Prince Andrew's team thought he did 'wonderful' during infamous Newsnight interview

Prince Andrew was reportedly so happy with the way his infamous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis went that he offered her and the BBC crew a tour of Buckingham Palace.

This comes after extracts from a new book were published by the Daily Mail entitled Scoops: Behind The Scenes Of The BBC's Most Shocking Interviews.

The book is written by Sam McAllister, who for 10 years was the interviews producer for Newsnight and organised the interview with Prince Andrew which aired on November 14, 2019, about his alleged connections to the convicted paedophile and sex trafficker Jefferey Epstein.

The interview has become notorious for the claims that Andrew made about himself, including not being able to sweat due to an "adrenaline overdose" that occurred to him during the Falklands War and not being able to have met the Virginia Giuffre because he was at a Pizza Express restaurant in Woking at that exact time.

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The interview was largely derided, with Andrew's claims being widely mocked and turned into jokes that are still doing the rounds today.

However, it has been claimed that at the moment Andrew and his team thought that the interview had gone well. In the book McAllister writes: "I couldn't look at anyone. I could barely believe his people hadn't stopped the interview. I would have, despite the consequences."

'How did you think it went?' I asked the equerry. She beamed. 'Wasn't he wonderful!' she said. I'd expected Amanda Thirsk to be distraught, the prince to look shaken or concerned, but she was smiling and he seemed ebullient.

"And then it hit me: he actually thought it had gone well. He was in such a good mood that he offered us all a tour of the palace. I couldn't go. I wouldn't have been able to speak to him in good faith. Of course, Emily couldn't decline. I don't know how she kept her composure."

Prince Andrew has strongly denied having any connections to Jeffrey Epstein who died in a New York prison cell in 2019. His ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this week for assisting in Epstein's sex trafficking ring.

Scoops: Behind The Scenes Of The BBC's Most Shocking Interviews will be published on July 14.

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