In an unexpected, shock interview Prince Andrew has opened up about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying that he let the royal family down by engaging with Epstein, especially after the billionaire paedophiles first conviction in 2008.
Watch Below: Prince Andrew Speaks Out For The First Time On Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein
Speaking inside Buckingham Palace, the Duke of York told BBC reporter Emily Maitlis, “That’s the bit that… as it were, I kick myself for on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family and we try and uphold the highest standards and practices and I let the side down, simple as that.”
The royal also insisted he has “no recollection” of meeting Virginia Giuffre (nee Roberts), the woman who claims she was sex trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with the prince three times between 2001 and 2002 when she was 17.
Giuffre’s allegations were very specific and included that when she met Prince Andrew, he was “profusely sweating.” However, Andrew claims he had medical condition at the time which meant he could not have been sweating. “I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenalin in the Falklands War when I was shot at and I simply… it was almost impossible for me to sweat,” he said. After the interview, a photo of him sweating taken in 2000 went viral.
He also said the photo that appears to show him with his arms around Giuffre couldn’t be him because when he goes out in London, he wears a suit and tie, despite the paparazzi photo of him sweating showing him leaving a London nightclub in a similar shirt, sans tie.
The duke went on to say that on which Ms Giuffre’s allegations are said to have happened, 10 March 2001, he was not out in London but “at home with the children” and that he’d taken his eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, to a party at a Pizza Express restaurant in Woking that evening.
The establishment almost instantly started trending on Twitter with Brits leaving joke Google reviews about seeing a man there on the night who wasn’t sweating despite eating a chilli pizza.
When asked why he chose to stay in Epstein’s home, Andrew said: “It was a convenient place to stay. I mean I’ve gone through this in my mind so many times. At the end of the day, with a benefit of all the hindsight that one can have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do.”
He continued, “But at the time I felt it was the honorable and right thing to do and I admit fully that my judgement was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honorable but that’s just the way it is.”
Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in New York in August, where he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
RELATED: Why Would Prince Andrew’s Accuser Make It Up?
In an unexpected, shock interview Prince Andrew has opened up about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying that he let the royal family down by engaging with Epstein, especially after the billionaire paedophiles first conviction in 2008.
Watch Below: Prince Andrew Speaks Out For The First Time On Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein
In an unexpected, shock interview Prince Andrew has opened up about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying that he let the royal family down by engaging with Epstein, especially after the billionaire paedophiles first conviction in 2008.
Watch Below: Prince Andrew Speaks Out For The First Time On Relationship With Jeffrey Epstein
