Emily Maitlis reflects on 2019 Andrew interview as infamous photo is seemingly confirmed real
Emily Maitlis says Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor broke the golden rule of making excuses when he said a photo of him with Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre was fake – pick one and stick to it.
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In brief…
- Emily Maitlis says she has seen the words of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in her 2019 Newsnight interview “crumble”, with Epstein Files details proving a photo of the Royal with Virginia Giuffre, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, was genuine.
- Emily says he broke the golden rule of making excuses by offering several reasons why he believed it was a fake.
- She says the reason Andrew, and his team at Buckingham Palace at the time, were keen to prove the photo a fake in order to discredit Giuffre.
What’s the story?
The golden rule of making excuses, Emily Maitlis says, is to choose one and stick to it.
But when Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, speaking to Emily in 2019, reacted to the photo of himself with an arm around Jeffrey Epstein abuse victim Virginia Giuffre during their infamous Newsnight interview, this must have slipped his mind.
"That is what I would describe as me in that picture. But we can't be certain as to whether or not that's my hand on her – whatever it is – left side," the former Royal said.
He said he didn't remember the photo, that it appeared to be him but not his hand, and lastly said he had never been upstairs in Jeffrey Epstein's London home, where the photo was taken.
"The more convoluted his explanation was, the less credible it began to sound," Emily says, after recently revealed documents from the Epstein Files seemingly confirmed the photo was genuine, with his associate Ghislaine Maxwell discussing the picture in email conversations.
"I actually took a photocopy of the photograph with me. It was in my notes. I held it on my knee in case he said, 'I don't know what you're talking about. I've never seen the photo'.
"When I raised the question of the photograph, his response was so convoluted."
Emily says Giuffre, who carried around a disposable camera with her at the time, wanted the photo taken so she could send it to her mum, excited to have met the then-Prince.
"She wanted to send a picture of herself with Andrew to her mum. She'd just met a prince," Emily says.
"She was a 17 year old girl who thought this prince might change her life.
"It did change her life, but, but not in the way that she'd ever imagined."
Why Andrew and his team were so keen to claim the photo was a fake
Lewis Goodall says that knowing Andrew lied about the photo casts doubt on everything else he said during Emily's interview.
Emily says that the image itself was a "sticking point" with Andrew's team before the interview, asking the production team to prove that the photo was a fake.
"When we were talking to professionals, no one thought it was a fake," Emily says.
"In denying that the photograph was real, they were rubbishing her. They were rubbishing the victim. They were basically making it sound like it was a fake, she was a fake, she'd made it all up.
"It's the powerful trying to rubbish the victims."
Has Emily's perspective on the interview changed?
Emily says that going into the Andrew interview, the aim of her – and her BBC team at the time – was to produce something that was not "judgemental", and allow him to address rumours around his relationship with Epstein at the time.
But over time, as more of the statements he made in 2019 have been proven to be inaccurate, she has been forced to reassess some of the interview.
"We went in to just ask the questions and hear the answers, and that's all the interview has ever been," Emily says.
"But it is harder for me to maintain a sense of believability, seeing so much of it just crumble now."
"The point of the Epstein Files is seeing the documents first hand, and being able to read this stuff is to put them side by side, see the things we were led to believe, and go, 'well, that clearly doesn't stack up'.