In a landmark Newsnight interview with BBC’s Emily Maitlis, 60 minutes watched by viewers across the UK last night, the Queen’s third son Prince Andrew gave long-awaited answers to questions about his relationship with Jeffery Epstein.
Prince Andrew has been under increasing scrutiny for his association with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who raped and trafficked numerous underage girls over decades. The details of Epstein’s abuse — ruthless in nature and breath-taking in scope — have shocked the world. Despite numerous witnesses describing Epstein’s teenage victims as regular attendants at his residencies and parties, the Prince insisted he had never seen any indication of their presence or abuse.
In last night’s interview, the Duke of York cited his work with the NSPCC at the time, explaining that it meant ‘I knew what the things were to look for but I never saw them’. He also suggested that, as part of the royal family, he was used to ‘members of staff walking around all the time’.
The Duke of York fervently and repeatedly denied any and all allegations of sexual contact with Virginia Roberts (now Virginia Giuffre), who has claimed that she engaged in sex with Andrew on three separate occasions – including at Ghislaine Maxwell’s Belgravia House on 10 March 2001 when she was just 17 years old. Giuffre provided a photograph, now widely circulated, which appears to show Andrew with his hand around her waist on the night in question. The prince was careful to cast doubt on the photo’s origin without explicitly accusing Giuffre of manipulating it. Numerous times, pressed by Maitlis, Andrew returned to his claim that he had ‘no recollection of that photograph ever being taken’. He also pointed out that, as a high-profile royal, ‘public displays of affection are not something that I do’; social media was promptly flooded with photos of Prince Andrew embracing various women.
Prince Andrew went on to provide an alternative version of his whereabouts on the day in question. ‘I was with the children and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at I suppose four or five in the afternoon. And then because the duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other is there,’ he explained.
The Duke was pressed by Maitlis to account for his visit to Epstein in 2010, when the men were photographed walking together in Central Park. Andrew claimed that the purpose of his New York trip was in fact to end his association with Epstein, following the latter’s conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution two years previously. Pressed as to why such a conversation merited an in-person visit across continents, Andrew explained that ‘doing it over the telephone was the chicken’s way’. As to why the prince stayed with Epstein during his visit – unusual, considering his purported plans to end the relationship – Andrew described the Manhattan residence as ‘a convenient place to stay’.
He continued, saying ‘with the benefit of all the hindsight one can have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do. But at the time, I felt it was the honourable and right thing to do. And I admit fully that my judgment was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honourable but that is just the way it is.’
With public speculation rife in both the lead-up to and wake of the interview, Virginia Giuffre herself took to Twitter on Saturday, retweeting a post that said ‘Prince Andrew’s shocking interview was an attempt to save his reputation – but it just raised more questions.’ The full implications of the Duke’s controversial BBC appearance, and of his historical involvement with Epstein, remain to be seen.