Prince Andrew Says Epstein Friendship Was “Mistake”

The Daily Beast reports:

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, issued a lengthy statement on Saturday in which he admitted it was a “mistake and an error” to continue his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after the convicted pedophile was released from a Florida jail in 2009.

“I can only reiterate my regret that I was mistaken to think that what I thought I knew of him was evidently not the real person, given what we now know,” wrote the embattled brother of Prince Charles.

The statement is clearly meant to distance the prince from Epstein who Andrew visited in 2010. “It is apparent to me since the suicide of Mr. Epstein that there has been an immense amount of media speculation about so much in his life,” Prince Andrew wrote as a way of introduction.