Prince Andrew had a bitter falling-out with close pal Jeffrey Epstein years before the pedophile’s suicide — sparked by damning coverage in The Post, according to a report.

The British royal has been savaged for his decades-long friendship with the multimillionaire sex trafficker — one that continued even after Epstein had been jailed for sex with a minor in 2008.

Sources tell CNN the pair fell out in 2011 — eight years before Epstein’s suicide last month in his Manhattan lockup — sparked by the heat from powerful coverage in The Post.

Epstein was furious over a February 2011 Post exposé about their friendship — especially at them being dubbed “the prince and the pervert,” three sources told the news network.

The heat the article generated then sparked separate stories about how Prince Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, had borrowed $24,000 from the pedophile — a loan she soon called a “gigantic error of judgment.”

“I abhor pedophilia and any sexual abuse of children,” she said at the time, saying she was “contrite” and vowing to have “nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.”

The Duchess of York’s statements further enraged Epstein, who fired back with angry threats of legal action — ultimately ending his lengthy friendship with the prince, according to CNN.

Ferguson’s publicist at the time, James Henderson, told the network about a “deeply unpleasant” phone call he got from Epstein threatening a defamation lawsuit.

“It was so unpleasant that I was left slightly rattled and I saved his number so I’d never have to take a call from him again,” Henderson told the network.

He says Epstein then sent the Duchess a legal letter, CNN reports.

While the news outlet says the friendship ended then, Andrew’s ties with Epstein still damage him to this day.

Just this week, accuser Virginia Guiffre again repeated her claims that Epstein made her have sex with the prince when she was 17, according to a “Dateline NBC” special.

Now British spymasters at MI6 reportedly fear that Russia may have obtained scandal-related “kompromat” on the randy royal.

Andrew has always emphatically denied the claims, and last month admitted he “regretted” his friendship with Epstein.

“At no stage during the limited time I spent with him did I see, witness or suspect any behavior of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction,” he insisted.

“I have said previously that it was a mistake and an error to see him after his release in 2010 and I can only reiterate my regret that I was mistaken to think that what I thought I knew of him was evidently not the real person, given what we now know.”