Members of the Royal Family rarely give in-depth television interviews. It's indicative of just how damaging Prince Andrew's relationship with late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein could prove to the Queen's third child, and the monarchy generally, that he agreed to sit down with Newsnight's Emily Maitlis for a grimly fascinating grilling.
The Prince's friendship with Epstein was explored thoroughly in last month's Channel 4 documentary Dispatches: The Prince and the Paedophile. Prince Andrew has previously released press statements concerning his connections with Epstein, but this was the first time he's been questioned in depth about why he chose to associate with a convicted sex offender.
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Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his prison cell earlier this year while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges. Prince Andrew stands accused of having sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein's accusers, who was just 17 at the time of her alleged relationship with the Royal.
All of this was addressed in Saturday's Newsnight interview, which became a major talking point as soon as it aired. Here are seven things being heavily discussed and debated online and IRL.
1. Prince Andrew appeared to show precious little regret or empathy for Epstein's victims.
In what was perhaps the interview's most telling moment, the Prince said that Epstein had "obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming". Clearly shocked, Maitlis replied incredulously: "Unbecoming? He was a sex offender."
‘UNBECOMING!?’ Utter @Maitlis devastation of #PrinceAndrew pic.twitter.com/i4uhXSeTdY
— Ruaridh Arrow (@ArrowontheHill) November 16, 2019
2. He doesn't seem to regret his friendship with Epstein either.
Prince Andrew said he'd made "the wrong decision" to stay at Epstein's New York home in 2010 – after the financier had been convicted of procuring an underage girl for prosecution and of soliciting a prostitute – but added: "As far as my association with him was concerned, it had some seriously beneficial outcomes." These, he said earlier in the interview, related to his role as the UK's special representative for international trade and investment.
3. Prince Andrew claimed he used to be unable to sweat.
Maitlis put it to Prince Andrew that Roberts Giuffre had given "very specific" details about a night she claims to have spent with him at Tramp nightclub in London – which led to one of three occasions that Roberts Giuffre alleges they had sex. The rebuttals offered by the Prince were downright bizarre. He said he couldn't have bought her drinks, because "I don't know where the bar is in Tramps" and "I don't think I've ever bought a drink in Tramps". And he dismissed Roberts Giuffre's recollection that he had been "sweating profusely" on the dance floor by saying: "There's a slight problem with the sweating because I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don't sweat or I didn't sweat at the time".
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"I didn't sweat at the time," the Prince continued, "because 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".
Twitter had a field day with that one.
“I don’t sweat” 🐄💩 #PrinceAndrew pic.twitter.com/XgxwHtxRjm
— Katie Matthews 🖤 (@_katie_matthews) November 16, 2019
4. He claimed he was at home with his daughters, and before that at a birthday party with Princess Beatrice at Pizza Express in Woking, on the date he is alleged to have had sex with Roberts Giuffre in London.
"Why would you remember that so specifically? Why would you remember a Pizza Express birthday and being at home?" Maitlis asked. "Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing for me to do," the Prince replied. "I've never been… I've only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly. As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went, 'Oh yes, I remember that.'"
“On the date that’s being suggested I was at home with the children… I’d taken Beatrice to Pizza Express in Woking.”
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 16, 2019
Prince Andrew tells @maitlis he was elsewhere the night it has been claimed he had his photo taken with a woman who says they had sex
#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/XoDEALx5MJ
Pizza Express in Woking even enjoyed a spike in search traffic following the Prince's unexpected name-check!
a nation brought together pic.twitter.com/6ssBc7pewL
— Hannah Jane Parkinson (@ladyhaja) November 16, 2019
5. The Prince said he has "no recollection" of ever meeting Roberts Giuffre, and "no recollection" of the infamous photo of them together being taken.
The Prince stopped short of claiming the photo had been doctored, saying it would be "very difficult" to prove that it's a fake. When pressed by Maitlis, he eventually said, haltingly: "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."
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6. When Maitlis asked if "there is any way [he] could have had sex with [Roberts Giuffre] or any young woman trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein", Prince Andrew gave another bizarre explanation.
"No, and without putting too fine a point on it, if you're a man it is a positive act to have sex with somebody," the Prince said. "You have to have to take some sort of positive action and so therefore if you try to forget it's very difficult to try and forget a positive action and I do not remember anything."
This explanation baffled Twitter, too.
"If you are a man, sex is a positive action."
— Lou (@Lou_IzIs) November 16, 2019
That specific choice of words speaks volumes about #PrinceAndrew & his attitude towards women.
‘It’s very difficult to try and forget a positive action’ is the weirdest way I have ever heard anyone deny sex EVER #newsnight
— Gaby Hinsliff (@gabyhinsliff) November 16, 2019
That “positive action” defence was weird and confusing
— Jess Brammar (@jessbrammar) November 16, 2019
7. When Maitlis asked if he had any message for Roberts Giuffre, Prince Andrew simply switched the focus back to him.
"I don't have a message for her because I have to have a thick skin," he said. "If somebody is going to make those sorts of allegations then I've got to have a thick skin and get on with it but they never happened."
Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal: The Newsnight Interview is available on BBC iPlayer.
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