IT was supposed to be the “no holds barred” interview that finally put his links with paedo Epstein to bed.
But Prince Andrew’s “car crash” chat with the BBC’s Emily Maitlis has only further fuelled speculation and criticism.
From bizarre claims he can’t sweat to an unusual trip to Pizza Express, the Duke’s rebuttals sparked more questions.
Yet despite his sensational alibis, the Sun Online has unpicked several of his claims that don’t appear to add up.
‘SWEAT-GATE’
One of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Roberts – now called Giuffre- said she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when she was 17, which he denies.
Roberts, now 35, named Andrew in documents related to Epstein filed in Florida in 2015.
She has claimed she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times between 1999 and 2002 in London, New York and on Epsteins private Caribbean island.
She has given an account of the royal “pouring with perspiration” when they danced at a London club on a night out in 2001.
The Duke told Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis being “shot at” during his time serving as a helicopter pilot during the Falklands War caused him to develop a medical condition, anhidrosis.
He claims the “peculiar medical condition” means he couldn’t sweat properly at the time, and could not have “sweated profusely”, as Roberts claims.
But doctors have questioned this claim – Dr Hilary Jones told GMB’s Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid he is “sceptical” of Prince Andrew’s defence that he cannot sweat.
He said: “It’s an extraordinary claim. As for the adrenaline thing in the Falklands, it doesnt make sense, because sweating isnt mediated by adrenaline, its mediated by acetylcholine.”
WHICH WAY IS THE BAR?
Roberts has recounted Prince Andrew bought her a drink from the bar of Tramps in central London.
She has said: “Andrew got me a cocktail from the bar and he had a drink for himself.”
But while speaking to Ms Maitlis the Duke denied this, saying: “I don’t know where the bar is in Tramps.
“I don’t drunk, I don’t think I’ve ever bought a drink in Tramps whenever I was there.”
However looking at the floor plans of the venue – which the Prince is said to have often visited – the bar is visible from the dance floor – 10 metres away.
SUITED AND BOOTED
A photograph of Prince Andrew posing with his arm around the teenage Roberts has been dogging him throughout these allegations.
She claims it was taken on the night out in question, but he and several people close to him have said it may have been doctored.
This is due to the Duke’s argument he is dressed in “travelling clothes”, and if he was out in London he would have been smarter.
He told Ms Maitlis: “I don’t believe it’s a picture of me in London, because when I go out in London I where a suit and tie.”
But several photos have since emerged of Andrew out in London without a tie or jacket.
One of him leaving Chinawhite at 2am in July 200 even sees him in a very similar outfit photo to the one at the centre of the claims.
He also questioned the reality of the photo by saying he doesn’t give “public displays of affection”, but many images taken of him embracing women have since been revealed.
Prince Andrew pictured out in London without a tie and jacket in July 2000
EPSTEIN FRIENDSHIP
In the interview shown on BBC2 last night,Andrewtold Newsnights Emily Maitlis he did not regret his friendship with the late Epstein.
But he claimed calling Epstein a close friend was a “stretch”, and told Ms Maitlis they saw each other “a maximum of three times a year”.
Despite inviting Epstein to Princess Beatrice’s 18th birthday party at Windsor Castle in July 2006, he claimed he didn’t know an arrest warrant had been issued two months previously.
But he said he stopped all contact with him later that year until 2010 – when the Duke went to visit him six months after his release from prison for child sex offences.
They were pictured strolling through Central Park together, as Andrew stayed with him for a number of days and joined in with a dinner party – a move criticised by people questioning why he needed to visit to break contact.
He said: “I went there with the sole purpose of saying to him that because he had been convicted, it was inappropriate for us to be seen together.”
Prince Andrew, pictured with Jeffrey Epstein in New York in 2010
DINNER AT PIZZA EXPRESS
Roberts has claimed she met Andrew at London club Tramp before sleeping with him in 2001.
But Prince Andrew, dad to Beatrice, 31, and Eugenie, 29, with ex-wife Sarah, said: That couldnt have happened because the date being suggested the 10th of March I was at home with the children.
Id taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at about 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
And then because the Duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other is there.
Asked why he could remember something so specific from 18 years ago, he added: Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is a very unusual thing for me to do.
Ive never been…Ive only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly. As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went, Oh yes I remember that.
The Pizza Express where Prince Andrew claimed he had dinner with his daughter on the night he is accused of having sex with Roberts
