In Prince Andrew’s disastrous Newsnight interview as producer speaks out | Royal | News

The Duke of York sat down with Emily Maitlis in November 2019 to discuss his friendship with billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, sparking a backlash that led to him relinquishing royal duties days later. Sam McAlister, who made the BBC scoop, said it was an “astonishing experience” to watch the disastrous interview filmed from Buckingham Palace.

Ms McAlister told Express.co.uk: “I mean even now we’re talking about it and I was physically there, and I’ve been through all that, and it’s been almost three years, I still can’t really believe it’s happened I was 15 feet behind his seat.

“Hearing the answers he gave, one worse than the next, was a truly extraordinary experience that it is still hard to believe actually happened.

“It was an amazing experience sitting in front of the camera listening to that.”

The producer said the fact that the Duke didn’t offer a “fullsome apology” surprised her the most about the interview.

She said: “I think it was his inability to give a proper apology over a 45-minute period.

“Especially as we come to the end of the interview and Emily says, ‘Is there anything else you want to say, Your Royal Highness?’

“Hint, hint, apologize deeply. And he still can’t do it.

“So if I was rehearsing with him, and I’m helping people with interviews, the first and only answer that really matters in this whole interview is a good explanation of his actions with an apology. And there’s just never been one.” come.”

Ms McAlister spent months trying to land the interview before a final meeting was held at the palace with Andrew, his private secretary Amanda Thirsk and eldest daughter Princess Beatrice.

She said the Duke mentioned his Pizza Express alibi at the time and his sensational claim that a medical condition meant he couldn’t sweat.

Ms McAlister added: “But I never thought it would come on camera. So when he said all that again, on camera, it was really almost more shocking than when I first heard it.”

The producer said she believes Andrew agreed to the chat because “nobody thinks they’re going to do a bad interview.”

She said: “I think the second reason is that it’s magnified a thousand times when you’re someone who’s lived the kind of life Prince Andrew lived, where you don’t have the normal flaws and challenges and degradations and rejections that the rest of we have day in, day out.

In addition, you may have a misguided understanding of your own capabilities.

“And the third reason is that I think he wanted to do something or he wouldn’t have been there, and I was the right woman in the right place at the right time.

“Obviously the arguments I made and later my colleagues convinced him that we were the right place to do that interview.”

Ms McAlister said the Queen’s second son didn’t seem nervous as they talked before the interview.

She said: “He seemed to be in a very good mood. He was exceptionally friendly. He was very nice to me in that context, as it was clearly going to be a hostile situation.

“Just pass the time and be nice, but he certainly didn’t seem nervous.”

And after the interview, the producer said that the Duke “at least in every way thought he did a really good job”.

Ms McAliser, a trained attorney, added that she could “never have predicted” the impact of the bombshell interview.

She said: “Not in my wildest imagination was the beginning of that negotiation, the beginning of that process, which would end with a step back from royal life. It was something extraordinary to see.”

During the interview, Andrew insisted he had “no recollection” of ever meeting Virginia Giuffre and denied sleeping with her when she was 17.

He also said he didn’t regret his friendship with Epstein because of “the opportunities I got to learn from him” about business.

But the duke was criticized for showing a lack of sympathy for the victims of the disgraced financier.

Scoops: Behind the scenes of the BBC’s most shocking interviews by Sam McAlister will be published by Oneworld on July 14.