BBC nearly cut scene from Prince Andrew interview to avoid 'ridiculing' Duke
Prince Andrew ’s claims he could not have had sex with Virginia Giuffre because he was at a Pizza Express was nearly not included in his car crash interview - to save him from ridicule.
During the Duke of York’s infamous sit down interview with Newsnight host Emily Maitlis in 2019, he was asked about an encounter she claimed happened on March 10, 2001. The nation was astounded when his claimed alibi was he was at the Woking-based restaurant which he claimed to “weirdly remember”.
Ms Maitlis told podcast Desperately Seeking Wisdom with Sir Craig Oliver the prince had insisted the claim be added to the interview, after cameras had already finished rolling. She added her first instinct was not to include it as it seemed too ridiculous.
She said: “ I said to him, ‘Is there anything you haven’t had a chance to say?’ He said ‘Oh actually, I didn’t give you my alibi.’ And he told us about the Pizza Express thing. We said, ‘But you’ve answered all the questions and explained you’d never met Virginia Giuffre.’ He said, ‘Yes, but the reason I couldn’t have been there was because I was in my car taking my daughter to Pizza Express in Woking.’
The Duke of York during the interview with Emily Maitlis (BBC)“We let him record that again but it was complicated. I thought if we don’t include it we haven’t included something really important for the interviewee to make known. And if we do include it it sounds ridiculous. I’m not sure he heard it the same way those of us in the room heard it.”
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When asked during the interview about the alleged encounter with Ms Giuffre Andrew said: “That couldn’t have happened because the date that’s being suggested I was at home with the children. On that particular day that we now understand is the date which is the 10th of March, I was at home, I was with the children and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at I suppose sort of 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
"And then because the Duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other one is there. I was on terminal leave at the time from the Royal Navy so therefore I was at home.”
When asked why he would remember it so specifically, he added: “Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing for me to do. I’ve never been…I’ve only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly. As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went “oh yes, I remember that”. But I have no recollection of ever meeting or being in the company or the presence.”
His claims received wide ridicule, including in Woking’s Aladdin pantomime in 2020. Comic Bobby Davro - who played Wishee Washee - poked fun at the prince during one of the scenes in the first half of the show. During the pantomime when Washee’s brother Aladdin is turned into a prince by the Genie of the lamp so he can marry Princess Jasmine, Davro says: “Prince and royalty? You know what that means...we’ll be able to eat in Pizza Express in Woking with no sweat (allegedly)!”
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