Deep in the trove of 20,000 documents released by the House Oversight Committee last week is an email from Jeffrey Epstein to Jeffrey Epstein, dated Oct. 8, 2016.

The entire message consists of a lengthy rough draft of what appears to be a profile of the disgraced financier that was never published.

Tucked in the middle of it — between dinner party vignettes, musings on the billionaire class and quotes from Epstein himself — is a reverent anecdote that serves to illustrate the stratospheric level of access that a onetime high school math teacher was able to achieve in just a couple decades.

“In 1994, just at the moment when Prince Charles is on television acknowledging his love for Camilla Parker Bowles, Jeffrey Epstein is sitting with his arm around Princess Diana at a dinner at the Serpentine Gallery in London,” it reads, noting that Diana “is wearing her ‘revenge’ dress that evening.”

Another version of the draft included in the document dump is slightly less descriptive, saying Epstein was simply sitting “next to” Diana.

Regardless of his exact positioning, the presence of the world’s most notorious sex offender at what has become quite a famous moment in Diana lore is somewhat of a shock to read.

There are clues about the author’s identity in the draft. The writer obviously had close access to Epstein and some others in his orbit, and notes he was once part of an effort to purchase New York Magazine.

Over the weekend, Semafor’s Ben Smith made a phone call to confirm that the author was, indeed, the controversial journalist Michael Wolff.

Smith reported that Wolff drafted the piece in 2014 as a sort of teaser for Epstein, in an attempt to gain greater access to the most powerful and wealthy of Epstein’s friends, to flesh out the reporting.

Wolff recounted telling Epstein, “It could be like this — but I need to have access to everybody.”

“I’m trying to lead him along to give me something, and the something would be: Give me access to everybody,” Wolff said, per Smith. (Much of his conversation with Wolff centered on the ethics of his chummy relationship with Epstein.)

The 8,600-plus-word piece would have run in New York Magazine; a 2015 email to Epstein consisted of a long list of fact-checking questions, including one about mingling with Princess Diana at the Serpentine Gallery. Epstein does not appear to have replied, at least via email.

The London meeting, if it occurred, would have come more than a decade before Epstein was publicly accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl at his Palm Beach mansion — among a number of other underage girls — and long before the Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown unearthed explosive details about the “sweetheart” plea deal Epstein was able to reach with prosecutors even as he continued to find new girls to abuse.

As an anecdote in Wolff’s story, it succeeds in illustrating the reach Epstein had as far back as the 1990s, when he palled around with then-real estate baron Donald Trump.

The 1994 “revenge” dress marked a contentious period for Diana. She had gone to the gallery for a fundraising event hosted by Vanity Fair that was held, as Wolff noted, the same evening that ITV aired an interview with then-Prince Charles in which he admitted to being unfaithful in his marriage.

The late royal paired the shoulder-baring evening gown with a sapphire-and-pearl necklace. Hitting above the knee, the dress was widely interpreted to be a message to her estranged husband and the world that she refused to be ignored. She appears in photographs striding into the venue in a swirl of black silk, one arm outstretched to shake someone’s hand.

HuffPost reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.

The family of Virginia Giuffre has released an emotional statement after news one of her alleged abusers, Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, has been stripped of his royal title.

On Thursday, Buckingham Palace announced that Andrew, who publicly relinquished his royal duties in 2019 over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will no longer be known as “Prince,” “His Royal Highness” or the “Duke of York.” He will go by the name Andrew Mountbatten Windsor from now on.

Giuffre, who died at the age of 41 earlier this year, was one of Epstein’s earliest and most prominent public accusers. She also accused the disgraced financier and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, of forcing her to have sex with Windsor on multiple occasions, first when she was just 17 years old.

Reacting to the news in a statement to People magazine, Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, and his wife, Amanda Roberts, said, “Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage.”

“Virginia Roberts Giuffre, our sister, a child when she was sexually assaulted by Andrew, never stopped fighting for accountability for what had happened to her and to countless other survivors like her,” the statement went on. “Today, she declares victory.”

Windsor reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in 2022, but in a statement stemming from the settlement, he expressed regret for his links to Epstein without admitting any guilt or offering an explicit apology.

