Prince Andrew’s sexclaims rebuttal slammed

LONDON — British media on Sunday slammed Prince Andrew’s effort to rebut claims that he had sex with a teenager who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, branding his televised interview a complete public relations disaster.

In a rare interview with BBC Newsnight that was broadcast late Saturday, Andrew categorically denied having sex with the woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. But Britain’s newspapers and social media commentators criticized him for defending his friendship with

Epstein and for failing to show empathy for the convicted sexoffender’s victims.

“I expected a train wreck,” said Charlie Proctor, editor of the Royal Central website, which covers the British monarchy. “That was a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosionlevel bad.”

Giuffre has said Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew in 2001, when she was 17. She says Epstein flew her around the world on private planes to have sex with powerful men, and that she had sexual encounters with Andrew in London, New York and in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The BBC’s Emily Maitlis grilled Andrew on the details of an alleged encounter in March of that year, when Giuffre says she dined with the prince in London, danced with him at the Tramp nightclub, then had sex with him at a house in the tony London neighborhood of Belgravia.

“I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened,” Andrew said.

The 59yearold prince said he had “no recollection” of ever meeting Giuffre, adding that there are “a number of things that are wrong” with her account. He also suggested that a picture showing him with his arm around the teenage Giuffre may have been faked.

There was no immediate comment from Giuffre’s representative about the prince’s interview.

Giuffre had recently challenged the British royal to speak out, telling reporters in New

York “he knows exactly what he’s done.”

“And the answer is nothing,” Andrew told the BBC.

The New York medical examiner ruled Epstein’s death a suicide last summer. He had been in prison awaiting trial on federal sextrafficking charges, which he had denied. Years earlier, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor.

While Andrew defended his friendship with Epstein prior to the Florida case, he said he regretted staying at the financier’s home in Manhattan after Epstein’s conviction.

“That’s the bit, that … I kick myself for, on a daily basis, because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family.”

Prince Andrew