Prince Andrew’s infamous Newsnight interview left the whole world open-mouthed – but one comment left the woman responsible for securing the interview in complete ‘shock’
Prince Andrew’s explosive Newsnight interview left the whole nation speechless when he sat down with Emily Maitlis.
The Duke of York made a number of astonishing statements in the 2019 TV exclusive – from his inability to sweat, through to his denials he had slept with Virginia Giuffre because he had been at Pizza Express in Woking at the time. But there was one comment that stunned even the staff working behind the scenes that day.
Sam McAlister was working as the show’s interview producer at the time – and she is the one actually responsible for securing the interview with Andrew.
She is now set to release a memoir detailing the 13 months of negotiations leading up to the 2019 interview, which has also been made into a Netflix drama titled Scoop, starring Gillian Anderson, Rufus Sewell, Billie Piper, and Keeley Hawes.
Ahead of its release, Sam told the Sun: “I was sitting 15ft away from Andrew’s back as Emily interviewed him. I could see every detail on his ornate chair and his foot tapping on the carpet. I had to set my face to frozen throughout. There were many times I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and I had to look at the floor not to give away my shock.
“It quickly became clear that Andrew was performing a masterclass on how to destroy your own life. And it was also clear that he thought it was going swimmingly.” Sam also admitted there was a moment when she actually had to hold her breath – when Emily questioned Prince Andrew on whether he had sex with Virginia Giuffre or any young woman trafficked by his former friend, Jeffrey Epstein.
“I remember thinking, ‘My God, he’s talking about sex! This is unheard of!'” she said. “His response was: ‘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 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.'” Sam also shared her thoughts on why Andrew even agreed to the interview in the process; he was desperate for the opportunity to state his innocence before his daughter Princess Beatrice married then-fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi the following summer.
“It was clear he wanted to vindicate himself and to be able to walk his daughter down the aisle. I saw this drive behind his desire to change the narrative. To change the perception of his guilt,” she said.
A verison of this story was first published on 2 April, 2024.
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