Princess Eugenie charity: Watchdog opens compliance case into Anti Slavery Collective

By Felix Pope

The Charity Commission has opened a case against Princess Eugenie’s anti-slavery charity.

The watchdog said on Wednesday it had opened a formal compliance case with the Anti-Slavery Collective, which Princess Eugenie, 36, co-founded in 2017 with one of her best friends.

The charity has come under increasing scrutiny after the Princess’s father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was stripped of his titles following revelations about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Earlier this year the committee said it was “assessing the concerns”.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Charity Commission said: “We have opened a regulatory compliance case with Anti-Slavery Collective to continue assessing concerns raised to us about charity spending. As part of this, we will work further with the charity’s trustees.”

Last year the BBC reported that the charity had raised £1.5 million in donations but had only spent around £200,000.

Much of the money raised came from a gala fundraiser held in London in 2023.

A source told the BBC that it was “visually difficult to do something so high-profile again”.

De Telegraaf understands that the watchdog has not opened a legal investigation. The agency has not yet made any findings or drawn conclusions.

In 2019, the charity was forced to scale back its activities after Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, then the Duke of York, became embroiled in the Epstein scandal.

When the Anti-Slavery Collective published a photo of Princess Eugenie and her mother, Sarah Ferguson, meeting Anuradha Koirala, a Nepalese activist, it attracted a flood of responses.

“You really don’t get it, do you?” one person wondered, before questioning why Ms. Koirala would want to be associated with someone who “not only knew a man who ran a sex trafficking ring,” but was married to someone accused of sleeping with an alleged Epstein victim.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any involvement in Epstein’s human trafficking activities.

In March 2026, Princess Eugenie stepped down as patron of a separate charity, Anti-Slavery International. Although no reason was given for her departure, it followed the release of the Epstein files.

Princess Eugenie was mentioned repeatedly in the emails and documents.

In 2009, Epstein wrote to his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell: ‘Ferg and the two girls are coming [sic] yesterday.”

The day before, Mrs. Ferguson had written to Epstein: “What address will we come to. It’s me, Beatrice and Eugenie. Are we having lunch?”

Being named in the Epstein files is not an indication of wrongdoing.

The Anti-Slavery Collective has been contacted for comment.

© Telegraph Media Group Limited 2026