Natalie Dormer has vowed to give away her salary for playing Sarah Ferguson in an upcoming television drama to a charity helping sexual abuse survivors.
The actress made her announcement following revelations that the Duchess of York wrote an email apologising to Jeffrey Epstein a month after publicly disowning him amid his convictions for child sexual abuse.
Dormer, 43, branded Fergie’s behaviour “inexcusable” and said she would donate her salary from ITV drama The Lady to a sexual abuse charity. She has also pulled out of promoting the show.
The drama tells the story of Jane Andrews, a working-class woman from Grimsby who became the Duchess’s dresser after replying to an advert in The Lady magazine.
In 2000, Andrews, then 33, murdered her lover, stockbroker Tom Cressman, 39, by stabbing him as he slept at their Fulham flat in west London, after he rejected her hopes of marriage.
Natalie said: "Since completing the project, new information has come to light that makes it impossible for me to reconcile my values with Sarah Ferguson's behaviour, which I believe is inexcusable.
"For that reason, I will not be taking part in the promotion of the project. In keeping with my commitment to the wellbeing of children."
She said her "entire salary" would be donated to the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) and the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse.
The synopsis for the series states: “Once a young working-class girl from Grimsby, Jane answered an advertisement in the magazine The Lady and to the astonishment of her friends and family, became the Duchess of York's dresser at Buckingham Palace.
“Moving amongst the highest social circles in Britain, Jane managed to secure a place in the upper-classes, only to lose her job with the Duchess after nine years of service.
“Still reeling from her fall from grace, Jane went on to meet charismatic businessman Thomas Cressman and fell deeply in love. Soon cracks began to develop in the romance Jane had pinned all her hopes on, with disastrous consequences.”
The Duchess has been removed as a patron from several charities following news that she sent an email to Jeffrey Epstein in April 2011 apologising for refuting him to the press.
The Teenage Cancer Trust cut ties with Sarah after a partnership of 35 years, while others followed suit including Cotswolds children's hospice Julia's House, Prevent Breast Cancer, The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the National Foundation for Retired Service Animals and The British Heart Foundation.
This week, a grovelling email was leaked showing correspondence between Ferguson and Epstein — three years after his first conviction for sex offences. In the 2011 email, Ferguson called Epstein her “supreme friend” and appeared to regret her public denunciation of him after his arrest.
Speaking to this newspaper in an exclusive interview at the time, Fergie had labelled her friendship with Epstein a "gigantic error of judgement" and said: “What he did was wrong and for which he was rightly jailed.” She also apologised for accepting a £15,000 loan from the financier to cover some of her debts.
However, her private email from 2011 showed that she “humbly apologised” to Epstein, where she also said “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me”.
James Henderson, the Duchess's then spokesperson at the time, told the Telegraph that she was under “huge” pressure to protect her family.
Mr Henderson said: “People don't understand how terrible Epstein was. I can remember everything about that call.
“It was a chilling call and I'm surprised anybody was ever friends with him given the way he talked to me.
“He said he would destroy the York family and he was quite clear on that. He said he would destroy me. He wasn't shouting.
“He had a Hannibal Lecter-type voice. It was very cold and calm and really menacing and nasty.”
