Princess Eugenie steps down from anti-slavery charity role

Princess Eugenie has stepped down as patron of the UK charity Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest human rights organisation.

The decision follows the release by the US Department of Justice of millions of documents and emails relating to Jeffrey Epstein's role in sexual abuse and trafficking women around the world, which have disgraced her father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The princess's profile has been removed from Anti-Slavery International's website, which previously hailed her work "across the board with leaders in the fight against modern slavery".

The charity made a statement shared with the Observer newspaper.

"After seven years, our patronage from HRH Princess Eugenie of York has come to an end. We thank the Princess very much for her support for Anti-Slavery International. We hope that she continues to work to end slavery."

Princess Eugenie announced on 18 October 2019, anti-slavery day, that she would become a patron of Anti-Slavery International, which was founded in 1839 by Thomas Clarkson, one of the original English abolitionists.

Both Princess Eugenie and her older sister Princess Beatrice are potentially key witnesses in their father's account of his links with Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor claimed that on the night he was alleged to have had relations with Virginia Giuffre in March 2001, he was "at home with the children", after having taken Princess Beatrice, who was then 12, to a party at Pizza Express in Woking.

Neither sister has so far provided any comment on the matter.