5 Shocking Moments From Prince Andrew's Jeffrey Epstein BCC Interview

Prince Andrew's Shocking Moments From His Jeffrey Epstein Interview

Prince Andrew opened up about his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and allegations that he had sex with Virginia Giuffre when she was 17 years old. As mentioned by People, in an interview with BBC Newsnight, anchor Emily Maitlis sat across the prince inside the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace in 2019. The Duke of York talked at length about his involvement with Epstein, who died in jail in New York City in August while awaiting trial on multiple sex charges. Here are five bombshells from the candid interview, now depicted in the Netflix film, Scoop.

1. Prince Andrew Details Relationship with Epstein

Andrew recalled meeting Epstein in 1991 through the financier’s then-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. “It would be, to some extent, a stretch to say that as it were we were close friends. I mean, we were friends because of other people. And I had a lot of opportunity to go to the United States, but I didn’t have much time with him,” Andrew said of his relationship with Epstein, adding that he would sometimes take the millionaire up on his offer to stay at one of his residences when he wasn’t around.

2. He Denies Ever Meeting Giuffre

The Duke of York vehemently refutes any suggestion of encountering Giuffre, denying knowledge or recollection of their purported meetings to interviewer Maitlis. Giuffre contends that she was coerced into sexual encounters with the royal on three separate occasions spanning from 1999 to 2002, across locations including London, New York, and a private Caribbean island linked to the disgraced financier. Andrew however emphatically stated, "It just never happened" but later settled and paid an undisclosed amount to Giuffre as a part of the lawsuit she filed against him in New York.

3. The Royals Claimed He Was 'Home With the Children' When the Encounter Allegedly Took Place

Speaking specifically about Giuffre’s claim that he danced with her at London’s exclusive Tramp nightclub before allegedly having sex in a mansion in the upmarket Belgravia neighborhood, Andrew asserted, “No, that couldn’t have happened because the date that’s being suggested, I was at home with the children.” Andrew, father to Princess Beatrice and Eugenie added, “I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at I suppose sort of four or five in the afternoon. And then because the Duchess [his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson] was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other one is there. I was on terminal leave at the time from the Royal Navy so, therefore, I was at home.”

4. Prince Andrew Denied Having 'Sweated Profusely' While Dancing With Giuffre

The prince stated that he couldn’t have danced and 'sweated profusely' on the dance floor, as claimed by Giuffre in court papers, because at the time he was suffering from a medical condition that made it impossible for him to perspire. “I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenalin in the Falkland’s War when I was shot at and I simply…it was almost impossible for me to sweat,” the Duke of York said. “It’s only because I have done several things in the recent past that I am starting to be able to do that again.”

5. Prince Andrew Says He Has 'No Memory' of His Photo With 17-Year-Old Giuffre

When Maitlis raised the issue of a photograph showing the royal with his arm around 17-year-old Giuffre’s waist, supposedly taken inside the London home of Maxwell in 2001, the royal claimed he had no recollection of the encounter. “I have no memory of that photograph ever being taken,” Andrew told Maitlis, before questioning the authenticity of the picture itself because he’s wearing his 'traveling clothes' instead of his regular suit and tie. According to The Mirror, he even suggested that his left hand has been photoshopped onto Giuffre’s side in the image. “I don’t remember going upstairs in the house because that photograph was taken upstairs and I am not entirely convinced that…I mean that is…that is what I would describe as me in that…in that picture but I can’t…we can’t be certain as to whether or not that’s my hand on her whatever it is, left…left side.”