Emily Maitlis and Sam McAlister are 'no longer on speaking terms after the ... trends now
The masterminds behind the infamous Prince Andrew Newsnight interview are reportedly no longer on speaking terms.
There is said to have been a falling out between journalist Emily Maitlis and ex Newsnight producer Sam McAlister who helped secure the interview.
According to The Sun, the tension boils down to Emily, 53, not acknowledging the role Sam played in securing the interview with the prince.
Matters were made worse at a party just before Christmas where Emily - who earned a salary of £325,000 - was said to have 'snubbed' Sam - who was on a more modest £30,000.
A source said: 'At a celebrity party at Christmas, it was very award as both women were in the same room. The tension was palpable.
There is said to have been a falling out between journalist Emily Maitlis (pictured) and ex Newsnight producer Sam McAlister who helped secure the interview
The tension boils down to Emily not acknowledging the role Sam (pictured) played in securing the interview with the prince
'Sam approached Emily in front of quite a few people and suggested they bury the hatchet, and start afresh.
'But Emily seemed reluctant to engage and essentially turned her back on Sam. Everyone was talking about it afterwards.'
The insider added both women have films based on the interview currently out on rival streamers and want their own to be a success.
The Netflix film Scoop is based on Sam's book while Emily is the producer of A Very Royal Scandal starring Michael Sheen as the prince that will air on Amazon.
Sam, who is portrayed by Billie Piper in Scoop, has previously accused presenter and interviewer Emily of failing to properly acknowledge her pivotal role in securing the infamous interview with the late Queen's 'favourite son'.
The ex-BBC journalist, played by Gillian Anderson in Scoop, was criticised for giving an in-depth interview explaining how the scoop came about, but failing to mention McAlister, who convinced Prince Andrew to take part.
The dispute stemmed from an interview Emily and Newsnight's former editor Esme Wren gave Radio Times in the July following the bombshell broadcast.
In the piece – headlined 'How we did it, Newsnight's Emily Maitlis and Esme Wren on the Prince Andrew interview that shocked the world' – Ms Wren said: 'We delivered a quite exceptional piece of journalism.'
Matters were made worse at a party just before Christmas where Emily - who earned a salary of £325,000 - was said to have 'snubbed' Sam - who was on a more modest £30,000 (pictured together in 2021)
The new Netflix film Scoop is based on Sam's book and sees Emily portrayed by Gillian Anderson (centre) and Sam portrayed by Billie Piper (right)
But Sam was not mentioned once, despite her forging the relationship with Prince Andrew's aide Amanda Thirsk and meeting her at Buckingham Palace to secure the interview.
'While those who work behind the scenes don't always get credit, for Emily to go out there and not mention Sam in such a high-profile interview seems pretty unfair and wrong,' said one former colleague of the two women.
'Emily was on a significant salary and then you had Sam grafting behind the scenes on about £30,000 a year. Without Sam there would have been no Prince Andrew interview. It's as simple as that.'
As for how she felt overlooked, a source said: 'Sam tried to laugh at it. It seemed deeply baffling that two women would not mention another, far more junior woman in an interview where they were talking about how the interview came about.'
But friends of Sam told The Daily Mail in 2023 that the snub was a factor in her decision to leave the BBC in 2021 to go freelance and become a champion of behind-the scenes production staff.
Sam's book and film deals led to backlash from her former BBC colleagues, who claimed she was attempting to steal all the glory, The Telegraph reported in 2022.
BBC sources were said to be 'seething' after the book's publication, accusing Ms McAlister of taking the lion's share of credit for a team effort and reducing key figures in the story, including Ms Maitlis, to peripheral figures in her narrative.
A BBC insider said at the time: 'There is internal disappointment because it is not the done thing to expose how you go about these journalistic practices and also because a lot of people who did a considerable amount of work on this show are being written out of the process in pursuit of one person's career. Former colleagues find that disappointing.'
The Newsnight show was the scoop of the decade, a history-making interview that brought an abrupt halt to the Duke of York’s royal career. Pictured, Prince Andrew and Emily Maitlis
Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis and Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew in the Netflix drama
Emily has always refused
