In November 2019, he confronted Emily Maitlis of Newsnight and he emerged from their encounter along with his profession, such because it was, in tatters and his life endlessly modified.
To say that Prince Andrew was not ready for both the interview or for its aftermath can be a grave understatement.
Nothing in his life as much as that second would have led anybody to imagine that Andrew may discuss critically about something however himself.
But, right here he was making an attempt to justify his friendship with the convicted (and by then useless) paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. And the persevering with accusations that he himself had had intercourse with a teenage woman.
In case you are all for behind-the-scenes media tales then the primary episode of Andrew: Downside Prince was undoubtedly for you.
There have been interviews with Maitlis and the girl who succeeded in reserving Prince Andrew to participate within the programme, Sam McAlister.
However essentially the most attention-grabbing a part of it was the rehearsal of the info of Prince Andrew’s life, displaying how he went from Randy Andy to the prince everybody needs they might overlook.
There’s a rising motion to have each tv programme re-titled Succession, together with the climate. Actually Andrew: The Downside Prince may have been known as that.
As a result of all of Andrew’s issues may be traced again to the truth that he turned surplus to necessities after his older brother married and had kids.
And to the monetary pressure of getting to dwell on £250,000 every year whereas Charles had an earnings estimated at about £40m a 12 months. It’s a must to say, on this planet of your common sibling rivalry, it’s a little bit of a sickener.
Andrew was left to knock in regards to the world of the tremendous wealthy as one thing of a poor relation.
The one factor Andrew was by no means wanting was feminine firm: “Women on faucet,” remembered one royal watcher of Andrew’s youthful days.
Again then Andrew was film-star good-looking, and a welcome antidote to his older brother who appeared to have been born center aged.
However the royal males – besides Prince Philip – lose their appears to be like at an astonishing charge. In center age, Andrew was simply one other stout man in a go well with. Not like his sister Anne, he by no means appears to have tried to carve out a helpful function for himself, or to work laborious, as she does.
He appears to have met Epstein in 1999. Epstein supplied villas, yachts and personal planes and Andrew supplied the royal contact. Off went Epstein to Balmoral and to Sandringham and the remainder is historical past.
Prince Andrew has at all times firmly denied any inappropriate behaviour with younger women and girls, however he did pay his accuser Virginia Giuffre and her nominated charity greater than £7m – which he presumably didn’t have – in an out of courtroom settlement.
Some horrible mixture of self-importance and hubris made Prince Andrew settle for the Newsnight invitation to speak to them. We’ll in all probability by no means know precisely why he did it. However there’s a second episode subsequent week.
