Wherever you stand on the royals as a whole, it's hard to forget the absolute disaster that was Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis in 2019, in which he attempted to defend himself against accusations of sexual assault against Virginia Giuffre.
Whether it was his bizarre comments about his inability to sweat, his insistence that he's never liked to party, or his Pizza Express alibi, the whole conversation has been repeatedly branded a "car crash."
After that, Andrew stepped back from royal life, and was eventually stripped of a number of titles. He was disgraced both in public opinion and within the Royal Family.
In short, his interview didn't help his reputation at all — which seemed to be his reason for accepting to do it in the first place.
But reflecting on the interview, Emily Maitlis has thought of another reason why Andrew might have decided to speak publicly about the scandal involving the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein; he was doing it for Princess Beatrice's benefit.
Indeed, Beatrice was in the room with Andrew as he answered the journalist's questions, which one producer thought might have been in order to 'protect her father' in a way.
"It’s the first time the thought crossed my mind that maybe he was doing it for her," Emily has now said as part of the new Channel 4 documentary Andrew – The Problem Prince (via OK!).
"Your life has been hellish. You’ve had to read these headlines. You’re trying to get married. I’m going to do this to make it better for you. I don’t know if that’s true, but it crossed my mind."
Indeed, Beatrice married her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi just months later, in 2020.
Producer Sam McAlister commented on Andrew's decision to bring his eldest daughter as his 'plus-one,' calling the move a 'curveball.'
"Can you imagine being in Buckingham Palace about to talk to a member of the Royal Family about sexual offences? That’s pretty tricky," Sam commented. "And now I’ve got to do it in front of his daughter."
An unusual situation to say the least.
