City of York Council Unanimously Strips Sarah Ferguson of Freedom of City

A 39-year-old honour given to Sarah Ferguson as a wedding present was erased in a single unanimous vote Thursday evening, when City of York Council convened an extraordinary meeting at the Guildhall with one item on the agenda and no dissent on record.

Councillors in York voted unanimously to remove Ferguson's title of the Freedom of the City of York over her friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. Ferguson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had been given the honour as a wedding present from York in 1987 during a visit to the city. The honour had previously been bestowed upon figures including Winston Churchill and Dame Judi Dench.

The only motion considered at Thursday's meeting stated: "The council resolves that, pursuant to Section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972, the City of York Council withdraws the Honorary Freeman of the City status from Sarah Ferguson, which was conferred upon her in 1987."

Councillor Claire Douglas, leader of the Labour group on City of York Council, framed the decision in terms of association rather than criminal liability. "As the people of York would expect, holding this status requires upholding the values and behaviours consistent with such an honour," she said. "Those who continued to associate with Jeffrey Epstein after his crimes became widely known fall well short of these expectations. Sarah Ferguson falls into this category as the Epstein files have shown. I therefore call on council to support the motion as presented."

Liberal Democrat Darryl Smalley, who had proposed the 2022 motion stripping Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of the same honour, acknowledged at Thursday's meeting that he had resisted acting sooner. "At the time, it felt wrong to judge someone by the actions of their ex-husband," he said. Smalley added that councillors now know, following the release of thousands of documents, that Ferguson "had a close friendship with Epstein, which continued well beyond his conviction," and that York does not "expect recipients of York's highest honour to be saints" but simply does "not want them to be best friends of convicted paedophiles."

A 2011 email published in the Mail on Sunday from Ferguson to Epstein described him as a "steadfast, generous and supreme friend" to her and her family. She had also reportedly described Epstein as "the brother I always wished for." Ferguson is mentioned several times in the Epstein files released by the US Department of Justice, though being named in the files does not suggest wrongdoing.

The council vote formalised a broader unraveling of Ferguson's public and commercial standing since those files became public. Six companies linked to Ferguson started winding down in the wake of the publication of the Epstein files, according to Companies House documents, and Sarah's Trust, a charity she founded, announced it would close "for the foreseeable future."

Councillors removed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's Freedom of the City of York in 2022, and the meeting at the time heard that he was the first person ever to have it taken away. Ferguson was stripped of her title as the Duchess of York in October when her ex-husband relinquished his own title over links with Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor has vigorously denied any wrongdoing.

Freedom of the City is the highest commendation given by the City of York Council in recognition of a resident or group within the boundary, though the honour carries no formal privileges. Thursday's vote means the title York gifted the couple at the height of their public popularity has now been formally reclaimed from both of them.