After six months of negotiating with the man formerly known as Prince Andrew and his private secretary for a TV interview, British journalist Emily Maitlis finally grilled the former Duke of York for an hour over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on November 14, 2019.
The 49 minutes of footage that BBC Newsnight ultimately aired proved so disastrous that Andrew was forced to step back from public life. But Maitlis has now revealed that one of Andrew’s more ludicrous alibis – so notorious that it was mocked on the front pages of British newspapers when he was arrested in February – was actually pre-planned.
“I had two meetings at the palace before the interview, and the weirdest thing was, in the second meeting, I met Andrew and I met [Princess] Beatrice,” Maitlis divulged at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday during the All About Women festival.
“I do remember Andrew in the room … pulling me aside and saying, ‘Emily, would you like to hear why I can’t sweat?’ And I said, ‘Yes’.”
In 2019, Andrew was facing renewed scrutiny over his friendship with Epstein, who had been arrested that July on sex-trafficking charges in New York City. In August, Epstein was found dead in his prison cell – but the public’s demand for answers from Queen Elizabeth II’s second son had only intensified.
Court documents in a defamation case between Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell were unsealed, revealing allegations from Johanna Sjoberg that Andrew had groped her. They also included a photo of Andrew with his arm around Giuffre’s waist, with Maxwell in the background, inside Maxwell’s house in London.
Andrew has consistently and strenuously denied any accusation of wrongdoing, including sexual abuse and misconduct, through the years. The BBC Newsnight interview, however, was the first time Andrew’s denials were being issued by the man himself, allegation by allegation, with lengthy and, at times, asinine explanations as to why they couldn’t be true.
Almost seven years on, Maitlis has revealed the moment she found out, in a private meeting with Andrew, Beatrice and producer Sam McAlister, exactly how Andrew planned to defend himself.
“He said, ‘Are you interested in adrenaline?’ And I said, ‘Yes’,” Maitlis said in Sydney. “So he told me the whole like, adrenaline and sweating thing in this pre-interview that we had. And he said, ‘So that’s my alibi … I’m going to say that’.”
Giuffre – who died by suicide in April 2025 – alleged she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times between 2001, when she was aged 17, and 2002, on Little Saint James, Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, in London, and inside Epstein’s mansion in New York City.
She claimed he was “profusely sweating” and “pouring with perspiration” when they danced in a club together in 2001, on the night she alleged the first sexual assault occurred.
“I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War when I was shot at and … it was almost impossible for me to sweat,” Andrew told Maitlis while the cameras were rolling.
Although he had told Maitlis days earlier he planned to say that as his alibi, Maitlis said she conducted the whole hour-long interview without him mentioning it.
“I had this real dilemma because I knew that he wanted to use it as his alibi,” Maitlis recalled. “So we get to the end of the hour and I say … ‘Is there anything that you haven’t told us that you feel you’d like to tell us now?’”
Maitlis said Andrew had “a little huddle” with Amanda Thirsk, his private secretary, before returning to sit down in front of the camera.
In the final five minutes, Andrew said on the record something that Maitlis said “almost killed” her – that he is unable to sweat, and that he wasn’t in London the night Giuffre alleged he assaulted her because he was “at home with the children”.
Andrew had, he claimed, taken Beatrice to Woking for a party at a Pizza Express restaurant, something he remembered “weirdly distinctly” as going to Pizza Express was “a very unusual thing for me to do”.
“That’s now going to be what everyone talks about, right?” Maitlis said she remembered thinking, a prediction that has come true time and again.
“NOW HE’S SWEATING” was The Sun’s stinging front page on February 20, the day after the man now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested, on his 66th birthday, on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Released after 11 hours in police custody, Mountbatten-Windsor’s glazed expression as he slumped in the back of the Range Rover is now almost as notorious as the 2019 interview with Maitlis that triggered his downfall.
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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Bronte Gossling is a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAtoday and Brisbane Times.Connect via email.
