Prince Andrew held secret crisis talks with Fergie's toe-sucking ex

Prince Andrew held secret crisis talks with Fergie’s toe-sucking ex-lover: US banker pictured kissing Sarah Ferguson’s feet tells how he was smuggled into Windsor to advise

John Bryan, the man at the heart of Sarah Ferguson’s 1992 scandal – gave the Duke of York ‘honest advice’
Mr Bryan supported the Yorks following the Duke’s scandal that saw him forced to step away from Royal duties
Financial adviser told The Mail on Sunday he was ‘smuggled’ into Andrew’s home at Royal Lodge twice
Andrew ‘ranted and raved’, shouting: ‘I don’t care anymore’ after Queen banished him from Royal Family
Meanwhile, Mr Bryan also revealed a distraught Princess Beatrice told her father: ‘You’ve hurt our family’
He said toe-sucking story was ‘a fabrication’ but Mr Bryan and Fergie had a four-year relationship in the 1990s

Prince Andrew held secret crisis talks with his ex-wife’s ‘toe-sucking’ lover following the disastrous Newsnight interview about his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The Mail on Sunday can today reveal the astonishing story of how US businessman John Bryan – the man at the heart of Sarah Ferguson’s 1992 scandal – gave the Duke ‘honest advice’ as his life fell apart following the bombshell broadcast in 2019.

In his first-ever interview, Mr Bryan, a respected financial adviser, revealed how he rallied behind the Yorks to offer strategic advice about restoring the Duke’s shattered reputation and finances after he was forced to step away from royal duties.

Breaking three decades of silence, the 67-year-old told this newspaper how:

He was ‘smuggled’ into Andrew’s home at Royal Lodge, Windsor, during a ‘cloak-and-dagger’ operation to conceal his identity;

Furious Andrew ‘ranted and raved’ and shouted: ‘I don’t care any more’ after the Queen banished him from the Royal Family;

Distraught Princess Beatrice told her father: ‘You’ve hurt our family’;

A plan was hatched to turn Andrew’s £18 million Swiss chalet into a private club charging members £1.2million a year for ‘access to the Royals’;

He and Fergie had a romantic relationship for four years in the 1990s and have remained friends for 30 years;

The notorious toe-sucking story was a ‘fabrication’.

Prince Andrew held secret crisis talks with his ex wife Sarah Ferguson’s ‘toe-sucking’ lover following the disastrous Newsnight interview about his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Pictured: Mr Bryan and the Duchess of York in 1992

Mr Bryan gave the Duke ‘honest advice’ as his life fell apart following the bombshell broadcast in 2019 about his links to Epstein (pictured together in 2011)

In a world exclusive interview, the 67-year-old respected US financial adviser Mr Bryan has spoken after three decades of silence

Mr Bryan told how he was ‘stunned’ to be invited back into the Royal fold in November 2019 when Andrew was at his most vulnerable. ‘Sarah asked me to come and help Andrew and the girls,’ he said. Pictured: Andrew, Fergie and their children, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie

Mr Bryan exclusively revealed to The Mail On Sunday that he was ‘smuggled’ into Andrew’s home in November, 2019. He also told the paper that him and Fergie (pictured together in 1992) were in a romantic relationship for four years during the 1990s

Mr Bryan said he remains convinced of the Duke’s innocence but he believes Virginia Giuffre (pictured with Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell) may have met the Duke but wondered if she had been ‘mistaken’ in elements of her story

Mr Bryan, a respected financial adviser, believes that the notorious toe-sucking story was a ‘fabrication’

Mr Bryan told how he was ‘stunned’ to be invited back into the Royal fold in November 2019 when Andrew was at his most vulnerable.

The Duke was reeling from the backlash from his ‘car crash’ interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis and still faced hugely damaging accusations of having had sex with Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, which the Duke has repeatedly and strenuously denied.

‘Sarah asked me to come and help Andrew and the girls,’ Mr Bryan said.

