Prince Andrew has answered questions about his links to Jeffrey Epstein for the first time.

Prince Andrew has broken his silence about the 2001 photograph of him with a 17-year-old Virginia Roberts, saying he doesn’t remember meeting her and denying the pair had any sexual contact.

Speaking in a world exclusive interview with BBC Newsnight, the Duke of York flatly denied meeting Virginia Roberts, now Virgina Giuffre.

“I don’t remember meeting her at all. I do not remember the photograph being taken and I’ve said consistently and frequently that we never had any sexual contact whatever,” he said.

Asked if he had a message for the young woman in the photograph that has dogged the Duke for years, he said: “I don’t have a message for her. I have to have a thick skin if somebody is going to make those allegations.

“I’m at a loss to explain this particular photograph.”

“It has been what I would describe as a constant sore in the family.”



Prince Andrew tells #Newsnight his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier who took his own life while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, has caused anguish for the Royal family pic.twitter.com/MZGjnzstYW — BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 16, 2019

Virginia Roberts alleges that she was forced by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with Prince Andrew three times between 1999 and 2002 in London, Florida and the Caribbean.

However the Duke is adamant it “never happened” and revealed new details about what happened on the night of the allegations, 10 March 2001.

He said he had taken his daughter, Princess Beatrice, to a Pizza Express in Woking, a town outside London, and was at home with the children afterwards.

The Prince said he recalled the ordinary evening because going to a chain restaurant was a “very unusual thing for me to do”.

Prince Andrew also said claims he had bought Ms Roberts drinks at Tramps nightclub could not have been true because he doesn’t drink and didn’t know where the bar was.

He also said Ms Roberts’ claims he was “sweating profusely” on the dancefloor could not have been true because he had a “medical condition” that meant he “didn’t sweat” at the time.

It was “due to an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War,” he said.

‘KICK MYSELF ON A DAILY BASIS’

The interview marked the first time the Queen’s third child has spoken publicly about his decade-long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, 66, who committed suicide in August in a New York jail cell while awaiting trial on new sex trafficking charges.

The Duke revealed that he had flown to New York to effectively end his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein when the pair were pictured walking together in Central Park in December 2010.

The picture was splashed on front pages around the world as it came just months after Epstein finished serving his sentence after being convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution. Footage published by the Mail on Sunday earlier this year showed the Prince inside Epstein’s Manhattan home at the same time leading to increasing pressure on Prince Andrew to explain what he was doing in the home of a convicted sex offender.

Prince Andrew: “He has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner that was unbecoming...”



Maitlis: “Unbecoming? He was a sex offender”



The moment. pic.twitter.com/oYcZcZ5j1y#PrinceAndrew — Richard Chambers (@newschambers) November 16, 2019

Prince Andrew said he went to New York with the “sole purpose” of breaking up his friendship with Epstein given his convictions.

“I took the judgement call that because this was serious doing it over the telephone was the chicken’s way of doing it,” he said. “We had an opportunity to go for a walk in the park, that was the conversation that coincidentally was photographed.”

He said the pair made a “mutual agreement” they would no longer be in contact and he left the next day. When asked why he stayed at the home of a convicted sex offender for four days, including partaking in a farewell dinner, Prince Andrew said it was a “convenient place to stay”.

The Prince said he “kicks himself on a daily basis” over the decision but he was “too honourable” to let him down.

“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.”

“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.

“But at the time I felt it was the honourable and right thing to do and I admit fully that my judgment was probably coloured by my tendency to be too honourable but that’s just the way it is.”

“In the right circumstances, yes I would... there’s just as much closure for me as there is for everybody else.”



Prince Andrew tells @maitlis that if "push came to shove" he would testify over allegations regarding his conduct and his links to Jeffrey Epstein

#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/zZgo4vkl1x — BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 16, 2019

‘NO REGRETS’

Prince Andrew insisted that despite his “shock” at the allegations against Epstein, he still did not regret their relationship because of the connections and opportunities it gave him.

“He himself and I are not as close as you might think,” he said. “Yes I would go and stay in his house but that was because of his girlfriend not because of him,” he said in reference to Ghislane Maxwell.

Prince Andrew said the fallout from his friendship with Epstein and the allegations against him by Ms Roberts had been a “constant sore” in the family that he had discussed many times.

When asked if it had damaged the Queen, he said: “I don’t believe it’s been damaging to the Queen at all. It has been to me and it’s been a constant drip in the background that people want to know.”

Prince Andrew has repeatedly and vehemently denied any accusations of wrongdoing when it comes to the sexual allegations against him.

Earlier this year, he said he was “appalled” by sex abuse claims surrounding Epstein. In 2015, a statement from the palace said that “any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors” by the prince was “categorically untrue”.

However Virginia Roberts, now Virginia Guiffre, has urged him to “come clean” about what she alleges happened.

QUEEN GIVES APPROVAL FOR INTERVIEW

The extraordinary interview came after direct approval from the Queen and was the result of nearly 12 months of negotiations which Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis said “intensified” after Epstein’s death in August.

She said Buckingham Palace was made clear that the interview would be a “no holds barred” operation with no questions vetted or off limits.

“It’s hard to describe … what it’s like to be sitting in Buckingham Palace opposite the Queen’s son, Prince Andrew, quizzing him about his sexual history,” she said.

“Viewers will make their minds up over what they’ve seen, over what they choose to believe.”

She said the Duke was “very engaged with every single question” and the interview contained a number of new revelations rather than “treading old ground”.

“The Duke of York did not shy away from any of the questions I put to him … It was extraordinarily raw.”

Prince Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson shared her support for her former husband ahead of the interview airing, describing him as “a true and real gentleman” and “stoically steadfast to not only his duty but also his kindness and goodness”.

It follows an Instagram post on Friday in which she said she was “deeply supportive and proud of this giant of a principled man”.

“For so many years he has gone about his duties for Great Britain and The Monarch. It is time for Andrew to stand firm now, and that he has, and I am with him every step of the way,” she wrote.

Prince Andrew had come under increasing pressure to explain his links to Jeffrey Epstein, however royal analysts say the decision for him to face a public grilling is a high-stakes gamble.

BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond said the decision to conduct an interview with the heavy-hitting Newsnight would not have been taken lightly.

“It’s a sign of how bad things are for Prince Andrew and his reputation that he has chosen to give an interview like this. This is not a fireside chat with an old family friend. This is a long, and presumably, forensic interview with one of the BBC’s best,” he wrote.

“So many questions have been stonewalled for so long, with the Prince’s right to privacy given as the reason. By sitting down with the BBC, he has waived that right. It seems like a huge risk. But the Prince and his advisers have judged that the risk of saying nothing is greater.”