Prince Andrew may have given his disastrous Newsnight appearance in a bid to help his daughter, Princess Beatrice, his interviewer Emily Maitlis has said.
The disgraced Duke of York, 63, sat down for an interview with the journalist in November 2019 to discuss his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for the first time.
According to Ms Maitlis, Andrew brought his eldest daughter Beatrice, 34, to behind the scenes negotiations with the BBC team constructing the interview, as well as with Ms Maitlis herself and producer Sam McAlister.
The journalist said she thought at the time that Andrew might have agreed to speak in an attempt to make amends with his daughter, who had recently got engaged to her now-husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, MailOnline reports.
“It’s the first time the thought crossed my mind that maybe he was doing it for her,” she said in a Channel 4 documentary revisting her bombshell BBC interview with the Duke.
READ MORE: Queen’s eight-word warning showed she knew Andrew’s Newsnight interview was a ‘car crash’
Ms Maitlis continued: “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.”
Producer Ms McAlister said the Duke had announced he had brought someone with him to the negotiations behind the interview, and said she thought he meant a lawyer.
She told the Channel 4 documentary: “Instead around the corner comes his daughter, Princess Beatrice. That was really quite a curve ball of curve balls.
“Can you imagine being in Buckingham Palace about to talk to a member of the Royal Family about sexual offences? That’s pretty tricky. And now I’ve got to do it in front of his daughter.”
Ms McAlister has previously spoken of how Beatrice took notes on a clipboard at the meeting and appeared ‘anxious’.
Princess Beatrice is set to appear in a new Netflix drama, Scoop, which will detail the runup to the Newsnight interview given by the Duke of York, The Telegraph has reported.
Actress Charity Wakefield will play Beatrice in the drama, which stars Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis, Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew and Billie Piper as BBC produce Sam McAllister.
The film follows the book by Ms McAlister, who managed to scoop the bombshell interview about Prince Andrew’s connection with Jeffrey Epstein, which is widely believed to have backfired.
Ms McAlister revealed Beatrice’s role in an ITV This Morning interview two years after the Newsnight interview aired.
There she said: “The only thing worse than speaking to a prospective interviewee about allegations of sexual impropriety and sex with a 17-year-old girl is having to do so in front of his daughter.”
