Prince Andrew’s interview on the BBC over the weekend, in which he blamed his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on his sense of honor, has been largely hailed as a disaster.
According to Fox News, the British royal is now facing “harsh backlash from critics and media personalities” in the interview’s wake.
“Many in the media were quick to deride Prince Andrew for not only defending his friendship with Epstein but for failing to show empathy for the convicted sex offender’s victims,” reports the outlet.
During the interview, Prince Andrew raised more than a few eyebrows when he blamed his friendship with Epstein on his “honor.”
“The problem was the fact that once he had been convicted I stayed with him,” the Duke of York told the BBC’s Emily Maitlis. “That’s the bit 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.”
Prince Andrew dug himself an even bigger hole when described Epstein’s home as a “convenient place to stay” despite him being a convicted sex offender.
“There is … I mean I’ve gone through this in my mind so many times,” Andrew said. “At the end of the day, with a benefit of all the hindsight that one could have, it was definitely the wrong thing to do. But at the time I felt it was the honorable and right thing to do and I admit fully that my judgement was probably colored by my tendency to be too honorable, but that’s just the way it is.”
Charlie Proctor, editor of the Royal Central website, described the interview as “a plane crashing into an oil tanker, causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosion.”
In an appearance on “Good Morning Britain,” lawyer Gloria Allred, who represents many of Epstein’s victims, said Prince Andrew’s denial about Epstein’s relationship with underage girls is implausible on its face.
“I don’t see how he could have not known that there were underage girls, minors, because he did visit homes of Mr. Epstein in New York, in Palm Beach, in the Virgin Islands and I happen to know that there were underage girls in all those locations,” said Allred.
Top media lawyer Mark Stephens also told The Guardian that Prince Andrew should have maintained silence.
“This strategy only works if you’ve got a complete and full answer to every possible question, and here there are too many loose ends,” Stephens said. “If he’d kept his silence he’d have been able to remain outside of the case, as he’s a witness and is entitled to diplomatic immunity. He was a private individual and now he’s waived that privacy.”
According to The Guardian, the accounting empire KPMG announced in the wake of Prince Andrew’s disastrous BBC interview that it will not be “renewing its sponsorship” of the royal’s “Pitch@Palace,” which provides a platform for entrepreneurs to accelerate their work. KPMG has issued no comment on the matter.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre claimed in a 2015 lawsuit that Epstein recruited her to have sex with his powerful friends when she was just 15 years old, alleging that one of her sexual encounters with Prince Andrew occurred when she was just 17. Prince Andrew has denied those charges.