Prince Andrew denies claims of Epstein accuser in rare interview

New York: Prince Andrew has offered a detailed rebuttal to claims he had sex with a woman who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein, providing an alibi for one of the alleged encounters and questioning the authenticity of a well-known photograph that shows him posing with the woman.

In a rare interview with BBC Newsnight, Andrew on Saturday, (Sunday morning AEST) categorically denied having sex with the woman, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, saying, "It didn't happen." He said that on one of the nights he is accused of having sex with the teenager he was at home after going with his daughter to a pizza party.

Prince Andrew talks to the BBC about Epstein.Credit: Screengrab

He said he has "no recollection" of ever meeting her and told an interviewer there are "a number of things that are wrong" about Giuffre's account.

Giuffre has said Epstein forced her to have sex with Andrew in 2001 when she was 17. She says Epstein flew her around the world on his private planes to have sex with powerful men, and that she had sexual encounters with Andrew in London and New York and in the US Virgin Islands.

"I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened," Andrew said.

A request for comment was sent to Giuffre's representative. Giuffre recently challenged the British royal to speak out, telling reporters in New York, "He knows exactly what he's done."

"And the answer is nothing," Andrew told the BBC.

Andrew's decision to grant the interview was seen in Britain as a high-stakes gamble in a country where the royals don't normally talk with reporters on subjects beyond their charitable works.

In the wide-ranging interview, Andrew suggested a photograph Giuffre produced of her posing with Andrew could have been doctored, saying he "can't be certain" that it actually shows his hand on the woman's side.

He said he was "at a loss to explain" the image, adding he is not given to public displays of affection. He said it also shows him wearing "travelling clothes", noting he typically wears a suit and tie when he goes out in London, where the photograph purportedly was taken.

Prince Andrew with Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre) at the London townhouse of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

"I'm afraid to say that I don't believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested," he said. "If the original was ever produced, then perhaps we might be able to solve it but I can't."

Confronted with details of Giuffre's claims, Andrew insisted he was home with his children on one of the nights Giuffre claims they had sex, saying it "couldn't have happened". He said he specifically recalled taking his daughter to a party at a Pizza Express that afternoon.

Andrew sought to cast doubt on other parts of Giuffre's account, including her recollection of Andrew sweating on her as they danced in a London nightclub.

Andrew told the BBC he has a "peculiar medical condition, which is that I don't sweat or I didn't sweat at the time" after suffering an "overdose of adrenaline" after being shot at in the Falklands War, the 1982 conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

"It was almost impossible for me to sweat," he said.

Andrew also said he regrets not cutting ties with Epstein after the financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida under a deal that required him to serve 13 months in jail and register as a sex offender.

He saw Epstein following his release from custody in Florida and stayed at his New York mansion for several days. He said he ended his friendship with Epstein during that visit and did not have further contact with him.

Epstein, who rubbed shoulders with the elite and politically powerful, killed himself this summer while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He had been accused of sexually abusing dozens of women.

Some of Andrew's responses in the interview

- On the allegation he met 17 year-old Virginia Roberts in 2001 and they ate, drank, went to Tramp Nightclub and later had sex.

"It didn't happen."

- On whether a photograph of him with Ms Roberts is real.

"Oh it's definitely me, I mean that's a picture of me, it's not a picture of ... I don't believe it's a picture of me in London because ... when I go out in London, I wear a suit and a tie."

He added: "I am not one to, as it were, hug and public displays of affection are not something that I do. So that's the best explanation I can give you and I'm afraid to say that I don't believe that photograph was taken in the way that has been suggested."

- On whether he remembers dancing at Tramp nightclub.

"I was with the children and I'd taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at I suppose, sort of, four or five in the afternoon."

- On the claim that he sweated heavily during an alleged night out with Ms Roberts.

"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 I simply ... it was almost impossible for me to sweat."

- On whether he had sex with Ms Roberts or any young woman trafficked by Epstein.

"No and without putting too fine a point on it, if you're a man it is a positive act to have sex with somebody. You have to have to take some sort of positive action and so therefore if you try to forget it's very difficult to try and forget a positive action and I do not remember anything."

- On Epstein being a sex offender.

"Was I right in having him as a friend? At the time, bearing in mind this was some years before he was accused of being a sex offender. I don't think there was anything wrong then, the problem was the fact that once he had been convicted.

"I stayed with him and that's the bit, as it were, I kick myself for on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family and we try and uphold the highest standards and practices and I let the side down, simple as that."

- On why he stayed at the house of a convicted sex offender.

"It was a convenient place to stay. I mean I've gone through this in my mind so many times. At the end of the day, with a benefit of all the hindsight that one can have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do.

AP