PRINCE Andrew could not have gone riding with accuser Virginia Roberts because he was allergic to horses, a pal has claimed.
Ms Roberts claims the Duke of York went horse riding with her during a sex-filled break at the Zorro ranch in New Mexico owned by paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duke of York has been accused of sleeping with mum-of-three Ms Roberts three times when she was a teenager.
On one occasion she claims she spent two days alone with Prince Andrew at Epstein’s 10,000-acre ranch 20 years ago.
Here she claimed she was directed to “entertain him” with erotic massages and horse riding.
But a friend of Andrew’s claims this could not have happened because he was allergic to horse hair.
This comes after the Duke claimed he suffered from a condition that countered claims made by Ms Roberts that she met him at the Tramp nightclub on March 10, 2001 – when she was 17 – claiming the duke was “profusely sweating”.
They told the Daily Mail: “It’s well known amongst his family and friends that the duke had a hay fever allergy that was with him all his life.
“So he gave up horse riding in his teens.
“The duchess persuaded him to take an acupuncture cure in later life and that dealt with the horse hair allergy as well.
“So he took up horse riding again in his 50s, took lessons in 2017 and 2018 and was proficient enough for Trooping the Colour in honour of his mother later that year.”
Andrew has been pictured at horse shows over the years,
But there is reportedly a decades-long gap between him being photographed on horseback as a youngster to images of him in the saddle in recent times.
This contradicts claims made by Ms Roberts in her unpublished memoir.
In this she wrote: “My job was to entertain him endlessly, whether that meant having to bestow him my body during an erotic massage or simply take him horseback riding.”
She said she was not initially told who was going to be at the property, but when she arrived she found the Prince waiting for her.
‘”‘Hello” that same old cheesy grin greeted me once again. It was his highness Prince Andrew, and what a sight,” she wrote.
The allergy claim comes after a BBC interview in which the Duke revealed a condition – which is known as anhidrosis – in a Newsnight interview with presenter Emily Maitlis, which meant he could not sweat. who questioned him over claims he slept with the teenager.
Responding to Ms Roberts recollection of meeting him, he claimed: “I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time.
“I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at and I simply… it was almost impossible for me to sweat.’
But he said it was only because he had “done a number of things in the recent past” that he was able to sweat again.
The Duke has vehemently denied any involvement and all the allegation.
