Prince Andrew secretly told Jeffrey Epstein they would ‘play some more soon’ – one DAY after the Mail on Sunday published photo of him with teenage sex victim Virginia Giuffre

A bombshell email has revealed that Prince Andrew secretly told pedophile Jeffrey Epstein that “we are in this together”, a day after The Mail on Sunday first published the famous photo of the Duke’s alleged teenage sex victim.

In his surprising message, Andrew said he was “concerned” about the impact this newspaper’s revelations would have on his friend but assured the despicable billionaire that the pair would “rise above” press scrutiny.

The letter was sent to Epstein 12 weeks after Andrew supposedly cut off all contact with the convicted sex offender.

The leaked email provides conclusive evidence that the Duke lied in an interview with BBC Newsnight when he claimed he had ‘no contact’ with Epstein after the pair were photographed walking together in New York’s Central Park in December 2010.

The revelation comes just weeks after the MoS revealed that the Duchess of York had written an impassioned message to Epstein calling him her “superior friend”, despite telling reporters she would never have anything to do with him again.

The hugely embarrassing email will put further pressure on the Royal Family to sever all ties with the disgraced Yorks and raise new questions about their future at Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion in Windsor Great Park.

In his letter to Epstein on 28 February 2011 – the day after the MoS published the now infamous photograph of him with young Virginia Giuffre that led to his downfall – Andrew said: ‘I’m worried about you too! Don’t worry about me!

‘It looks like we’re in this together and we’ll just have to get through it.

The email was sent to Epstein 12 weeks after Andrew supposedly cut off all contact with the convicted sex offender. Picture: The couple were seen walking together in New York in 2011.

‘Otherwise stay in close contact and we’ll play some more soon!!!!’

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

KG refers to ‘Knight of the Garter’, a prestigious position Duke has held since 2006 and still maintains.

While the MoS confirmed the email address used by Andrew, Epstein’s email address appeared repeatedly in court documents. Prince Andrew declined to comment last night.

Historian AN Wilson said Prince Andrew’s behavior was ‘a major crisis for the Monarchy…perhaps the gravest crisis since the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936’.

Writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, he added: ‘The King and Prince of Wales can no longer be seen to be supporting or financing Andrew.

‘His existence as an official Royal is a scandal. That’s why they have to throw him out, because if they show him mercy they’ll be complicit themselves, and we’re only a hair’s breadth away from a republic.’

The duke sent his message of support to Epstein as the pair were shaken by the MoS’s release to the world of an exclusive photo of Andrew with his arm around 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre’s bare waist, which socialite Ghislaine Maxwell posted at her London home.

While the MoS confirmed the email address used by Andrew, Epstein’s email address appeared repeatedly in court documents. Prince Andrew refused to comment last night

The leaked email provides conclusive evidence that the Duke lied in an interview with BBC Newsnight when he claimed he had ‘no contact’ with Epstein after the pair were photographed walking together in New York’s Central Park in December 2010.

Ms. Giuffre, whose name has never been released, told this newspaper that she had been sexually abused by Epstein for four years and that she met Prince Andrew during a six-week trip to Europe.

Recalling how they drank tea at Maxwell’s mews before going dancing at the Tramp nightclub in Mayfair, Ms Giuffre said: ‘Ghislaine served tea from a porcelain teapot and biscuits. He knew Sarah Ferguson and they spoke fondly of Andrew’s daughters.

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

‘Ghislaine joked that I was getting too old for Jeffrey. “He’s going to have to trade him soon,” he said.

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

In his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019, Andrew claimed the photo with Miss Giuffre was a crude fraud, saying: ‘Nobody can prove whether that photo was doctored but I don’t remember that photo being taken at all.’

However, an investigation conducted by this newspaper in 2023 provided indisputable evidence that the photo was real.

And most importantly, it can now be shown that the Duke does not question the authenticity of the shocking email he sent to Epstein the day after its existence was revealed.

In 2022, the Duke reached a £12 million civil settlement with Ms Giuffre, who committed suicide earlier this year, without admitting any wrongdoing.

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 the Royal Lodge.

‘It is long past time for all official titles, including Health Person, to be abolished, 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 does not have squatter rights at the Royal Lodge. It needs to be moved to a smaller place. The days of privilege must end.’

Mr Baker also called for the Duke to make a new statement about his relationship with Epstein because his previous statements were ‘questionable’.

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

However, its content has never been disclosed until now. Legal documents stated that the email was sent by ‘a member of the British Royal Family’, without naming Andrew.

In separate emails sent the day before February 27, 2011, Epstein attempted to arrange a meeting between Andrew and Staley, the former Barclays boss who is now barred from senior financial positions in the UK due to his connection to Epstein.

Epstein was filmed in New York in 2011 around the time Andrew sent him the damning emails.

The financier wrote: ‘Jes Staley will be in London next Tuesday afternoon if you have time’, to which Andrew replied: ‘Will Jes arrive on 1 March or next week?’.

The emails refute Andrew’s claim in a Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis that he visited Epstein in New York in December 2010 to sever 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 to break up as friends and I left, I think it was the next day and I haven’t had any contact with him since then.’

Miss Maitlis ‘Have you seen him or spoken to him again?’ he asked, to which Andrew replied ‘No’.

When asked why he was staying in a sex offender’s home, Andrew claimed it was ‘a suitable place to stay’, adding: ‘I felt it was an honorable and right thing to do, and I fully accept that my judgment was probably influenced by my tendency to be overly honorable.’

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

‘From four years of my own research I have learned not to trust a single thing the couple says.

‘This also confirms what I discovered while writing Entitled, that Andrew was much more deeply involved with Epstein than he has ever admitted, and I fear this will only get worse. This email is the tip of the iceberg and there will be many more explanations to come.’

While Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in August 2019, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for finding girls to abuse for Epstein.

Well-placed sources told the MoS last month that potentially ‘incriminating’ emails between the Duke of York and the convicted pedophile were included in hundreds of thousands of documents examined by the US Congress before being made public.

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

Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday that Sir Tony Blair met with Epstein in Downing Street while he was Prime Minister, following Lord Mandelson’s lobbying efforts.

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

Daphne Barak is a well-known interviewer and documentary filmmaker whose subjects include Donald Trump, Hilary Clinton, Johnny Depp and Michael Jackson.

Daphne is also a cancer survivor. There’s a fast-growing charity at the University of California, San Diego. www.gamechangerevents.org

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