Yahoo News Prince Andrew is 'naive, not self-aware and did Newsnight interview against advice', claims royal author
'He's been brought up in a bubble with all the people around him telling him how wonderful he is and that he can do no wrong,' royal biographer says
A royal biographer has described Prince Andrew as a man "brought up in a bubble" whose "very naive" attitude factored into his decision to take part in the now-infamous Newsnight interview in 2019.
Widely perceived as a "car crash" at the time, the interview with Emily Maitlis saw the Duke of York suggest he couldn't sweat and had been "too honourable" to end his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
He stepped back from public duties shortly after it aired.
In the Newsnight interview, Prince Andrew also addressed allegations made by Virginia Giuffre that he sexually assaulted her three times when she was a teenager — in London, New York and on Epstein's private island, Little St. James.
Andrew has consistently and vehemently denied these claims, and that he had ever met Giuffre. He reached a multimillion out-of-court settlement with her in 2022.
Before he finally settled with Giuffre, he was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages by Queen Elizabeth in January 2022, as well as his official style of 'His Royal Highness'.
"With the Queen’s approval and agreement, the Duke of York’s military affiliations and royal patronages have been returned to the Queen," a palace statement said at the time.
"The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen."
Andrew Lownie — author of Traitor King — said on an episode of the Scandal Mongers podcast regarding Prince Andrew's friendship with Epstein that he "is very naive and he's very loyal as he said [in the Newsnight interview] he's been brought up in a bubble with all the people around him telling him how wonderful he is and that he can do no wrong.
"He basically doesn't listen to advice. A lot of decisions that he's made, which have been terrible — clearly going on Newsnight — are decisions that he made against the advice of others."
Prince Andrew "was indulged, spoilt, no boundaries there [...] and also not very intelligent and self-aware and as a result of that he's been allowed to behave very, very badly and it reflects on the monarchy," Lownie, the co-host of the Scandal Mongers podcast, also said, as the episode explored how "this blue-eyed boy who was the hero of the Falklands became this hermit who is despised".
Emily Maitlis revealed earlier in the year that the late Queen Elizabeth realised that Andrew's Newsnight interview was a mistake before her son did, after she read a full transcript of the programme, although the late Queen is reported to have initially approved her son's request to appear on the BBC show.
Watch: How toxic is the Royal Family's relationship with the press?
