Emily Maitlis, whose infamous interview with Prince Andrew pressured the disgraced royal to announce his departure from public life, has revealed she believes the prince “had behaved quite effectively.”
The previous BBC presenter, who interviewed the prince for its flagship Newsnight programme, informed The Occasions that the duke’s behaviour in contrast favourably with most politicians.
She mentioned, “I felt he’d behaved quite effectively. He had given us this hour within the palace and was keen to speak about stuff. Most politicians now gained’t even speak about their very own insurance policies. So at the least he had guts.”
And he or she shared her sentiment that the prince had additionally loved the interview, unaware of the grief it might carry him. She mentioned, “He spent a very long time afterwards chatting to us and permitting us to take photographs going alongside the corridors. He even gave me this guided tour, saying, ‘Her Majesty is simply up these stairs. While you subsequent come again I’ll have to indicate you extra. And have you learnt what’s behind that door?’”
It was clear neither the prince, his individuals nor the broader palace firmament predicted the backlash to the interview, which noticed him fail to indicate any remorse for his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, fail to indicate any sympathy for Epstein’s victims, and in addition noticed him bizarrely clarify how he couldn’t have been noticed dancing, trying “sweaty” in a nightclub as detailed by his alleged sufferer Virginia Guiffre, as he had a situation which meant he was unable to sweat.
Maitlis informed The Occasions, “The palace informed us it was ‘agency however truthful.’ I don’t suppose they realised how the general public or press would react. They actually weren’t anticipating the furore.”
There at the moment are two TV dramas being produced in regards to the interview, one primarily based on the e book Scoops, written by Maitlis’s then producer Sam McAllister, and one by Blueprint Productions, which beforehand introduced the scandals of British politician Jeremy Thorpe and the Duchess of Argyll to display screen with, respectively, A Very English Scandal and A Very British Scandal. Maitlis is working with the latter firm.