‘I’d stayed friends with Sarah, but when everything was going down, when it was bad, she reached out to me and I was happy to help.’

‘Andrew’s television interview had been a catastrophe so they needed an honest strategic plan that everyone could buy into,’ Mr Bryan said last night. ‘Sarah and I were communicating a lot, I was saying, ‘I hope you’re OK’ – the normal things you say to an ex.

Mr Bryan told how he was ‘stunned’ to be invited back into the Royal fold in November 2019 when Andrew was at his most vulnerable. The Duke was reeling from the backlash from his ‘car crash’ interview with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis. Pictured: Andrew is interviewed on Newsnight

Mr Bryan made plans with Sarah to visit Royal Lodge on Saturday, November 30, 2019 – just ten days after the Queen had suspended the Duke from his Royal duties and effectively banished him from the family. Pictured: Andrew, Sarah Ferguson and their children Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie in 1997

Mr Bryan agreed to help the family draw up a ‘long term strategy’, which he dubbed ‘House of Kroy’ –turning around the word ‘York’. At the heart of his blueprint was the need to persuade Andrew that he must display sympathy for Epstein’s victims and show that he understood the magnitude of the paedophile’s horrific crimes

By Graeme Culliford

It boasts seven bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, sauna, sun terrace, bar and opulent entertaining area.

But Chalet Helora, far from being a dream holiday home in one of Switzerland’s most beautiful ski resorts, instead became a painful financial millstone for the Duke of York.

After taking out a whopping £13.25 million mortgage on the property, above, in 2014, Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are believed to have still owed its former owner another £5 million in cash – which by 2019 they were struggling to pay.

Today John Bryan reveals that another adviser to the Yorks came up with a ‘mad’ plan to transform the chalet into a private members’ club.

The adviser, an Iranian-born man with links to Azerbaijan, proposed charging wealthy clients £1.2 million a year – with the promise they could ‘mingle with the Royals’.

The Yorks ultimately chose not to pursue the proposal. Mr Bryan said: ‘The sad thing is that the Royal Family is made of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ as far as finances go. Some are very rich and others, like Prince Andrew, are always trying to find ways to make money.

Chalet Helora boasts seven bedrooms, an indoor swimming pool, sauna, sun terrace, bar and opulent entertaining area

‘Andrew said to me, ‘Hey, why don’t you include [the adviser] on one of your calls?’ This guy was going on about turning the chalet into a super-exclusive private members’ club. It was mad.

‘I think Andrew and Sarah entertained the plan to placate him but it came to nothing.’

Chalet Helora was put on the market last year and is believed to have been sold earlier this year. When The Mail on Sunday visited on Friday, the property was unoccupied.

The Duke had not been to the luxury lodge for several years before it was sold but the Duchess and their two daughters spent the last New Year there.

‘She invited me to come over. She was desperate. She told me that Andrew was in terrible shape.

‘He was distraught. They were distraught.

‘She reached out to me because that’s what I do. I reconstruct failed businesses, I reconstruct people, I rebuild families.

‘It was intense because I had to get into their place and there were paparazzi everywhere.’

The Epstein sex abuse scandal was not the only pressure the family faced. In 2014 the Duke and Duchess had bought a luxury ski chalet in Verbier, Switzerland, for around £18 million from French socialite Isabelle de Rouvre. They took out a mortgage of £13.25 million, agreeing to pay the remaining £5 million in cash instalments, with interest.

By 2019, however, the couple were struggling to make the repayments and Mr Bryan revealed Fergie asked for help to get them out of their financial mire.

He caught a train to Woking station before taking a taxi to Coworth Park, the five-star hotel in Ascot where Prince Harry stayed the night before his wedding. He was met by one of Andrew’s most trusted drivers in a luxury Range Rover with blacked-out windows who took him to Royal Lodge.

After entering the building via a ‘secret entrance’ to avoid press photographers, Mr Bryan was immediately embraced by Sarah.

