Emily Maitlis has said Prince Andrew “lost the respect of the nation” following his disastrous Newsnight interview.
Prince Andrew gave a now-infamous interview with then-BBC journalist Maitlis in November 2019.
The hour-long sit-down saw Andrew probed on his friendship with convicted American sex offender, financier Jeffrey Epstein, and his appearance was widely considered a “car-crash”.
Prince Andrew stepped back from public duties in 2019 in the immediate aftermath of the grilling.
Maitlis, host of LBC podcast The News Agents, has now told the BBC: "Prince Andrew, he lost his royal duties, he lost the ability to wear uniform, he lost the respect of the nation, and it became, I think, much more difficult for him in his place in the Royal Family.”
But she added that victims of Epstein - who took his own life in prison in 2019, while facing sex trafficking charges - did not get closure.
"On the other side, we don't know if Epstein's victims gained anything from that. We don't know if their lives materially changed," she said.
"There's been no trial. There's been a settlement... but we haven't had that sense of closure there.”
Maitlis also revealed that in December 2019, a month after her interview with Prince Andrew, she was “pulled aside” by a person close to King Charles - then Prince of Wales.
"HRH was not unhappy with the interview,” the person reportedly said.
Maitlis told the BBC she has spent years “trying to puzzle out” the meaning of this, but said she felt it could mean Charles did not hold her to “blame” for what happened.
"You’re not going off to the Tower," she said. "Or it might have meant that in some way, that it was not unhelpful for a reset between the Royal Family and the British public."
Maitlis pointed to the way the Royal Family has “slimmed down” since then.
"I remember the Queen's speech that Christmas - on the piano, there were only a few photographs, and the sense was that there had been a shift," she said.
Maitlis was speaking to the BBC ahead of a new dramatisation of her Newsnight interview, which is due for release next Thursday (September 19).
Three-episode Prime Video series, A Very Royal Scandal, will see Maitlis played by actress Ruth Wilson, and Good Omens actor Michael Sheen as the duke.
Prince Andrew was cast out of the working monarchy after Virginia Giuffre, who was trafficked by Epstein, accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.
The Duke has always strenuously denied the claims. In 2022, he paid a reported £12 million to Ms Giuffre to settle a civil US lawsuit out of court, saying he never met her.
In a statement released after his interview by Matilis, Andrew said it had become clear to him that his friendship with the late billionaire convicted paedophile had caused "major disruption" to the Royal Family's work, and said he regretted his “ill-judged association with with Jeffrey Epstein”.
On Monday, it was reported that King Charles is “losing patience” with the fact Prince Andrew is living in palatial 30-room mansion Royal Lodge in Windsor, and that he is keen for him to move into a smaller, more “suitable” property.
