The Duke of York walking with Jeffrey Epstein in New York’s Central Park in 2010

Prince Andrew has claimed that a controversial visit to see Jeffrey Epstein after the billionaire financier had been convicted of child sex offences was to tell him they could no longer be friends.

The Duke of York has told friends that the trip to New York in December 2010 was an attempt to break off contact with the paedophile.

The Queen’s second son has faced three months of withering criticism over his friendship with Epstein, who was found hanged in his New York jail cell in August, weeks after being charged with more child-trafficking offences involving girls as young as 14.

Prince Andrew at Epstein’s New York home in 2010 MAIL ON SUNDAY

Andrew declined to criticise Epstein until after his death, but The Sunday Times can reveal that he now accepts his friend was an “undercover”