Sarah Ferguson dismisses sex claims, calls prince 'humongously good man'
Sarah Ferguson has issued a fresh statement in support of Prince Andrew, describing her ex-husband as a "humongously good man" and endorsing Buckingham Palace's denial of allegations that he had sexual relations with a teenage girl.
Appearing on breakfast television in the US, the Duke of York's former wife declined to say if she and Andrew had discussed his encounters with Virginia Roberts, who alleged in a court filing last month that she was forced by Andrew's friend Jeffrey Epstein to have sexual liaisons with the prince when she was 17.
However, she described Roberts's allegations as "defamation of character" and associated herself with the official rebuttal made by the royal family. "Buckingham Palace put out a denial," Ferguson told NBC's , "and we stand by that denial."
"I won't stand by - because I know what it feels like to have salacious lies made up about you - and not support him so publicly, because they are just shockingly accusatory allegations," said Ferguson, who added: "The American people know my integrity."
She said given Andrew's qualities "as a great father, and a humongously good man, and all the works he does for Britain," she would not "let him have his character defamed to this level". She called Andrew "my best friend and my best ex-husband ever".
Roberts has long claimed to have been forced to work as a "sex slave" to Epstein, a wealthy former hedge fund manager who spent 13 months in jail under a controversial plea deal after being convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from underaged girls.
Roberts alleged that she had sexual relations with Andrew at Epstein's properties in London and New York and on his private island in the US Virgin Islands - all of which Andrew denies.
