Disgraced Royal Family member Prince Andrew will celebrate his 65th birthday on Wednesday (February 19), but he has been noticeably absent from the public eye in recent months. The brother of King Charles has recently been under scrutiny again - given his current residence at the Royal Lodge. The prince is understood to have signed a 75-year lease with the Crown Estate in 2003 which requires him to pay for repairs at the property.
Last year, he was dealt a blow when King Charles pulled his security funding and annual allowance following the public scandal over his alleged friendship and dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. The royal previously gave an interview with esteemed broadcaster Emily Maitlis about the controversial relationship in 2019. But what happened since?. Prince Andrew decided to give a TV interview in November 2019 to well known journalist Emily Maitlis, where he aimed to clear his name and rebuild his reputation after a string of stories were made public about his dealings with alleged sex traffickers and paedophiles.
The royal tried to defend his relationship with disgraced Jeffrey Epstein but the interview, which took place in Buckingham Palace, did not paint him in a good light. Prince Andrew and The Epstein Scandal was aired on the BBC’s Newsnight programme and took place over an hour. His responses denying knowledge and guilt did not work as he had wished, and he was heavily criticised by the public. At one point in the interview, he claimed he did not regret his relationship with Epstein, saying: “The people that I met and the opportunities that I was given to learn either by him or because of him were actually very useful.”.
Prince Andrew admitted to staying in Epstein's mansion for three days in 2010, after the financier’s conviction for sex offences against a minor, describing the location as "a convenient place to stay". Following the disastrous interview, he was stripped of his military titles in 2022 and taken off royal duties after being sued by Virginia Giuffre, an American woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.
Others have also gone public claiming to see Prince Andrew around other women while at Epstein’s. The prince, who has always strenuously denied the allegations, avoided trial by paying a multimillion-dollar settlement. Emily Maitlis said Prince Andrew “lost the respect of the nation” following his Newsnight interview. Maitlis, the host of LBC podcast The News Agents, has now told the BBC: "Prince Andrew, he lost his royal duties, he lost the ability to wear uniform, he lost the respect of the nation, and it became, I think, much more difficult for him in his place in the Royal Family.”.
She also revealed that in December 2019, a month after her chat with the royal, she was “pulled aside” by a person close to King Charles (then Prince of Wales). "HRH was not unhappy with the interview,” the person reportedly said. Maitlis told the BBC she had spent years “trying to puzzle out” the meaning of this, but said she felt it could mean Charles did not hold her to “blame” for what happened.
"You’re not going off to the Tower," she said. "Or it might have meant that in some way, that it was not unhelpful for a reset between the Royal Family and the British public.". He has not spoken publicly since the interview aired, but reports at the time suggested he was “incredibly gracious after” and happy with how it went. Prince Andrew even reportedly gave the Newsnight team a tour of parts of Buckingham Palace afterwards.
