'Sarah Ferguson is playing the victim card', rages Prince Andrew's biographer

Sarah Ferguson has been accused of "playing the victim card" by a royal biographer after becoming involved in a new scandal this week. The Duchess of York, 65, has hit the headlines this week after it was revealed she had sent emails to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 apologising for disowning him and criticising him in an interview.

The emails were sent after Epstein had been in jail for child sex offences, with the duchess referring to him in the messages as her "supreme" friend. A spokesperson for Sarah, Prince Andrew's ex-wife, has since claimed that the duchess only sent the email as she feared Epstein was going to try and sue her for defamation.

Talking about the situation, Andrew Lownie - famous for his recent book Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York - said Sarah is "playing the victim card".

He exclusively told Express.co.uk: "I'm afraid, having studied her for so long, I don't have a great deal of sympathy for her.

"She'll pick herself up. She's the Becky Sharp of the Royal Family, so I have no doubt she will be networking. She will be talking to people.

"She will be pretending, in the way she pretended in that letter to Epstein, that she was the victim.

"She has no self-awareness. She has no acceptance of what she's done, the same problem as Andrew. But she'll just pick herself up, and that's what people admire, and she'll get on with it again somehow. We probably haven't had the end of Fergie, but we deserve to."

In a full statement explaining the situation regarding the emails, a spokesperson for the duchess said:"The Duchess spoke of her regret about her association with Epstein many years ago, and as they have always been, her first thoughts are with his victims. Like many people, she was taken in by his lies.

"As soon as she was aware of the extent of the allegations against him, she not only cut off contact but condemned him publicly, to the extent that he then threatened to sue her for defamation for associating him with paedophilia. She does not resile from anything she said then.

"This email was sent in the context of advice the Duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats."

In her 2011 email to Epstein, Sarah apologised for not reaching out to him and said she was "bedridden with fear" about talking to him as she was advised not to.