‘I walked into the house and there was Sarah. We hugged. It was really sweet. I think she cried and I did too. It was wonderful to see her again but she was under intolerable strain. We went outside and had a little walk and we were laughing. I was trying to make her feel better, I was being a bit silly, trying to lighten the atmosphere.’

The following day, Sarah invited Mr Bryan to Royal Lodge for a second time. Mr Bryan took a convoluted route, taking two trains and a taxi before the same driver picked him up from a secret location.

‘I was paranoid about anyone finding out I was there,’ he explained. ‘Can you imagine what the reaction would have been like? This was at the height of the scandal around the Newsnight interview. It was cloak-and-dagger stuff. Eventually, I was driven into Royal Lodge via a neighbouring property.’

This time Andrew was present, as well as Princess Beatrice and her fiance – now husband – Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi and Princess Eugenie and her husband, Jack Brooksbank.

‘When I saw Andrew again he gave me a handshake and a hug. We always got along well. When I was with Sarah he knew I was good to his girls.

‘We always liked each other. I was always the outsider on the inside, a position I feel so privileged to have enjoyed.’

During his disastrous Newsnight interview, Andrew told how he was introduced to Epstein in 1999 by the paedophile’s ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Pictured together at Ascot in 2000

Mr Bryan also revealed that the Duke of York’s daughter, Princess Beatrice (right) told her father: ‘You’ve hurt our family’

In 2014 the Duke and Duchess had bought a luxury ski chalet (pictured) in Verbier, Switzerland, for around £18 million from French socialite Isabelle de Rouvre. They took out a mortgage of £13.25 million, agreeing to pay the remaining £5 million in cash instalments, with interest. By 2019, however, the couple were struggling to make the repayments and Mr Bryan revealed Fergie asked for help to get them out of their financial mire

The Duke was ‘very upset’ and ‘looked tired and downcast’, Mr Bryan said. ‘He was shouting, ‘I don’t care any more, I don’t care. I am being treated unfairly.’

‘In the four years I dated Sarah I never once heard him raise his voice or lose his temper. It showed what strain he was under, how much he cared about the damage this was doing to the Royal Family.

‘There were other advisers there, other PR people who were lining up to give him advice. I told him, ‘You may think you’ve been treated unfairly but you should never, ever say in front of third parties that you don’t care any more.’

Beatrice was also ‘hugely distressed’ and, according to Mr Bryan, told her father: ‘You’ve hurt our family.’

Mr Bryan became emotional as he spoke about reuniting with the Princesses, who he had last seen as little girls.

Epstein ‘was planning to use Andrew to blackmail Queen’

John Bryan believes paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s ultimate aim was to extort money out of the Queen by blackmailing Prince Andrew.

He claims Epstein, who lured hundreds of vulnerable young girls into his sex trafficking ring over a 30-year period, would befriend rich and powerful men, then blackmail them into paying him money to remain silent. ‘It was just an extortion plot,’ he claimed.

Mr Bryan, who has been involved in the world of finance his whole life and knows some of the men involved, said: ‘People always ask how Epstein made his money. He was supposed to be this tax wizard. But it was all a con.

‘He blackmailed rich men and then made them pay to avoid scandal. He made hundreds of millions of dollars this way.

‘Epstein tried to lure Andrew into his web, but I believe his ultimate mark was the Queen.

‘I believe Andrew is innocent. If he genuinely was involved in ‘orgies’ as has been alleged, then Epstein would have used that to try and bribe the Queen into paying out millions to protect her family. Andrew has never had any money. The Queen was the one with money.

‘I truly believe Epstein was going after her but Andrew never gave him the ammunition to do so.’

During his disastrous Newsnight interview, Andrew told how he was introduced to Epstein in 1999 by the paedophile’s ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Duke said he would see Epstein up to three times a year.

