So it transpires Fergie lusted after convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. This is the startling narrative child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell unspooled in a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida.

‘She [the Duchess of York] had a thing for him… and I thought that Sarah was trying to put the moves on Jeffrey,’ Maxwell confides to US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Later, emphasising her point in her clipped English accent, she adds almost suggestively: ‘She liked Mr Epstein.’

Digesting this new development, the lawman pauses for a moment then inquires: ‘How do you know?’ Maxwell shoots back, triumphantly: ‘Female intuition.’

This wasn’t the only bombshell dropped by the disgraced socialite – and Epstein’s former girlfriend – during her two-day meeting with Blanche. The audio tapes of the interview and a 360-page transcript were released by the US Justice Department on Friday.

It was the Duchess of York says Maxwell, not herself, who engineered her ex-husband Prince Andrew’s introduction to the US billionaire.

The 63-year-old disgraced socialite describes Fergie as a ‘frenemy’ – the pair were outwardly polite in public – though it appears they were probably more enemies than friends.

Judging by the audio tapes of Maxwell’s interview, she seems generally articulate and forthcoming, though she chooses her words carefully. Asked by Blanche when she and the Duchess of York last ‘hung out’ together, she seems uncharacteristically flummoxed.

Pictured: The Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson and Ghislane Maxwell attending the opening of the Asprey Flagship Store on 5th Avenue December 8, 2003 in New York City

Pictured: Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis interviewing Prince Andrew about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein

For 12 long seconds Maxwell ponders the question before answering wistfully: ‘I don’t know if she liked me very much… I think my friendship with her ex-husband… well, sometimes she really did like me and sometimes she didn’t… it was always friendly when we were together but I think there was latent hostility.’

When Blanche questions why Maxwell believes Fergie held a torch for Epstein, her lawyer can be heard whispering an apparent reminder to his client: ‘The letter.’

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that this is a reference to a letter the Duchess sent to Epstein. ‘The letter was warm and very flirtatious,’ says a source. ‘She was definitely trying to replace Ghislaine in Jeffrey’s life – in more ways than one. Make of that what you will. Fergie was trying to substitute out Ghislaine and take her place in Jeffrey’s life.’

More significant than Maxwell’s catty observations about Fergie’s apparent designs on Epstein is her explanation of how Andrew found himself caught in Epstein’s web.

If her claim is to be believed, it throws a new light on the scandal. It renders the Duchess the catalyst who set in motion a train of events that eventually led to the Duke of York’s fall from grace.

Fanciful it may be, but if Andrew had never met Epstein – and Maxwell is adamant she would never have introduced them – then rather than tragic outcast he might still be in the royal fold. If true, then Fergie’s part – albeit an unwitting one – in his downfall would be a bitter irony. For in his darkest hour it has been she alone who has sprung to his defence.

Worth noting is Andrew’s account of how he met Epstein. Asked about it by Emily Maitlis in the notorious 2019 Panorama interview, Andrew replies: ‘I met through his girlfriend back in 1999 who… and I’d known her since she was at university in the UK.’ He is referring to Maxwell. Yet Maxwell, who once dated Andrew and is the daughter of billionaire publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, insists otherwise. ‘I did not introduce him to Prince Andrew or to Sarah Ferguson,’ she says. ‘That is a flat untruth.’

Maxwell said she never would have thought to put them together because they were like ‘two chalk and cheeses’.

Pictured: Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein strolling through Central Park together

Pictured: Jeffrey Epstein with Ghislaine Maxwell. It was the Duchess of York says Maxwell, not herself, who engineered her ex-husband Prince Andrew’s introduction to the US billionaire

Rather, she says Epstein and Andrew met through his ex-wife.

At this time, Sarah was already acquainted with Epstein having been introduced by American- British businesswoman Lynn Forester de Rothschild, the widow of banking tycoon Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, once one of Britain’s richest men.

Years later the Duchess would go cap-in-hand to Epstein. She has admitted accepting £15,000 from him to pay off her debts.

Of the first Andrew-Epstein meeting, Maxwell says: ‘Lynn Forester had a house… and invited Epstein to go and I believe that’s where he met Prince Andrew. However I believe that before that event he had gone to the Bahamas and hung out with Sarah Ferguson. And Sarah had called Epstein and had arranged with Lynn.

‘I think Sarah is the one that pushed that. And they met and hung out, I want to say two or three times that had nothing to do with me. I wasn’t communicating with Andrew, I wasn’t in touch with him. And I know this because I was annoyed and I felt left out and I felt disrespected and I was like, this is weird. I couldn’t even imagine Epstein and Andrew together. And I thought that Sarah was trying to put the moves on Jeffrey, if I’m being honest, and I thought the whole thing was annoying and I was p***** off.’

Intriguingly, The Mail on Sunday revealed in 2020 that friends of Maxwell claimed it was Lynn Forester de Rothschild alone who introduced the two men at a party. There was no mention of Fergie.

One of her friends said: ‘Ghislaine wasn’t at that party. Lynn introduced Andrew to Epstein. It was all about the money with Andrew and Epstein.’

During the interview last month Maxwell is unclear about when the fateful first meeting took place. Andrew is reported to have been a guest at a 68th birthday party hosted by Lady de Rothschild for husband Sir Evelyn, at his Martha’s Vineyard estate in August, 1999. Sir Evelyn died in 2022.