Photographer Jae Donnelly claims higher forces may be blocking family's UK return

The photographer who took the infamous picture of the then-Prince Andrew taking a stroll with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in New York’s Central Park fears it is preventing him from bringing his family to live in Britain.

Jae Donnelly, 51, had been happily living and working in the US with his Chinese wife and two young children until they all got health problems from black mould in their apartment.

Jae was even rushed to the hospital last year amid fears of a heart attack, when really the symptoms were caused by the toxic fungus.

He and his concert cellist wife Xue, 38, daughter Isabella Sunshine, 10, and two-year-old son Alfie moved out amid a legal wrangle with their landlord.

They now want to move to the UK to be near Jae’s parents and give their children a British education. But Xue has been denied a passport, says Jae.

“We are a legitimate family, trying to get back into my country to be near my mum and dad before one of them dies,” he adds.

“My dad has dementia, and it's a race against time for us to get back to England.” What they thought would be a straightforward process has turned into a “living nightmare”, he says.

Following a lengthy process that cost thousands of pounds, Xue was refused on the grounds that her husband did not have a settled job in Britain or a fixed address, he said.

He told the Home Office they could live with his parents in Kent, he claimed. Meanwhile, Isabella, “being denied an education” – she is currently not in school – is not enough of a breach of the family’s human rights to be allowed into Britain, they were told.

They have had to move to China and stay in Xue’s mother’s flat in Beijing, where they are in limbo. Jae, who met Xue in 2013 and married her in 2019, said: “We’ve had more than a few people suggest that maybe a higher force is at play. I would have maintained that it would be quite a stretch at the outset. But I do now believe it could be a possibility that I’ve been looked into. Every which way we turn we’re being blocked.”

A two-year visa to China cost him just £130.

He said: “You would never believe that it was so much easier to get into China than into Britain. “The Chinese authorities have been so welcoming. They said, ‘You’re married. You have children.’ “I was born in Dover but my country is not welcoming us in.

“It would seem quite standard for us to be allowed into the UK, and what is happening is having a detrimental effect on all of us.

“But it seems the Government is favouring people who are illegal.” The Home Office has been contacted for comment.