He admitted that he hosted him and Maxwell at Sandringham in December 2000 for ‘a straightforward shooting weekend’, and that he stayed in Epstein’s mansion in New York in 2010, when he visited to cut ties with the paedophile.

Epstein took his own life in a New York prison in 2019 before he could be put on trial for sex trafficking.

Maxwell was jailed in June for 20 years for procuring teenage girls for Epstein to abuse.

‘We hugged and cried and I told them how proud I am of the remarkable young women they have become,’ he said with tears in his eyes. ‘I’ve never had children of my own but considered myself like a stepfather to those girls. I adored them, I still do. They are my little superheroes. They have grown into such strong women.

‘I sat there with the whole family over lunch and told them, ‘You are in the middle of a catastrophe and from here it gets a million times worse.’ I said we are going to do a strategic plan to turn around the House of York. Andrew was so distressed he wasn’t able to focus for more than 40 minutes. I was blown away by how much pain he was in. And how much suffering he was enduring. It was very real.’

Mr Bryan said he remains convinced of the Duke’s innocence.

He said: ‘I saw many of his girlfriends during my relationship with Sarah and never, not once, did he turn up with a woman who was not in her mid-20s.

‘I truly believe if there was anything untoward going on I would have known about it, Sarah would have known about it. But there was never a hint of that. I remain and will always remain an outsider, so let me be the first outsider to say that I believe Prince Andrew – and I don’t say it lightly. This outsider has a lot of inside knowledge.’

He remains sympathetic to Ms Giuffre and all of Epstein’s victims: ‘They are the real victims in all of this. But the legal system in America, the teams of lawyers, encourage victims to boost their stories.

‘These poor victims get abused constantly; once by the perpetrators and again by the court system and then the media makes them into a circus act. It’s an endless circle of abuse and I feel so deeply their pain and suffering.’

Mr Bryan added that he believes Ms Giuffre may have met the Duke but wondered if she had been ‘mistaken’ in elements of her story. He mentioned a recent legal settlement in which Ms Giuffre admitted ‘I may have made a mistake’ in naming lawyer Alan Dershowitz as someone who abused her.

Mr Bryan, who has been involved in dozens of bankruptcy and restructuring cases in his 30-year career said: ‘I produced a five-page strategic planning document and wanted to create a mission for the House of York: how are we going to recover from this and what needs to be done legally and PR-wise?’

Mr Bryan advised the Duke on what to say to Prince Charles ahead of a critical meeting about his future. ‘I asked him, ‘What are your objectives with your brother? You need to keep it very simple. The narrative should be: Sadly, a lot of us got caught up in this and made a terrible mistake. Epstein enticed me into this but he enticed a lot of people… credible people are taken in by his scandalous extortion plot and part of me feels furious and part of me feels terrible for the victims’.’

Last month The Mail on Sunday revealed how at a subsequent meeting between the two brothers, just days before the Queen’s death, Andrew was left ‘tearful’ after Charles made clear he would never return to Royal duties.

Mr Bryan said the Yorks heaped praise on his plan and were grateful for his support as they desperately tried to weather the storm.

Ultimately, however, Prince Andrew did not follow his blueprint. ‘He was distracted back into the system which has often failed him and so many others,’ Mr Bryan said.

The following day, as Mr Bryan flew home to the US, the scandal deepened further when the BBC broadcast an interview with Ms Giuffre in which she described how she was ‘grossed out’ by dancing with Prince Andrew in a London nightclub and felt sick at realising she was expected to have sex with him at the age of 17.

Mr Bryan said Sarah immediately messaged him, pouring scorn on the claims.

Despite the Yorks deciding not to follow his plan, Mr Bryan heard from Sarah as recently as earlier this month. ‘I love her and the girls. I wish them nothing but the best. I believe the House of York will weather this storm and turn this around,’ he said. ‘Beatrice and Eugenie are the face of the next generation and I believe they will be the ones who will help their family recover and flourish.’

The Duke and Duchess of York declined to comment last night.

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