In 2019, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor conducted an interview with the BBC's Newsnight program intended to clear his name after his association with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But the disastrous TV sit-down did exactly the opposite, resulting in the former Duke of York to be forced out of his role as a senior working royal. Now, the Daily Mail has interviewed producer Sam McAlister about the "hideous impact" the TV special had on Andrew's life, and she admitted one part of the interview truly shocked her.
Speaking to the Mail's Palace Confidential YouTube program, McAlister said that she was able to speak to the then-prince before their interview was actually confirmed. During his conversation with Newsnight staff, Andrew did mention a “temporary medical condition about sweating” and going to a Pizza Express restaurant, but McAlister didn’t realize he was going to mention the unusual alibis in his actual interview.
The former Duke of York famously mentioned on camera that he couldn't have shared a sweaty dance with his accuser Virginia Giuffre at Tramp nightclub in London because he had ”a peculiar medical condition, which is that I don’t sweat, or I didn’t sweat at the time.” He also said he couldn't have been at the club that night because he'd taken Princess Beatrice to a birthday party at a Pizza Express restaurant in Woking, England.
McAlister called the revelations “a bit of a jaw drop,” explaining that she thought that the comments Andrew made in a “private room” would never be repeated on camera. “It’s just not going to happen,” the producer said she thought at the time.
“The moment at which he finally said that he had this 'alibi' as he put it, the moment he said the words 'Pizza Express Woking,' the moment he said he had a temporary medical condition—those two things I had never, ever thought he would say on camera,” the producer shared.
She added that this “was the moment I would say I was the most shocked in a sense, because I knew the information, but now so would the world.”
Despite her shock, McAlister said that she had to “really concentrate” to disguise any kind of “reaction” to Andrew’s comments in case it impacted the interview. “I had resting producer face,” she said. “You suck in the cheeks, you show no reaction.”
The former Newsnight producer said that she “looked at the floor” and her “shoes,” avoiding making “eye contact” with anyone in the room. McAlister added that as one can imagine, it was “quite hard to achieve.”
