Saturday 2 July 2022 08:03 PM Prince Andrew gave Ghislaine Maxwell 'unrestricted access' to Buckingham ... trends now

We were sitting face to face around a small table in Buckingham Palace — three of us from BBC Newsnight, plus Prince Andrew, his private secretary and Princess Beatrice, who was writing in a notebook.

At stake was the interview every broadcaster across the world would have given their right arm to do just then. Would Andrew agree to go on TV to talk about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein?

What followed was an intense two hours of questioning from the prince and his daughter — and with every minute, it became ever clearer that this wasn't won yet.

As a Newsnight producer, I'd been pursuing this interview for months and was desperate to land it.

So as we talked, I decided to give it to Prince Andrew very bluntly.

'Sir. I have lived in this country for over 40 years and, until now, I only knew two things about you. It's that you're known as 'Air Miles Andy' and 'Randy Andy' — and I can absolutely tell you that the latter really doesn't help you in your current predicament.'

Had I blown our chances of landing the interview of a lifetime? My colleagues — presenter Emily Maitlis and Newsnight deputy editor Stewart Maclean — looked genuinely shocked.

There was a long pause. Then Andrew laughed. The room collectively exhaled.

It had all started innocuously — an email from a PR to me in November 2018, suggesting a chat about Pitch@Palace, Prince Andrew's initiative to support entrepreneurs around the world. Would Newsnight like to interview him about it?

The simple answer was 'no'. We never agree to puff pieces and never allow interviewees to give conditions. So I politely declined.

'Do come back to me if the position changes!' I signed off.

It seemed so unlikely that I didn't even tell my boss.

I assumed I'd never hear from the PR again. But six months later, I did: Prince Andrew was now open to a broader chat — would I be interested in learning more? Absolutely.

The PR said she needed to talk to Andrew's private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, and she'd be back in touch. It was the first time I'd heard Amanda's name and I immediately Googled her.

She sounded suitably impressive — a woman who'd worked for the prince for seven years, but who'd previously been a banker in the City. The picture that emerged, after talking to a couple of friends, was of someone formidable: clever, thorough and fiercely loyal to Prince Andrew.

Shortly afterwards, I was invited to meet Amanda at Buckingham Palace.

I'm not going to lie — I was excited to go. But at this stage I wasn't hopeful about landing an interview.

As far as I knew, no member of the Royal Family had ever even been on Newsnight. We had no connections in the Palace. It was rare to even do a 'royal' story. Why on earth would Prince Andrew want to talk to us?

All I could see was a load of armed police at an open gate and couldn't quite believe anyone just walked into Buckingham Palace that way, but that's exactly what happened. They looked me up on a list, took my ID and rang through to someone who sanctioned my entry.

The sea of police and guns parted, and I began the long walk to the palace door. The hundreds of tourists stacked up against the gates stared as I traipsed across the cobbles, somewhat impeded by a perilously high pair of knee-high, gold-heeled Kurt Geiger boots.

I was directed to a modest waiting room that featured a teeny marble mantelpiece with a large gilt mirror and a loudly ticking wooden clock. On a little table sat a framed picture of Her Majesty, in a yellow jacket and hat.

Feeling daring, I picked up the black frame. It wasn't heavy; it looked like a cheap wooden frame from Ikea.

As I sat there I could hear staff chattering about some royal visit to Sainsbury's, and watched as a soldier came in, removed his huge bearskin cap, and talked for a moment about the day. Then two PRs arrived, and we were taken upstairs in old-fashioned lifts, past huge busts of former kings and queens, and through swathes of empty corridors. Amanda's office was a small room, peppered with pictures of Prince Andrew and his family.

She was exactly as I expected — impeccable manners, thorough and direct, not a hair out of place. We talked for two hours, and agreed that the interview would encompass everything from Brexit to the future of the monarchy as well as any other relevant issues that arose.

Then Amanda said there was just one red line: we couldn't talk about the issue of Andrew's friendship with Epstein. My heart sank.

Back then, Jeffrey Epstein wasn't a name that rang bells for a lot of people. Even so, I knew we had to decline the interview.

This was in May 2019. Eight weeks later, Epstein was arrested. Twelve weeks later, he was dead. The full scale of his criminal behaviour was coming into sharp focus, and Virginia Roberts Giuffre, and other victims, had started to speak.

Twenty weeks on, I managed to persuade Amanda that Prince Andrew's position — of silence in the face of global scrutiny — was untenable.

Twelve long days later came the email we had hoped for. It arrived from Amanda, early on a Saturday morning, November 9: could presenter Emily Maitlis, our deputy editor Stewart and I come to the palace in two days? Prince Andrew wanted to meet us.

Monday, November 11, 2019

'Morning!' Prince Andrew's voice was upbeat as he came into Amanda's room. He was smiling. He seemed friendly. 'I hope you don't mind, but I brought someone with me!' We exchanged glances. Who could it be? A lawyer? Maybe someone from the Queen's staff?

And then, from behind him, came Princess Beatrice. To be frank, the only thing worse than speaking to a prospective interviewee about allegations of sexual impropriety and sex with a 17-year-old girl is having to do so in front of his daughter.

Princess Beatrice was polite and engaged, but, unlike her father, she was evidently anxious about the meeting and clearly there to protect his interests.

I'd heard she was close to the Queen. The Prince's eldest daughter was now, I felt, the person who could make the difference between us getting the interview or not.

We all sat down, crammed into that tiny room a few feet from one another. What was most surprising was that there was never any attempt to find out what we'd ask or to place conditions on the questions.

For his part, the prince revealed for the first time that he supposedly had an 'alibi'. He told us about Pizza Express. A children's party. He mentioned his sweating, or lack thereof. He talked about how recently he'd seen Ghislaine Maxwell [Epstein's procurer of under-age girls]. He admitted he'd made errors of judgment. It was jaw-dropping stuff.

And then he said something I'll never forget.

As we concluded, he turned to Princess Beatrice and said they had a lot to discuss and should go, straight after, upstairs, to talk about it, over a cup of tea, with Mum.

For a split second, I almost scoffed; what on earth did a grown man need to talk to his mum for? And then it hit me. 'Mum' was the Queen.

Less than 24 hours later, he agreed to the interview.

I felt I wouldn't really believe it until those cameras started rolling. But I wouldn't have to wait long. This was on Tuesday, November 12, 2019. And in just two days we would all find ourselves back inside Buckingham Palace, face to face with Prince Andrew again, conducting what turned out to be an interview more shocking than any of us could ever have predicted.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Fifteen feet: that's how far away I am from the back of Andrew's chair. I can see the soles of his shoes (hardly scuffed), the back of his head (new haircut), the hem of his trousers (a perfectly judged length) and the nervous tapping of his left foot. The chair seems a little small for his body.

My own chair is up against the wall of an opulent room larger than most London flats. I'm sitting next to a very friendly woman who, seeing how nervous I am, kindly offers me a martini.

Gin, with a twist. Her Majesty is also a fan. It's one of those exchanges that you can hardly believe is happening, chatting idly with someone in Buckingham Palace about your monarch's penchant for a cocktail.

This charming woman is the prince's equerry. She's certain this interview will clear his name — that it's all been a terrible misunderstanding. That, after this, things will go back to normal.

Emily Maitlis is nervous, busying herself with her notes, the result of two days of relentless practice and brainstorms with a small team.

I feel panic rise within me. We're about to interview a member of the Royal Family about his connections with a sex-trafficker. We're about to ask him, on camera, whether he had sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whether he knew about Epstein's terrible acts, and whether he was complicit.