A woman who organised Prince Andrew 's disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019 has claimed he was initially happy with how it went.
Sam McAlister, who was the interview producer on the BBC news programme for 10 years, has shared more awkward details of the prince's encounter with presenter Emily Maitlis on November 14, 2019 at Buckingham Palace.
The hour long interview shone a light on the prince's friendship with convicted paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
According to McAlister, Andrew was immediately delighted with his performance, as he could be seen smiling.
He was even so pleased that he offered Ms Maitlis and the rest of the Newsnight team a tour of the palace, the Mirror reports.
During the hour-long grilling Andrew denied having sex with an underage Virginia Roberts Giuffre and said he had "no recollection of ever meeting" her.
He said he had been at a children's party at Pizza Express in Woking with his eldest daughter Princess Beatrice when Ms Roberts Giuffre alleged their encounter took place; and he added that her claims about him sweating while they were dancing together at a London club were untrue because he'd temporarily lost the ability to sweat after an "adrenaline overdose" during the Falklands War.
Aides of the Queen 's second son, including his then private secretary Amanda Thirsk and one of the royal's equerries, were beaming after the interview, said Ms McAlister who had been watching the drama unfold just 15 feet away from where Andrew was sitting.
The latest revelations about the interview come from the author's new book entitled Scoops: Behind The Scenes Of The BBC's Most Shocking Interviews.
In an extract published in the Daily Mail recalling the moments immediately after the cameras stopped rolling, she wrote: "I couldn't look at anyone, I could barely believe his people hadn't stopped the interview.
"I would have, despite the consequences.
"'How did you think it went?' I asked the equerry. She beamed. 'Wasn't he wonderful!' she said.
"I'd expected Amanda Thirsk to be distraught, the prince to look shaken or concerned, but she was smiling and he seemed ebullient.
"And then it hit me: he actually thought it had gone well. He was in such a good mood that he offered us all a tour of the palace.
"I couldn't go. I wouldn't have been able to speak to him in good faith. Of course, Emily couldn't decline. I don't know how she kept her composure."
Another revelation from the book is that an anxious-looking Beatrice accompanied her father to a meeting with Ms Thirsk and the Newsnight team to discuss the potential interview, which took place just days later.
Ms McAlister describes a tense moment in the meeting when she told Andrew: "Sir. I have lived in this country for over 40 years and, until now, I only knew two things about you. It's that you're known as 'Air Miles Andy' and 'Randy Andy' — and I can absolutely tell you that the latter really doesn't help you in your current predicament."
She said that there was a long pause following the remark and that Ms Maitlis and Newsnight's deputy editor Stewart Maclean, who were both in attendance, looked "genuinely shocked" until Andrew laughed and the tension was relieved.
Scoops: Behind The Scenes Of The BBC's Most Shocking Interviews by Sam McAlister will be published by Oneworld on July 14.
