Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview was disaster, aide told alleged Chinese spy

Independent

31-01-2025

Prince Andrew' s aide admitted to an alleged Chinese spy who was the dukes 'close confidant' that his notorious 2019 BBC Newsnight interview was 'hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful'.
The duke's senior adviser, Dominic Hampshire, privately admitted to Yang Tengbo - who has been barred from the UK on national security grounds - that his interview with Emily Maitlis was a disaster.
Andrew's sit-down interview with the BBC journalist accelerated his fall from grace. He was questioned about claims made by Virginia Giuffre, who claims she was coerced into having sex with him when she was just 17 and his ties to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Four days after it aired, Andrew stepped down from public duties.
He has since refused to speak about the interview, but his aide did write to Mr Tengbo about the programme.
In court documents seen by the BBC, Mr Hampshire told Mr Tengbo in March 2020 that 'outside of [Andrew's] closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on'.
'We have dealt with the aftermath of a hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful television interview, we have wisely navigated our way around former private secretaries and we have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don't completely trust,' Mr Hampshire wrote on official Buckingham Palace notepaper.
He added: 'I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit. With my principal and indeed his family. You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship.'
In December, it emerged Mr Tengbo had been barred from entering the UK because authorities felt he was likely to pose a threat to national security.
He is said to have twice visited the royal residence at the invitation of the King's younger brother and was described as a 'close confidante' of Andrew.
British authorities allege the businessman - who helped the duke expand his 'Pitch@Palace' entrepreneur programme into China - was working on behalf of the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party that is used to influence foreign entities.
He was banned from returning to the UK in February 2023 and in December last year he was banned from returning to the UK in February 2023 on national security grounds. His appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal was rejected.
Hundreds of pages of documents considered by the tribunal - including the exchange with Mr Hampshire - were released on Friday.
In his tribunal statement, Mr Tengbo said establishing Pitch@Palace was 'extremely difficult' and added: 'After Prince Andrew's interview with Emily Maitlis in November 2019, everything changed.'
Andrew was criticised for the car crash BBC Newsnight interview after it aired on 16 November 2019.
During the interview, he denied he slept with Ms Giuffre, saying an encounter could not have taken place because he was at a branch of Pizza Express in Woking with his daughter Princess Beatrice.
He also said Ms Giuffre's claim he was sweaty at a nightclub was untrue because an 'overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands war' had left him unable to sweat.
Four days later, Andrew stepped back from public duties and in January 2022, he was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages after a US judge allowed Ms Giuffre's civil sexual abuse claim to move to trial.
In March 2022, Andrew paid Ms Giuffre a multi-million-pound out-of-court settlement, meaning both sides avoided the case going to trial, without admitting liability.
The disclosure on Friday comes on the same day separate court documents revealed Prince Andrew appeared to have been in touch with Epstein two months after he claims to have ended contact with the convicted paedophile.
Emails between Andrew and Epstein handed to a court in London reportedly show they were still exchanging messages until at least late February 2011, when the duke wrote: 'Keep in close touch and we'll play some more soon.'