Prince Andrew’s British TV interview about his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal has been widely described as a ‘train wreck’ – and now it seems the damage from the ill-advised chat extends right to the top.
Andrew’s mother, Her Majesty the Queen, had not given her approval for the disastrous interview – and now the monarch has been left seething over the betrayal. Things are so bad, top palace insiders have sensationally lashed out to British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph, alleging that Andrew’s office was ‘operating in a silo’ when it made the disastrous decision to hand him over to the BBC’s Newsnight.
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One royal source told the paper: ‘The statement Buckingham Palace issued said the Queen was aware of the interview but not that she approved it. It’s extraordinary how this has unfolded, without any real consultation with the Palace press office or even the Queen’s private office.
‘It does seem as if the Duke of York’s private office is operating in a silo, which is really quite dangerous because there is a lack of accountability there. Internally, this is being seen as a f— up.’
A palace spokesperson said the Queen was ‘aware’ on the interview but stopped short of adding any further detail, saying, ‘We cannot comment further.’

Another royal source was quoted by the paper as saying, ‘This interview was completely unprecedented in offering a royal up for one hour on one subject without any questions being off limits.
‘Ordinarily you would say to the BBC, “He’ll talk about X for 10 minutes but he won’t talk about Y or Z”.
‘Why didn’t they insist on the Duke being filmed carrying out royal duties and make the Epstein allegations a smaller part of a wider documentary?’

The interview has largely been slated as an unprecedented disaster for the Prince – and by extension, the monarchy.
With the royal house recently rocked by a series of scandals, including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to not attend the royal Christmas celebrations, the Queen is said to be outraged by her son’s latest misstep.
Jason Stein, Andrew’s press secretary, quit his job last month, after reportedly telling the royal that doing such an interview was ‘not a good idea’.

Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview featured a number of strange admissions, including his excuse to his whereabouts on the day that Virginia Roberts claimed that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked her for sex with him in London.
The Duke of York claimed on he could not have had sex with a teenage girl in the London home of his ‘good friend’ British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell because he was at home after attending a children’s party at Pizza Express in Woking, England.

He was asked why he could remember going for something so mundane as a pizza 18 years on, and he added: ‘Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is a very unusual thing for me to do. I’ve never been . . . I’ve only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly.
‘As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went, “Oh yes I remember that”.’