Prince Andrew May Have Agreed to Career Ending Interview for His Daughter

Prince Andrew may have agreed to publicly clear the air over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein with a 2019 interview that eventually hastened his royal downfall in order to avoid overshadowing the impending marriage of his eldest daughter, a new documentary has heard.

Andrew gave a 50-minute sit-down interview to the BBC network's Newsnight show in November 2019 amid mounting pressure on the royal to address his friendship with the convicted sex offender Epstein, who had been found dead in his prison cell earlier that summer. The royal faced questions about his relationship with Virginia Giuffre who had accused him of sexual misconduct. Andrew denied the allegations and both parties reached an out-of-court settlement over a lawsuit brought by Giuffre.

According to witnesses, while arranging to take part in the interview which was held at Buckingham Palace, the prince was joined in planning meetings by his eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice.

The princess was preparing to marry her fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in a May 2020 ceremony at St James' Palace, the first royal wedding to take place in London since Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.

Emily Maitlis, then the BBC anchor tasked with conducting the interview with Andrew, has recently reflected that his daughter's wedding may have been a motivating factor for the prince to publicly address the Epstein scandal, so as not to let it overshadow her celebration.

Recounting the events surrounding the interview, Maitlis told Channel 4's upcoming documentary series Andrew - The Problem Prince, per the Daily Mail: "It's the first time the thought crossed my mind that maybe he was doing it for her."

"'Your life has been hellish. You've had to read these headlines. You're trying to get married. I'm going to do this to make it better for you.' I don't know if that's true, but it crossed my mind."

Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, who was instrumental in securing the interview, has voiced feeling a sense of confusion as to why Beatrice was involved in arranging it, particularly given the serious and sexual nature of the claims being lodged against her father.

"Around the corner comes his daughter, Princess Beatrice. That was really quite a curve ball of curve balls," she told the documentary makers.

"Can you imagine being in Buckingham Palace about to talk to a member of the royal family about sexual offences? That's pretty tricky. And now I've got to do it in front of his daughter?"

McAlister previously wrote about Beatrice's involvement in the process in her 2022 book Scoops which is currently being adapted for screen by Netflix.

She described the princess as "polite and engaged" though was "evidently anxious" about the process. After a meeting in which they all discussed the focus of the interview, McAlister noted that Andrew "turned to Princess Beatrice and said that they had a lot to discuss and they should go, straight after, upstairs, to talk about it, over a cup of tea, with mum [Queen Elizabeth II]."

The resulting interview was broadcast on November 16, 2019. During their discussion, Maitlis grilled Andrew over his friendship with Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell and on the claims made by Epstein's alleged abuse victim Giuffre, who alleged that the prince had sexually assaulted her when she was 17.

Andrew denied Giuffre's account and offered an alibi that he was visiting a pizza restaurant with Beatrice on the night an assault was alleged to have taken place. He also said that Giuffre's claim that he sweats excessively was false because he physically cannot sweat after an adrenaline imbalance incurred during his service in the Falklands War.

Public reaction to the interview was swift with the prince being criticized for not sufficiently distancing himself from Epstein or justifying remaining socially connected with him once allegations about his behaviour were made public.

The royal faced criticism for his apparent attempt to discredit Giuffre's claims and for the strangeness of his pizza restaurant and sweating alibis.

As public unease mounted regarding the prince, he announced just three days after the interview's broadcast that he would step down from his public roles to distance himself from the monarchy. A statement from Buckingham Palace read:

"It has become clear to me over the last few days that the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family's work and the valuable work going on in the many organizations and charities that I am proud to support.

"Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission."

Princess Beatrice's marriage to Mapelli Mozzi did not go as planned in London, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic which saw the world enter lockdowns two months before the planned date. Instead, the pair married in a private ceremony at the royal chapel in the grounds of Windsor Castle on July 17, 2020. No photographs of the bride's father were released from the day.

Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit against Andrew in 2021 which he settled in February the following year after it was announced that he had been stripped of his military associations and patronages and would no longer use the style of "His Royal Highness."

Despite this, Andrew has maintained strong denials of any wrongdoing.

Since then, the prince has remained a royal retiree, making brief public appearances to attend family events such as the funeral services for his parents Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, as well as being included in royal Christmas and Easter celebrations by his brother, King Charles.

It is expected that the prince will be in attendance at the king's coronation on May 6 at Westminster Abbey.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.