Prince Andrew made an official statement this week to say he was relinquishing all his titles including the Duke of York, after an email came to light between him and Epstein
Emily Maitlis has said that she “felt sick” when Prince Andrew’s 2011 email to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light. The journalist appeared on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, where they were discussing Prince Andrew relinquishing all his titles, including the Duke of York this week.
This comes after it was revealed that the royal had allegedly emailed sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he said he had no contact with him. The Prince allegedly told Epstein they were “in this together” in a 2011 email, despite telling Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis that he cut contact with him in December 2010.
Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir is set to be released on Tuesday which details her claims that she was a victim of Epstein’s years-long sex trafficking operation. This includes being flown to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17. However, Andrew has strongly denied these claims.
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Speaking about Ms Giuffre’s book, Emily said: “It will be harrowing, it will be devastating and it will document a life of pain and a woman who was in so much trauma that she believed by speaking out that she could help others through what she had gone through and that she could in someway try and repair the damage to her own life.”
She was then asked how she took the email that Prince Andrew sent to Epstein. Emily had conducted a Newsnight interview with Andrew in 2019 where he claimed he had cut off contact from Epstein before the email.
Emily responded: “I felt sick actually. He was categoric in 2019 in the Newsnight interview that he had come to stay with Epstein and used this very odd phrase to me. It was the ‘chicken’s way out’ to call up and so he came to stay with Jeffrey Epstein so he could break the news of the end of their friendship in person.”
Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008 before taking his own life in 2019.
Earlier this week, Andrew announced he was giving up the title of the Duke of York, a move which finally completes his banishment from royal life. Andrew made the decision in close consultation with both the King and the Prince of Wales, with the monarch said to be “glad” at the outcome.
However, Ms Giuffre’s family believe King Charles should pull the royal’s prince title next. In a statement released by Buckingham Palace, Andrew said: “In discussion with the King, and my immediate and wider family, we have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family.”
Following the announcement he would not use his titles, Prince Andrew defended himself. He said: “I vigorously deny the accusations against me.”
Ms Giuffre took her own life in April of this year at the age of 41. Virginia’s family said at the time: “It is with utterly broken hearts that we announce that Virginia passed away last night at her farm in Western Australia.
“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
“She was the light that lifted so many survivors. In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight.”
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