Following the airing of his controversial BBC interview, Prince Andrew has been accused of using the n-word by a former Downing Street aide.
WATCH: Prince Andrew accused of using the ‘N-word’ by former aide
Rohan Silva, a key aide to David Cameron on the tech economy, claimed the “offensive” incident” occurred in 2012 during a conversation about trade policy, the London Evening Standard reported. When Mr Silva asked the Duke of York whether the government department “could be doing a better job,” the royal allegedly responded:
“Well, If you’ll pardon the expression, that really is the n***** in the woodpile.”
Mr Silva recalled “blinking into the sunshine outside Buckingham Palace, reeling at the prince’s use of language.”
“For a long time afterwards I kicked myself for not confronting the prince on his choice of words — and it’s something I still regret today. After all, he clearly wasn’t taken to task very often by the people around him, which meant offensive language went unchallenged,” he added.
Buckingham Palace has since denied Prince Andrew ever used the phrase and claimed he would never use such language.
What’s more, Mr Silva said it wasn’t the first time Prince Andrew had used foul language in his presence. In another meeting at Buckingham Palace the previous year, Mr Silva claimed the Duke said “What you have got to remember is that you’ll never get anywhere by playing the white man.”
“I genuinely didn’t know what he meant, and the discussion moved on. But the phrase ‘playing the white man’ stuck in my head, as I’d never heard it before. So when I got back to my desk, I immediately googled it,” Mr Silva told the London Evening Standard.
“The definition flashed up on my screen: an old-fashioned saying, used during colonial times, meaning that only white people can be trusted to follow the rules, unlike dark-skinned natives.”
Recently, Prince Andrew addressed his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in an interview with Newsnight.
The 59-year-old, who shares Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie with Sarah Ferguson, also admitted he disappointed people by staying at the home of the convicted sex offender.
Answering direct questions about his relationship to Epstein for the first time, Prince Andrew said he “let the side down” and his stay at Jeffrey’s home was not “becoming of a member of the Royal Family.”
In the wake of the interview, Prince Andrew has been met with a wave of backlash, with medical experts even challenging one of his alibis.
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