Princess Eugenie steps down as patron of anti-slavery charity

Princess Eugenie has stepped down as patron of the 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 relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s role in sexual abuse and trafficking women around the world, which have disgraced her father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.Eugenie’s profile has been removed from Anti-Slavery International’s website, which previously hailed her work “across the board with leaders in the fight against modern slavery”.The charity said in a statement shared with the Observer: “After seven years, our patronage from HRH Princess Eugenie of York has come to an end. We thank the Princess very much for her support for Anti-Slavery International. We hope that she continues to work to end slavery.”There is no suggestion of any 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 on either the Epstein files or the allegations of sexual abuse against her father. Mountbatten Windsor denies the allegations against him.Eugenie, who works as a director for the art gallery Hauser & Wirth, has campaigned for years on modern slavery and trafficking. She co-founded a separate charity, the Anti-Slavery Collective, with her friend Julia de Boinville, in 2017. In the year ending 5 April 2025, the charity spent more than twice as much on salaries (£191,537) as charitable programmes (£97,206), leading the Charity Commission to address concerns over expenditure.Eugenie announced on 18 October 2019, anti-slavery day, that she would become a patron of AntiSlavery International, which was founded in 1839 by Thomas Clarkson, one of the original English abolitionists.Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April last year, alleged that during a trip to the UK in 2001 she was paid $15,000 (£11,200) to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor.Brad Edwards, a lawyer representing Epstein victims, revealed in January a second woman has alleged she was sent to the UK in 2010 for a sexual encounter with the then Prince Andrew. He has denied any wrongdoing.Ferguson was friends with Epstein for a number of years, and wrote to him while he served a jail sentence for procuring a minor for prostitution. The emails appear to show that Ferguson, along with her two daughters, flew to the US days after he was released from jail in July 2009, and met him for lunch in Miami while he 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 links with Epstein. He claimed that on the night he was alleged to have slept with Giuffre in March 2001 he “was at home … with the children”, after having taken Beatrice to a party at Pizza Express in Woking in the afternoon. Neither sister has provided any comment on his account.The Anti-Slavery Collective and Princess Eugenie have been approached for comment.