Emily Maitlis says the Duke of York "lost respect" after her infamous Newsnight interview with him, but warned that Jeffrey Epstein's victims didn't get closure. "I think there is unfinished business," the journalist told BBC News. "It isn't some nice, neat ending.
" The 2019 interview, widely viewed as a "car-crash" , saw Prince Andrew talk candidly to Maitlis about his friendship with convicted sex offender Epstein. It is now the subject of a new three-part drama, A Very Royal Scandal, starring Ruth Wilson as Maitlis and Michael Sheen as Andrew. The BBC interview did huge damage to Andrew's reputation and is seen by many as greatly contributing to his downfall.
Days after it , the duke announced he was stepping back from royal duties, saying the Epstein scandal had become a "major disruption" to the Royal Family. Maitlis was speaking to me alongside Wilson in the Ham Yard Hotel in central London, not far from where Newsnight is made in the corporation's Broadcasting House. Her interview, which made headlines around the world, aired on a special Saturday evening edition of the programme in 2019.
It saw Prince Andrew discuss his links to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite now serving time in prison for helping Epstein abuse girls. Andrew used the interview to emphatically deny having sex with then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, saying he was in Pizza Express in Woking on the day the encounter was meant to have taken place. The duke has subsequently paid a financial se.