Prince Andrew 'feared losing envoy role'

A FRIEND of the Duke of York has claimed he feared he would lose his post as UK trade envoy after the controversy over his ties to a convicted paedophile.

Goga Ashkenazi said Prince Andrew had contacted her over the weekend, saying in a BlackBerry message that he was "very very worried" about whether he could remain in his role.

Fresh doubts had been raised about his position after further media coverage over the weekend of his links with United States billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

Ms Ashkenazi, a Kazakhstan socialite who lives in a multi-million-pound mansion in London, said: "I told Andrew not to worry, that he'd done nothing wrong, and that it was being blown out of proportion. Of course, he knows it was unwise to fraternise with this Epstein character, and it was silly to be photographed with his arm around Epstein's masseuse (Virginia Roberts]. But I know Andrew as a lovely, lovely man and I'm quite sure that at the time he had no idea that she was underage or anything more than a masseuse to Epstein."

Buckingham Palace later denied the duke had contacted Ms Ashkenazi about his future.