportedly reviewing their positions following the publication of her grovelling messages to the notorious predator. The controversy is just latest headline grabbing affair to involve Fergie, but in 2010 the duchess was at the centre of a particularly damaging cash for access scandal which was described as one of the biggest crises of her life.

Royal biographer Andrew Lownie, who spent four years researching the first joint biography of the Duke and Duchess of York , explored how Fergie found herself at the centre of a News of the World sting operation. Lownie wrote in his biography Entitled: ‘Rumours had long been circulating in Fleet Street about her introduction services. The News of World had only begun investigating the duchess after learning about Sarah “cashing in on knowing Andrew by setting up deals with foreign businessmen,” it said. It claimed to have “details of two tycoons she boasted she had introduced to Prince Andrew”.’

According to the paper, Fergie would ‘lure’ business men to ‘make money from Andrew’s unpaid role as the Government UK Special Representative for International Trade and Investment’ and through that she would help set up meeting Lownie said that a source told the paper at the time: ‘As long as Sarah thinks you are rich she will be all over you like a rash.’ He added that Fergie would put Andrew – using his codename Billy – into contact with business men and then for putting them in touch she gets a ‘lick of the spoon and that saves my bacon’. ‘After the meeting she rang the reporter/businessman. “I spoke to Billy and Billy is happy to meet with him but (he) has to know for Billy to meet with him … he has to give me £500,000”,’ Lownie wrote.

Infamous undercover reporter Mazher Mahmood – known as ‘the Fake Sheikh’ – met with Fergie ‘where, after her aides had left, over a £95 bottle of burgundy, she got down to business,’ said Lownie. He continued: ‘Demanding £500,000 be wired to her HSBC bank account, she told the reporter: “That opens up everything you would ever wish for. I can open any door you want”. ‘Fergie said she could put business men in touch with “the most amazing people” who Andrew met in his role as special representative. ‘She then went with the businessman to his purported flat in Mayfair to collect the money… She left the flat with a $40,000 down payment in a computer bag to pay her “celebrity assistant”, Johnny O’Sullivan, who had worked for her for the last fourteen years, ostensibly “for his college tuition and room and board”. ‘She also insisted on a one percent commission on any deals struck through her royal connections to go to a charity set up to build schools in Asia.’

It was while she was on holiday in Cannes with Beatrice that Fergie was told the next day’s News of the World’s front-page story was titled ‘Fergie “Sells” Andy for £500k’. Running across a four page spread, and accompanied by video evidence, Fergie was seen smoking, drinking and shaking on a deal with Mahmood. Fergie was quick to release a statement which said: I very deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused. It is true that my financial situation is under stress. ‘However, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment and I am very sorry that this has happened.’

The Duke of York ‘categorically’ denied having any knowledge of the meeting and Buckingham Palace also put out a statement supporting Andrew. ‘Since 2001 he has carried out his role of Special Representative with complete and absolute propriety and integrity,’ it read. It remains up for debate what Andrew knew and when. As Lownie pointed out: ‘ it is difficult to believe her ex-husband was not aware of what she was doing, not least because she boasted to the reporter that she called Andrew ‘five times a day’.’

Lownie (pictured) said that the intermediary who had set up the meeting between Sarah and the News of the World was Azra Scagliarini, a clairvoyant and ‘spiritual adviser’ to the duchess since 1998 who was also consulted by the duke. ‘Andrew subsequently claimed he had “never met or heard of” her, with a Buckingham Palace spokesman saying: “The position of the Duke of York is categorically clear. He has not met Azra Scagliarini and she is not a friend of his. The Duke of York takes very seriously any suggestion that he has lied in this matter”. ‘The paper later unearthed a note from Andrew thanking Scagliarini for her ‘help and friendship’ and it was revealed she had organised Beatrice’s fourteenth birthday party.’

Andrew stepped down from his role as a special representative a little over a year later in July 2011. It was during this period that a scathing nickname for the duke was coined by diplomats for his questionable behaviour. Lownie recalls the events of a trip to Bahrain on one of his first trips as a special representative which left a lasting impression on the foreign service. He wrote: ‘Accompanied by his equerry Robert Olney, assistant private secretary Stephen Harrison, two protection officers, lady clerk and valet, he spent two days in Bahrain, working closely with the ambassador, Peter Ford, and his deputy Simon Wilson. ‘Top of the agenda for the visit was the sale of British-made Hawk aircraft, but to everyone’s astonishment Andrew ignored his official brief and suggested to the king, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, that it made better financial sense to lease them.’

The Bahrain government did subsequently buy the aircraft four years later, but not thanks to the behaviour of the Duke. Thanks to his behaviour, Simon Wilson revealed to Lownie that diplomats from the gulf called Andrew ‘HBH: His Buffoon Highness’. Wilson said that the nickname ‘stemmed from his [Andrew’s] childish obsession with doing exactly the opposite of what had been agreed in pre-visit meetings with his staff.

‘He frequently refused to follow his brief – we wondered if he had actually read it – and appeared to regard himself as an expert in every matter.’ Lownie also claimed that ‘Despite copious meetings in advance of any visit, including briefings by senior officials from the Department of Trade and Industry, the Prince usually ignored all advice and plunged straight in.’ Indeed, Andrew’s behaviour in the Gulf was so memorable it has became ‘part of the folklore of the diplomatic service’.