After six months of negotiation between Buckingham Palace and the BBC, Prince Andrew agreed to a “no holds barred” interview with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis that will air this weekend on BBC 2. The network has not yet released any preview footage, but they claim that neither palace officials nor Prince Andrew vetted the questions in advance.
In the prime time special Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal, the Duke of York will finally talk about his longtime friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who died in his jail cell this past summer while he was waiting to face charges of sex-trafficking in court. While the death has been ruled a suicide, there have been claims that Epstein was murdered.
He will respond to allegations of abuse that have been made against him. https://t.co/cIG17JFRIu
— Yahoo News UK (@YahooNewsUK) November 15, 2019
According to The Daily Mail, Queen Elizabeth has given her blessing for the interview, which took place inside the palace. Not only will Prince Andrew answer questions about his friendship with Epstein, but he will also discuss the allegations made by Virginia Roberts, who says she flew on Epstein’s private jet – the “Lolita Express” – as a sex “slave” so she could have sex with the prince, who she calls “an abuser.”
Roberts, who is now 36, says she was coerced by Epstein three separate times to have sex with the royal in three different locations – London, New York, and the Virgin Islands. She also claims that their encounter in the Virgin Islands was an orgy with nine other women. Roberts says that Prince Andrew knows the truth, and so does she.
“I know their faces and I know what they’ve done to me,” said Roberts, who appears in an infamous pic as a teenager that features the Prince with his arm around her waist while Epstein’s friend Ghislaine Maxwell stood next to them.
Roberts says that Maxwell told her: “I want you to do for him [Prince Andrew] what you do for [Jeffrey] Epstein.”
Epstein accuser says Prince Andrew told her ‘thank you’ after she was forced to have sex with him https://t.co/yWPAaKzFsk
— stop ritual abuse (@stopritualabuse) November 13, 2019
Prince Andrew has previously denied Roberts’ claims, but only in prepared statements released by the palace press office. This will be the first time Prince Andrew has spoken about the controversy in an interview, and BBC’s Sam McAlister says there are no softball questions.
Epstein served 18 months in prison for prostituting minors back in 2009 and 2010. One month after his arrest this summer for sex trafficking, Epstein was found dead in his cell. Prince Andrew has claimed in the past he had no knowledge of what Epstein was doing, and he says that any allegation about “impropriety with underage minors” is “categorically untrue.”
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Prince Andrew & the Epstein Scandal airs Saturday night on BBC 2.
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