The prince responded Saturday to questions from the BBC about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and the charges against him, without really convincing the United Kingdom.
For years, Prince Andrew has been trying to justify his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in prison last summer. Not sure that the exceptional interview given Saturday, November 16 by the second son of Queen Elizabeth II at the BBC, since the golds of Buckingham Palace, will have calmed the interrogations of the media and the British public.
Responding to the uncompromising questions of Emily Maitlis, Newsnight's featured presenter, the 60-year-old Duke of York vigorously denied having sex with Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts) when she was a minor (17), unlike to the accusations of the latter. "It did not happen" he insisted, assuring that he had never had sex with her or "No minor".
Virginia Giuffre said that she met the prince in 2001, in a London nightclub (Tramp), when she was only 17 years old. She says that she slept with him in a house in the upscale Belgravia neighborhood owned by Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's ex-girlfriend. A forced sexual relationship, she said, which was followed by two others in New York and the Caribbean, while this time was major.
Virginia Roberts' allegations can not be accurate, the Prince insisted. She said he was sweating profusely on the dancefloor? He said Saturday he suffered a medical problem following a traumatic shock related to his participation in the Falklands war. He could not " almost more " sweat at the time. And anyway, that night, he was at home with his children after bringing one of his daughters, Princess Beatrice, to a party in Woking, Surrey, at Pizza Express.
He still does not regret his friendship with Epstein
The famous photograph showing him smiling an arm around the waist of Virginia Roberts, and supposed to have been taken in a Belgravia apartment? Prince Andrew questioned his authenticity, explaining that she could not have been "Taken in London"because if that had been the case, he should have worn a suit and a tie.
As for his four-day stay in Jeffrey Epstein's New York home in December 2010, just after he had served a prison sentence for pedophilia by US justice, he was "Honorable" said the prince, the purpose of his visit being to signify to the American billionaire that their friendship should remain there.
