A former friend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein says he regrets “very, very deeply indeed” his companionship with the deceased New York City businessman, in his first public statement since Epstein’s “birthday book” release revealed personal correspondence between the pair.
Peter Mandelson, the current U.K. ambassador to the U.S., acknowledged his long-standing friendship with Epstein during an interview with British journalist Harry Cole on Wednesday.
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U.S. President Donald Trump, along with Peter Mandelson, British Ambassador to the United States, addresses reporters in the Oval Office at the White House on May 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
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Addressing scrutiny for a note he wrote Epstein in the birthday book, in which he referred to him as his “best pal,” Mandelson told Cole he felt “a tremendous sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his [Epstein’s] behaviour and his illegal criminal activities.”
“And, secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done, and I regret very, very much that I fell for his lies,” he said.
“I fell and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida. Like very many people, I took that at face value.”
While Mandelson says he does not believe he is named in the Epstein files, he admitted there is no doubt that there is more “correspondence” between him and Epstein that is “going to surface.”
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“We know they are going to come out, we know they are going to be very embarrassing, and they know I am going profoundly to regret ever having met him, and being introduced to him in the first place, but I can’t rewrite history,” he told Cole.
“What I can do is express my profound sympathy for those who were badly treated by him … and I can accept that I continued my association with him for too long.”
Mandelson’s response comes days after the U.S. House Oversight Committee released a full copy of an album of photos and letters gifted to the former financier by his aide and co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, on his 50th birthday.
FILE – Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend an event in 2005 in New York City.
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The 238-page book was unsealed alongside a stack of Epstein’s private documents, including his will and an address book that contains the names of royalty, global politicians, models and celebrities.
Also enclosed were handwritten notes, including from former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who wrote of Epstein’s “childlike curiosity” and a “drive to make a difference.”
On Wednesday, the Guardian reported that since the correspondence between Mandelson and Epstein emerged, the U.K. government has assured that Prime Minister Kier Starmer maintains his confidence in the ambassador, adding that his government was “focused obviously on our relationship with the US, with President Trump coming for an unprecedented second state visit next week.”
Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting his sex trafficking trial, was known for introducing his high-powered friends to young, often underage women. Still, Mandelson told Cole that over the course of his friendship with Epstein, he and his husband “never sought” nor were they offered unseemly introductions to women by Epstein.
“Perhaps it’s because I am a gay man,” he said.
Mandelson, a Labour peer, went on to describe Epstein as a “charismatic liar” and say he finds the contents of his letter to Epstein “very embarrassing.”
Part of Peter Mandelson’s note that he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.
The U.S. Oversight Committee
U.K. Education Minister Josh MacAlister, during an interview on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, warned against finding people “guilty by association.”
“The whole way in which these people operate and are able to continue their abuse is often by being highly manipulative. So we need to be careful not to make everybody guilty by association,” he said, according to the Guardian.
In Mandelson’s birthday message to Epstein, he also referred to him as “an intelligent, sharp-witted man,” who was “mysterious” and would “parachute” in and out of his life.
“But then he would parachute back in … Very occasionally, taking you by surprise in some far off places … Or in one of his glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum),” Mandelson wrote.
The House Oversight Committee released records provided by Epstein’s estate pursuant to chairman James Comer’s subpoena issued on Aug. 25.
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