Prince William 'Hits the Roof' as His Beloved Earthshot Charity Is Dragged Into Epstein Scandal: Report

Kensington Palace can handle a bad headline, but it cannot control a bad association. At present, Prince William's signature project — an environmental prize designed to look forward, not backward — is being pulled into the undertow of the Epstein files.

Newly released US Justice Department material has revived scrutiny of Jeffrey Epstein's network. DP World, an Earthshot founding partner that has contributed £1 million to Earthshot-linked initiatives, is connected to a senior figure whose past email contact with Epstein has now become public. William and Kate have issued a short, tightly worded statement expressing concern for victims.

Heat magazine, referencing the palace's private response, claims William has 'hit the roof' at the thought of Earthshot being mentioned anywhere near Epstein's name — 'sickening,' as an unnamed insider puts it, with 'brutal' optics. While this may reflect tabloid temperature-taking, it captures a real aspect of the monarchy's modern challenge: reputations are porous, and proximity — however indirect — lingers.

Why Prince William 'Hits the Roof' Over Earthshot's Optics

Earthshot was built as William's clean line in the sand: climate solutions, optimistic language, big corporate partners, and a glossy global platform that makes the crown look contemporary without getting into party politics. The trouble is that glossy global platforms run on networks — and networks do not come with moral warranties.​

DP World is one of Earthshot's founding partners, and Earthshot has publicly described a £1 million investment from DP World connected to scaling work by Earthshot finalists, announced during an Innovation Showcase at Expo 2020 Dubai attended by William and DP World's long-time boss Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem. DP World also owns P&O Ferries, a detail that matters to British audiences because it ties a Dubai-based logistics giant to an everyday UK brand — and therefore to UK political and public scrutiny.​​

Bin Sulayem, according to reporting on the newly surfaced correspondence, resigned with immediate effect after his emails with Epstein became public; the reporting also notes, explicitly, that appearing in such files is not itself evidence of wrongdoing.

How Prince William 'Hits the Roof' Meets the Epstein Files Reality

The Epstein files are a uniquely toxic form of context: even when they do not allege criminality, they illuminate access, introductions, favors, flattery — the social grease that made Epstein useful to powerful people for years. Once a name is in that ecosystem, it becomes a search term, then a headline, then a stain that's hard to launder out with a statement.​

William and Kate's statement, delivered via a Kensington Palace spokesperson, was notably restrained: 'I can confirm the Prince and Princess have been deeply concerned by the continuing revelations. Their thoughts remain focused on the victims.' That line does two things at once: it shows the couple understands what decent people expect them to say, and it keeps a strict distance from operational questions — who knew what, when, and whether anyone will be asked to account for relationships that now look indefensible.​

The royal family is not elected, and it does not run the government, but it trades on public legitimacy; when that legitimacy is questioned, everything associated with it — including charities — suffers by association.

Earthshot will likely insist, correctly, that corporate partnership does not constitute personal endorsement. William's predicament is that he has spent years trying to convince the public that his work is about the future — and the Epstein story, like a bad smell in a closed room, refuses to remain in the past.