As Andrew squirms on TV, not a single word of remorse
Astonished nation watches Prince squirm in interview
THE Duke of York was humiliated by a disastrous TV interview last night about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein – in which he showed no sympathy for the billionaire paedophile’s victims.
In an unprecedented public grilling of a senior Royal, Prince Andrew looked deeply uncomfortable as he faced a barrage of probing questions, offering evasive and sometimes contradictory responses. Some of the interrogation focused on the most intimate aspects of his private life.
But, watched by millions, it was his glaring failure to express a single regret over what happened to Epstein’s victims that provoked the most outrage. He also claimed it was because he was ‘too honourable’ that he decided to stay with Epstein after the financier’s release from jail.
Last night, one of the US financier’s ‘sex slave’ victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre – who claims she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times between 1999 and 2002 – was said to be ‘furious’ over the interview.
A source close to the now mother-of-three told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The interview was totally lacking in empathy and he did not utter a word of remorse for any of Epstein’s multitude of victims. It is telling that the Prince is so out of touch that he tries to make the interview all about him.’
During one breathtaking exchange with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis, he was asked if he felt any sense of guilt or shame over his friendship with Epstein, jailed for procuring an under-age girl for prostitution.
To Maitlis’s obvious incredulity, he replied: ‘Do I regret that fact that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? Yes.’
The Newsnight presenter immediately challenged his use of the word ‘unbecoming’ to describe the actions of a child sex offender and the Duke apologised. Yet overall his tone was far from regretful.
Astonishingly, he went out of his way to say of Epstein that the ‘opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful’.
The Prince’s often bizarre responses were greeted with howls of horror, incredulity and mockery on social media.
Maitlis also asked the Duke if he would be willing to testify or give a statement to an FBI inquest into Epstein’s crimes under oath. He replied: ‘If push came to shove and the legal advice was to do so, then I would be duty bound to do so.’
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams said: ‘This must be the most bizarre royal interview ever. He only regrets visiting Epstein to tell him he was breaking contact with him. He can’t see that he did anything wrong and admits to no wrongdoing.
‘Who will believe him after this bizarre ramble? The question must be whether he will keep his more than 200 patronages and what royal engagements he will do in the future.’
Royal author Penny Junor added: ‘This protestation of knowing nothing, seeing nothing, not remembering anything, defies belief. He is either not telling the truth or he is really rather extraordinarily stupid.
‘I’m sure he could help the FBI investigation into Epstein. I’m not suggesting for a second that Andrew is guilty of anything ... but unless he really is incredibly stupid he must have noticed something going on – and could be helpful in the investigation.’
Another royal expert, Christopher Wilson, said: ‘He should have kept his trap shut. The long-term impact is what impact it will have on his mother and her reputation. She has wrapped a security blanket around him through all of the best intentions, but people will look at her and say there is 93-year-old woman who has lost her judgment.’
Ms Giuffre outlined her claims against Andrew in a world exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday in 2011. And it was these alleged encounters – fiercely and repeatedly denied by Andrew and ruled inadmissible by a US court in 2015 – that produced some of the most fierce questioning from Maitlis last night.
Asked if they had sex in 2001 at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, then Epstein’s girlfriend, the Prince replied: ‘It didn’t happen.’ She went on to press him four more times on whether they had sex – or ‘any kind of sexual contact’.
Andrew replied: ‘I can absolutely categorically tell you that it never happened.’
He was also asked if he could have had sex with ‘any young woman trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein in any of his residences’.
His rambling response was: ‘If you’re a man it is a positive act to have sex with somebody. You have to... take some sort of positive action and therefore if you try to forget it’s very difficult to try and forget a positive action and I do not remember anything.’
Of Ms Giuffre’s claim they had earlier danced together during a visit to Tramp
‘He is either not telling the truth – or stupid’
nightclub in London, he said: ‘No.’ He was then questioned about the then 17-year-old’s recollection of how he had sweated profusely.
Andrew insisted he has ‘a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time’. He said this was because he suffered ‘an overdose of adrenalin’ after being shot at during the 1982 Falklands conflict.
He insisted, he was ‘at home with the children’ on the night Miss Roberts alleged she was nightclubbing and later having sex with him.
Maitlis pressed further and Andrew volunteered that he could remember taking his daughter Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey, at between 4pm and 5pm that afternoon. Maitlis asked why he would remember so specifically and he replied: ‘Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing... I remember it weirdly distinctly.’
After repeatedly denying any sexual contact with Ms Giuffre – and saying he can’t recollect meeting her – he was asked if he thinks she is lying.
Andrew will almost certainly have been warned by lawyers not to be accusatory for fear of facing a possible defamation claim.
‘That’s a very difficult thing to answer because I’m not in a position to know what she’s trying to achieve,’ he said. The Prince often came across as out of touch. In one exchange Maitlis asked if he threw a birthday party for Ghislaine Maxwell at Sandringham. He replied: ‘No, it was a shooting weekend.’
The interview, conducted at Buckingham Palace, aired on BBC2 last night in a Newsnight special.
The palace did not ask for any questions to be submitted in advance and no assurances were given.
The source close to Ms Giuffre said last night’s interview was in marked contrast to a statement released by Buckingham Palace in August, after The Mail on Sunday revealed images from a video taken in 2010 showing Prince Andrew inside Epstein’s New York mansion.
In one image Andrew is seen waving off a young woman while standing at the front door.
The statement said: ‘His Royal Highness deplores the exploitation of any human being and the suggestion he would condone, participate in or encourage any such behaviour is abhorrent.’
The source added: ‘Where is the sympathy this time? This interview is all about him. He’s worrying about himself. It’s shameful.’
Ms Giuffre did not immediately comment.
But her lawyer Brad Edwards told this newspaper: ‘His selfserving statements and controlled interviews do absolutely nothing for anybody. If Prince Andrew wants to be honourable, do what honourable people really do and answer questions, under oath.’
The 2010 New York visit also led to intensive questioning from Maitlis. At the time Epstein – who was found dead in his New York prison cell in August while awaiting trial for sex trafficking – was newly released from prison.
‘Why were you staying with a convicted sex offender?,’ asked Maitlis.
Andrew said he went there with ‘the sole purpose of saying to him that because he had been convicted it was inappropriate for us to be seen together’.
But Andrew stayed with his paedophile friend for six days in total.