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Kate Hawkesby: What was Prince Andrew thinking doing that interview?

Author
Kate Hawkesby,
Publish Date
Mon, 18 Nov 2019, 10:32AM
Prince Andrew on BBC Newsnight with Emily Maitlis. (Photo / BBC)

Kate Hawkesby: What was Prince Andrew thinking doing that interview?

Author
Kate Hawkesby,
Publish Date
Mon, 18 Nov 2019, 10:32AM

I'm not sure how the Royals have missed the Queen's memo of 'never complain never explain', because it feels like that's all they're doing these days.

We have Harry and Meghan's endless complaints about royal life and how hard it is and their subsequent suing of the British press, and now we have the train wreck that is Prince Andrew.

His ill-advised interview with the BBC was actually referred to by monarchist and royals fan Charlie Proctor as a train wreck. Iin fact he tweeted, 'I expected a train wreck. That was a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosion level bad.’.

Comedian Dom Joly described the interview as 'a worse car crash than getting a lift home from Prince Philip'.

There were deep concerns Prince Andrew never showed concern for Epstein's victims.

Concerns about his unusual alibi of being out at Pizza Express with his daughter therefore unable to have been with Virginia Roberts on one of the dates she claims they had sex. Despite the well-publicised photo of them together, he claimed to have never met her.

In one particularly bizarre moment, when the interviewer put it to him that Miss Roberts recalled very clearly dancing with him at a nightclub and how sweaty he was, he claimed to have a medical condition that prevented him from sweating that year.

I mean, really?  One person said, 'The Prince Andrew excuse: ''I couldn't have done the sweaty molesting because I wasn't sweating that year'' is absolutely astonishingly bad for an adult human.'

Piers Morgan has called it desperate, toe-curling bulls*** from Prince Andrew.  And he's asked the same question I have: why on earth did he do this? Royal commentator Dickie Arbiter said whoever advised this interview ought to be collecting their P45.

That's the bit I just don't get: on what planet did he think any good could come from an hour long sit down with a BBC reporter giving you a forensic grilling? It's insanity. It flies right in the face of the Queen's 'never explain' rule, and actually is living proof explaining can often make things worse.

And why is he talking to the media and not the Police? Why isn't he telling them what he knows instead of a television audience? And this is what I mean about where the royals heads are at right now, too much concern about the court of public opinion, too much being played out in the media, not enough behind closed doors.

I'm just not sure who’s advising them that all this talking to the press, doing documentaries and interviews, complaining about their lot, suing the press when the reportage is unfavourable, is a good idea. It's all a bit knee jerk and mainstream, and doesn't feel very Royal at all.

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