Prince Andrew’s aides ‘pleased’ with car crash interview, BBC presenter claims

Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis says she knew within minutes of starting televised chat that the Royal’s comments would prove ‘explosive’

Prince Andrew
(Image credit: BBC Newsnight)

Prince Andrew and his team were “happy” with the infamous BBC Newsnight interview that led to his effective sacking from royal duties just days after airing, it has been claimed.

Interviewer Emily Maitlis “has revealed that it was only after the public reacted with fury and incredulity to his performance that his aides began to worry”, the Daily Mail reports.

Speaking to Radio Times ahead of next week’s Bafta TV Awards - where the interview with the Duke of York is nominated in the news category - Maitlis said: “We know that the Palace was happy with the interview. We had plenty of engagement with them after it went out.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

I think their shock was not at the interview itself, but the reaction it caused in the days and weeks afterwards.”

During the 45-minute grilling at Buckingham Palace, the Duke declined to say he regretted his friendship with late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The Royal claimed he stayed at Epstein’s home during a trip to New York after the billionaire was convicted of child sex offences because he was “too honourable to end the relationship, adding that in “hindsight”, the decision was a mistake.

Andrew’s many other “memorable answers” included detailing a visit to Pizza Express in Woking and claiming that he was medically unable to sweat after serving in the Falklands War, the Daily Mirror adds.

Maitlis says that she realised the interview would be “explosive” within minutes of kicking off filming, adding: “First, he was tackling the subject matter head on.

“Secondly, the lack of apology or any real expression of regret told me that the Prince still believed that his actions had broadly been the right ones. And thirdly, the level of detail was unlike anything I was expecting.”

YouGov polling results released after the interview found that just 6% of Britons believed the Duke’s account of his friendship with Epstein.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us

Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs. 

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a master’s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.