Giuffre detailed how she allegedly first met Windsor in 2001 in her posthumous memoir, “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice,” which was released in October.

Buckingham Palace’s decision comes amid increased scrutiny over President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Epstein and calls for the Department of Justice to publicly release documents related to criminal investigations into the late financier, who died in jail in 2019.

Buckingham Palace on Thursday announced that it is removing the “prince” title from Prince Andrew.

“His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew,” the palace said in a statement.

Andrew will now be known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence,” the palace said of Andrew’s current residence, which he shares with his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. “Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation. These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him.”

“Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”

Earlier this month, the royal gave up his Duke of York title and other honors after more allegations about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein emerged.

“In discussion with The King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family,” Andrew said in a statement at the time.

“I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first. I stand by my decision five years ago to stand back from public life.”

Andrew previously stepped back from royal duties for the “foreseeable future” in 2019, after he willingly participated in a disastrous ― and now infamous ― interview with BBC “Newsnight.”

The prince attempted to distance himself from his friend Epstein and said that he had never met Virginia Giuffre, who accused the royal of sexually assaulting and abusing her when she was a minor in 2001.

Giuffre, who died by suicide in 2025, filed a civil case against the royal under the Child Victims Act in August 2021. The lawsuit alleged Andrew sexually assaulted Giuffre three times, and was later settled out of court.

After the case was filed, Andrew’s military affiliations and royal patronages were officially stripped by Buckingham Palace.

“The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen,” the palace said at the time.

While the move to strip Andrew of his “prince” title is monumental by royal family standards, some ― like Graham Smith, CEO of the anti-monarchy group, Republic ― are saying that it “isn’t enough.”

“This is a man who has been accused of sexual assault and corruption. He should be questioned and investigated by the police. This is about justice, not titles,” Smith said in a statement on Friday.

“He’s also being moved from the Royal Lodge to a similarly lavish property in Sandringham. How is moving from one mansion to another in any way a punishment?” Smith asked. “This is an insult to sexual abuse victims and an insult to the public. More needs to be done.”

LONDON (AP) — A number of charities on Monday severed ties with Sarah Ferguson, the ex-wife of Prince Andrew, after British newspapers published an email that she reportedly wrote to the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, describing him as a “supreme friend.’’

Julia’s House, a children’s hospice, said that the reported correspondence made it inappropriate for Ferguson, also known as the Duchess of York, to remain a patron.

A spokesman for Ferguson said that she sent an email on the advice of her lawyers after Epstein threatened to sue her for associating him with sexual abuse in a media interview, Britain’s Press Association reported.

“Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York’s correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia’s House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity,’’ the charity said. “We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support.”

A food allergy charity, The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, and Prevent Breast Cancer, were also among the charities that cut ties in light of recent revelations. The Teenage Cancer Trust, which had an association with Ferguson for 35 years, also dropped her as a patron.

The email referred to a 2011 interview with the Evening Standard newspaper in which she apologized for accepting 15,000 pounds from Epstein.

“I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say,’’ Ferguson said in the interview. “Whenever I can, I will repay the money and have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.”

But the following month, Ferguson sent an email to Epstein in which she “humbly apologized” for linking him to sex abuse, saying “you have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family,” The Sun newspaper reported over the weekend.

The Associated Press couldn’t independently confirm that the email is authentic.

The story comes less than a month after Andrew himself was criticized for staying in touch with Epstein for five years longer than previously claimed.

Leaked email correspondence between Epstein and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak indicated that the prince had been in touch with Epstein as late as 2015, the Times of London reported. Andrew told the BBC in 2019 that he ceased all contact with Epstein in December 2010, after the late financier pled guilty to sex crimes in Florida.

Andrew and his ex-wife have faced a series of scandals amid concerns that the prince has tried to profit from his royal status.

He was forced to give up all royal duties and charity roles after the 2019 interview with the BBC in which he was criticized for trying to minimize his connections with Epstein and failing to show sympathy for his victims.

Last year, it emerged that a suspected Chinese spy had developed close links with Andrew, raising concerns about efforts to put undue influence on other members of the royal family.