LONDON, Nov 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Britain’s Prince Andrew has
“categorically” denied having sex with an alleged teen victim of disgraced US
financier Jeffrey Epstein, who claims she was forced to sleep with the royal,
in an extraordinary interview broadcast on UK television on Saturday.
In an unprecedented hour-long conversation with the BBC’s Newsnight
programme, Andrew insisted he had “no recollection” of ever having met his
accuser, Virginia Roberts.
The prince also conceded his continued association with Epstein after he
was convicted of soliciting prostitution had let the royal family down — but
that he did not believe it had damaged the reputation of his mother, Queen
Elizabeth II.
“I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened,” Andrew told
the BBC’s Emily Maitlis, on the allegations he had sex with Roberts, now
Giuffre, on three occasions.
“I’ve said consistently and frequently that we never had any sort of sexual
contact whatever.
“I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever,” he
added.
Andrew, 59 — eighth in line to the throne — has been heavily criticised
over his links to multimillionaire Epstein, who was found dead in a New York
jail in August.
A coroner ruled that he committed suicide by hanging, while awaiting trial
on federal charges he trafficked girls as young as 14 for sex.
Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a girl under the age of 18
for prostitution and served 13 months in a US prison before being released on
probation.
Nonetheless Andrew, who hosted him at Windsor Castle and remained in
contact immediately following his release, is adamant it has not tarnished
Britain’s head of state.
“I don’t believe it’s been damaging to the Queen at all, it has to me,” he
said, noting “the wider family couldn’t have been more supportive”.
“It has been, what I would describe as a constant sore in the family,” the
father-of-two added of the impact on his immediate family.
Andrew said he felt compelled to speak out now.
“It’s almost a mental health issue to some extent for me in the sense that
it’s been nagging at my mind for a great many years.”
– ‘The wrong thing to do’ –
The BBC interview, filmed at Buckingham Palace on Thursday, is the first
time the prince has answered questions on his relationship with Epstein. In
2015, he used a public appearance at Davos in Switzerland to deny the claims.
The royal, who repeatedly insisted he was “not close” to the disgraced
financier, discussed a photograph showing him with his arm around then 17-
year-old Roberts, now Giuffre, with Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell in the
background.
Andrew cast doubt on the picture’s veracity, which he described as “a
photograph of a photograph of a photograph”.
“I don’t believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been
suggested,” he said, claiming he had never been in the upstairs area of
Maxwell’s London flat where it was taken.
“Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored but I
don’t recollect that photograph ever being taken.”
Andrew also faced questions over staying with Epstein at his Manhattan
townhouse shortly after his release from prison.
He claimed it was “a convenient place to stay” and that he did so to end
their friendship face-to-face.
“I have gone through this in my mind so many times. At the end of the day,
with the benefit of all the hindsight that one can have, it was definitely
the wrong thing to do.
“But at the time I felt it was the honourable and right thing to do.”
Andrew went on to concede it was “not something that was becoming of a
member of the royal family”.
“We try and uphold the highest standards and practices and I let the side
down, simple as that,” he said.
Andrew, who was captured on video during the 2010 stay waving goodbye to a
woman leaving Epstein’s property, described the property as “like a railway
station” with people coming and going.
He also said he was “absolutely sure” he had not received a foot massage
from a young Russian woman as one witness had reported.
– ‘Sex slave’ claim –
Over the years Epstein, 66, hobnobbed with politicians, socialites and
celebrities, including Donald Trump before he was president, and Bill
Clinton.
After his death Giuffre, who says she was abused by Epstein for years and
farmed out to his wealthy friends including Andrew, said “the reckoning must
not end, it must continue”.
She has alleged she was forced to have sex with the prince three times —
in London in 2001 when she was 17, in New York and on Epstein’s private
island in the Caribbean — which Andrew consistently denied throughout the
interview.
But the allegations were struck from the record by a US judge in 2015, who
said the “lurid details” were not needed to decide a civil case concerning
Epstein.
“He knows exactly what he’s done and I hope he comes clean about it,” she
told reporters after a US hearing on August 27.
But Andrew claimed he was “at home with the children” on the March 2001
night Giuffre alleges they had sex, after earlier taking his daughter
Princess Beatrice to a pizza restaurant near London.
Jack Scarola, a lawyer for Giuffre, told The Times Andrew should “submit to
an interview under oath with the investigating authorities” who continue to
probe whether others assisted Epstein in the US.
“Talking to the media doesn’t quite cut it,” he said.
The prince said he would “in the right circumstances” but added he was
“bound by what my legal advice is”.
Sarah Ferguson, Andrew’s ex-wife and the mother of his two daughters,
defended the embattled royal ahead of Saturday’s interview broadcast.
“Andrew is a true (and) real gentleman and is stoically steadfast to not
only his duty but also his kindness,” she wrote on Twitter.