Prince Andrew initially believed that his explosive interview with the BBC about his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein went “quite well.”
On Sunday, Andrew, 59, accompanied his mother Queen Elizabeth, 93, to church at Windsor and is reported to have told her that he thought the interview was a success. Buckingham Palace won’t confirm conversations between members of the family, but say that she was “aware” of the interview.
But the deputy editor of the BBC show Newsnight told colleagues at a BBC news program that the Duke was “pretty relaxed” in the aftermath. Stewart Maclean said, “I think he was relieved that it was over. He expected it to be bracing. In truth it was more bracing than he was expecting from the off. But, really, given that it was a Newsnight interview, he shouldn’t have expected anything else.”
“Afterwards, he took us for a short walk. He was in very good spirits. We felt from our side that he felt it had gone quite well.”
Maclean called the interview a “significant intervention and that we were witnessing something fairly significant.”
Since the interview aired on Saturday night in the U.K., the Queen’s second son has been widely criticized for not showing empathy for the victims of Epstein — who died by suicide in jail in New York City in August while awaiting trial on multiple sex charges — and for his decision to stay with at the financier’s New York home in December 2010. That came just months after Epstein had served 13 months of an 18 month sentence for procuring a minor for prostitution.
WATCH: Breaking Down Prince Andrew’s Bombshell Interview on Jeffrey Epstein
Andrew also said he had “no recollection of ever meeting” Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges she was forced to have sex with the royal three times between 1999 and 2002 in London, New York and on a private Caribbean island owned by Epstein when she was 17 years old.
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As the fallout continues, it’s emerged that several businesses and charities are pulling their support from Andrew’s royal work. This includes accounting giant KPMG, which decided to pull its support for Andrew’s networking initiative Pitch@Palace — an event that provides a platform for budding entrepreneurs to meet seasoned mentors and investment connections — back in September.