The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’s Prince Andrew may have cause to worry soon–due to an interview with Virginia Roberts Giuffre set to air late Monday afternoon.
According to The Sun, the hour-long interview on Panorama will feature fresh allegations against the royal and is believed to be particularly damaging.
“It was a really scary time in my life,” Roberts will say–while reportedly providing details about her time allegedly spent as Andrew’s sex slave.
An anonymous source with the BBC told the outlet:
If people thought Newsnight was a disaster for the duke this is really going to put the cat amongst the pigeons. It is a fantastic programme and will cause ramifications.
The Duke of York was swept with a fusillade of bad press after a recent interview on the BBC’s Newsnight in which he claimed that dead sex offender and alleged child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein‘s London home was “a convenient place to stay.”
That interview also paid dividends in the form of several metric tons of mocking and disbelief due to an exceedingly far-fetched tale the prince told about the status of his own sweat glands.
Giuffre previously described Andrew as having been “profusely sweating” on the night the two met at Tramp Nightclub in London.
Newnight‘s Emily Maitlis quizzed the prince on the night in question and produced this remarkably bizarre exchange:
Emily Maitlis: She was very specific about that night. She described dancing with you.
Prince Andrew: No.
Maitlis: And you profusely sweating, and that she went on to have a bath possibly.
Andrew: There’s a slight problem with the sweating, because I have a peculiar medical condition, which is that I don’t sweat, or I didn’t sweat at the time, and that was–was it–yes, I didn’t sweat at the time. I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falkland’s War when I was shot at, and I simply–it was almost impossible for me to sweat.
Andrew additionally availed himself of the seemingly obvious subterfuge that he has never met Giuffre and had no recollection whatsoever of having encountered her. There is, however, at least one photograph of Giuffre, Andrew and Epstein’s alleged recruiter, groomer and pilot Ghislaine Maxwell posing together. Andrew’s barristers have complained the photograph may be fake.
Giuffre has consistently maintained she was only 17-years-old when she was taken in by Maxwell before being forced into sexual servitude for both Epstein and, later, the British royal as well.
Buckingham Palace initially rallied around their man.
“It is emphatically denied that The Duke of York had any form of sexual contact or relationship with Virginia Roberts,” a statement issued by the House of Windsor read. “Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.”
But in recent days and weeks, the hereditary monarchy has moved to distance itself from the thoroughly disgraced member of the royal family–largely due to those self-inflicted Newsnight wounds.
First, Andrew himself announced he would be receding into the lush foliage of his well-groomed hedges and rolled out lawn.
“It has become clear to me over the last few days that the circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family’s work and the valuable work going on in the many organizations and charities that I am proud to support,” Andrew’s public retreat statement read. “Therefore, I have asked Her Majesty if I may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future, and she has given her permission.”
After that, the official pressure valves appeared to give up on Andrew’s divine right to serially cause grief for his kin and crown.
Days later, it was reported that Andrew was actually kicked out of Buckingham Palace–on Her Majesty’s Embarrassed Request.
Damage thoroughly done and reputation laid waste, the eighth in line of succession to the British crown was anonymously slammed by several high-profile figures in the UK military who wanted him to relinquish his titles of nobility over the series of implausibilities he recited during that disastrous interview.
The no-sweat claim “came as a surprise to many of us who have also been in combat,” one source said. “It’s just not viable. It’s embarrassing to be represented by someone like that.”
Even Prince Charles eventually expressed his doubts.
Monday’s interview reportedly has the palace itself “fearful” of what else lays in waiting for the publicly-subsidized royal family.
“Everyone is on tenterhooks especially after the backlash to the Duke’s Newsnight interview–no one saw the fall-out from that coming, especially the Duke” a source told the Sun. “It’s fair to say everyone is nervously chewing their lips at Buckingham Palace to see what she will say.”
The interview is scheduled to air at 4 p.m. Eastern time.
[image via Dan Kitwood/Getty Images]
