Princess Eugenie steps down as patron of anti-slavery charity | UK news
Princess Eugenie has resigned as patron of UK charity AntiSlavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organisation.
The decision follows the release by the US Department of Justice of millions of documents and emails about Jeffrey Epstein’s role in the worldwide sexual abuse and trafficking of women, embarrassing his father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Eugenie’s profile has been removed from the website of Anti-Slavery International, which previously praised her work “alongside leaders in the fight against modern slavery”.
In a statement shared with the Observer, the charity said: “After seven years, the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie of York has come to an end. We are very grateful to the Princess for her support of Anti-Slavery International. We hope she will continue to work to end slavery.”
There is no allegation of wrongdoing by Eugenie, her older sister Princess Beatrice or their mother Sarah Ferguson in connection with the late convicted sex offender. Eugenie has not commented publicly about the Epstein files or the sexual abuse allegations against her father. Mountbatten Windsor denies the allegations made against him.
Eugenie, who works as a director at the Hauser & Wirth art gallery, has been campaigning on modern slavery and human trafficking for years. In 2017, she founded a separate charity called the Anti-Slavery Collective with her friend Julia de Boinville. In the year ending 5 April 2025, the charity spent more than twice as much on wages (£191,537) as on charitable programs (£97,206), leading the Charity Commission to address concerns about spending.
On anti-slavery day, October 18, 2019, Eugenie announced that she would become patron of AntiSlavery International, founded in 1839 by Thomas Clarkson, one of the first British abolitionists.
Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April last year, claimed she was paid $15,000 (£11,200) to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor during a trip to England in 2001.
Brad Edwards, a lawyer representing Epstein’s victims, revealed in January that a second woman claimed she was sent to England in 2010 to have sexual relations with then-Prince Andrew. He denied any wrongdoing.
Ferguson had been friends with Epstein for several years and had written to him while serving a prison sentence for procuring a minor for prostitution. The emails show that Ferguson flew to the US with her two daughters a few days after being released from prison in July 2009 and met her for lunch in Miami while she was still under house arrest and registered as a sex offender.
Both Eugenie and Beatrice are potentially key witnesses in their father’s account of his ties to Epstein. He claimed that on the night he allegedly slept with Giuffre in March 2001, he was “at home with the kids” after taking Beatrice to an afternoon party at Pizza Express in Woking. Neither sister had any comment on her account.
The Anti-Slavery Collective and Princess Eugenie have been approached for comment.
