ANDREW: WHAT SEX SLAVE?
Royal can’t recall meeting Epstein vic
Britain's Prince Andrew claims in a new interview that “I kick myself . . . on a daily basis” over the friendship he had with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — but he can’t remember ever meeting the teenage “sex slave” he’s accused of repeatedly bedding.
The duke of York spoke for the first time about the scandal, in which he’s accused of having sex with then-17-year-old Virginia Roberts Giuffre, in a “no holds barred” BBC interview that’s set to air Saturday.
“I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever,” says Andrew, 59, in a clip from the interview released Friday.
The duke was responding to journalist Emily Maitlis, who asks, regarding Giuffre: “She says she met you in 2001, she says she dined with you, danced with you at Tramp Nightclub in London. She went on to have sex with you in a house in Belgravia belonging to Ghislaine Maxwell, your friend. Your response?”
Despite the prince’s denial, he can be seen in a photo standing with his arm around then-17-yearold Giuffre’s waist.
Pals of Andrew have tried to cast doubt on the picture’s legitimacy, and it was unclear from the limited interview excerpts released Friday if he was confronted with the image by the BBC.
Asked why he continued to pal around with Epstein after the disgraced financier’s 2008 conviction for procuring an underage girl, Andrew tries to show some regret.
“I stayed with him and 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.
“I let the side down, simple as that,” he tells the BBC.
In court papers, Giuffre says that she had sex with Prince Andrew three times between 1999 and 2002 — at the London townhouse of Epstein’s gal pal Maxwell, at Epstein’s mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and at an orgy on Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little Saint James.
Giuffre told “60 Minutes Australia” earlier this month that Andrew “should go to jail.”
The royal’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, jumped to his defense Friday, calling him “a principled man” and promising to stand by him.
“I am deeply supportive and proud of this giant of a principled man, that dares to put his shoulder to the wind and stands firm with his sense of honor and truth,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
“It is time for Andrew to stand firm now. . . and I am with him every step of the way.”
In August, Buckingham Palace released a statement defending Prince Andrew and denying any wrongdoing.