'We never got closure': Emily Maitlis tells of 'unfinished business' with Prince Andrew, 5 years on from interview

19 September 2024, 12:55 | Updated: 19 September 2024, 14:00

Emily Maitlis on Prince Andrew interview

Emily Maitlis has spoken of her sense of "unfinished business" with Prince Andrew, as a TV show depicting her bombshell interview with him comes out five years on.

Maitlis told LBC's James O'Brien that the fact Andrew has faced no legal consequences in the UK after her 2019 interview, which made headlines around the world, means she feels a "lack of closure".

The interview, which probed Andrew's relationship with notorious US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has now been made into a TV series called A Very Royal Scandal, starring Ruth Wilson as Maitlis and Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew.

News Agents host Maitlis praised Sheen's performance, saying: "He takes it away from anything that looks like comedy villain, anything that looks like a sort of slam dunk idiocy. He's not."

She said that Andrew was "a father figure, an approachable dad, a loyal ex-husband... and a devoted son and a former hero, pointing out that he came home "to adoration" from serving in the Falklands war.

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Emily Maitlis speaks to James O'Brien

Maitlis said that she felt concerned for Andrew "on a human level", despite the allegations levelled against him.

She added: "I feel uncomfortable at moments, and I feel concerned, and I think I'm also conscious... that it's not just the ramifications [for] Andrew, it's everyone around him.. it's the loyalties to others and the women in his immediate periphery, as well as, of course, to the Epstein victims that [are] the heart of this story."

Prince Andrew was accused of sleeping with American woman Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager. She said she was trafficked by Epstein and his friend Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein died in prison awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges in 2019, and Maxwell is in prison.

Andrew denies sleeping with Giuffre and all allegations against him. He is not facing any legal action in the UK. Giuffre launched a civil action against him in the US in 2021. The case was settled out of court in 2022.

Maitlis said that she was concerned that despite the wide attention the interview received, "we don't actually have closure".

"We didn't get a trial," she said. "We did this forensic interview, which could be used as a document of public record, but it actually never... went to court... we will never know.

"None of the Epstein victims ever, as it were, got their their moment to hold Epstein to account. And... one of them clearly laid charges at allegations at Andrew as well.

"And so there's always that sense of unfinished business, which I think... naturally makes you ask more questions".

A Very Royal Scandal is available to watch on Amazon Prime.