September 10th 2024.
During the now infamous 2019 Newsnight interview, Prince Andrew made a rather bizarre request to journalist Emily Maitlis. As she revealed in a recent interview, the Duke of York had wanted to spend even more time discussing his former friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and addressing the controversy surrounding his alleged involvement in Epstein's criminal activities.
Despite the interview being widely viewed as a disaster for the royal family, Maitlis shared that Prince Andrew had actually wanted to discuss his alibi for the night in question - a dinner at Pizza Express. This was a delicate moment for Maitlis, as she knew that including these details would not help his case and could potentially make things worse for him.
After the interview, Maitlis asked Prince Andrew if there was anything else he wanted to address, out of courtesy. To her surprise, he mentioned wanting to talk about the sweating and his alibi. This put Maitlis in a difficult position, as she felt a responsibility to not let Prince Andrew walk into a trap, but also wanted to include any important information he felt was necessary.
The interview quickly went viral, but for all the wrong reasons. Maitlis admitted that it was a challenging experience and that it has made her career more difficult in some ways. Some sources are now intimidated by her fame, which adds an extra layer of complexity to her job.
During the interview, Maitlis grilled Prince Andrew on various topics, including the allegations that he had sexual relations with one of Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre, when she was only 17 years old. The Duke denied these claims and stated that he had no recollection of ever meeting her. He also mentioned spending the day of the alleged encounter at a Pizza Express restaurant with one of his daughters.
In another alleged encounter, Giuffre claimed that Prince Andrew had been sweating heavily while they were dancing at a London nightclub. However, the Duke denied this, citing a medical condition related to his time serving in the Falklands War that made it impossible for him to sweat at the time.
After the interview, Prince Andrew stepped back from his royal duties. Maitlis shared that he seemed happy with how the interview went, as he stayed to chat afterwards and even invited her to stay for a movie night at the palace. However, Maitlis felt the need to leave and process everything that had transpired during the interview.
Last year, Prince Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre, although it was not an admission of guilt. The Duke has consistently denied any involvement in Epstein's criminal activities. Epstein himself died in his jail cell while awaiting trial, and his death was ruled a suicide.
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