Oh, Prince Andrew.

For some reason, the royal decided that it was a good idea to grant an extensive interview to the BBC’s Emily Maitlis, who hosts Newsnight.

Andrew really should have listened to his PR man, Jason Stein, often referred to as his spin doctor, who quit two weeks ago after advising the Duke Of York not to go ahead with the Newsnight interview on the grounds that it could backfire.

There were whispers from within the palace that it would “go down as one of the single worst PR moves in recent history”, and that just about sums it up.

To get the gist of the disaster, here’s ABC News:

…the Duke of York came across as devoid of any self-awareness when he insisted it was “convenient” and “honourable” to stay at Epstein’s home even after the New York financier was convicted of sex crimes.

He admitted it was wrong, but couldn’t bring himself to say he regretted his association with Epstein, which spanned over a decade…

As the interview neared its conclusion, came a moment which neatly summarised the entire encounter, filmed on Thursday.

“Do I regret the fact that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? Yes,” Prince Andrew said, as though Epstein had simply arrived at Balmoral in the wrong slacks for a shooting party.

The Duke of York happily stayed at the house of the convicted sex offender, and now he wants to play dumb.

At the centre of it all is Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who featured heavily in that damning investigation into Epstein’s sex trafficking ring we showed you last week.

Those allegations were raised by Maitlis, and the Prince had a quite astounding response:

“I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenalin in the Falkland’s War when I was shot at.”

Prince Andrew disputes claims he had a sweaty dance with a woman who made allegations against him https://t.co/gfKvOEFG9p #Newsnight pic.twitter.com/7ZKscPB5lX

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) November 16, 2019

As soon as he had played the ‘I don’t sweat’ card, as well as the ‘I don’t really do touching in photos’ card (when pressed on the validity of the now-infamous photo of Andrew with Roberts Giuffre), photos emerged.

That one right up the top shows Andrew on the receiving end of a lick from American socialite Chris Von Aspen, and the Daily Mail found quite a few where he looks somewhat sweaty.

Regarding allegations that he had sex with Roberts Giuffre in 2001, when she was 17, here’s NewsAU:

…Andrew offered a very surprising alibi: a pizza party.

After saying he had “no recollection of ever meeting her”, Andrew went on to claim that on the night in question he had taken daughter Beatrice to a party at a Surrey outpost of restaurant chain Pizza Express before returning home.

It’s quite amazing how he is so uncertain on other key questions, but somehow remembers nibbling on pizza in Woking 17 years ago.

What really irked so many, though, is his lack of contrition and empathy:

The biggest issue here is why Andrew didn’t take this opportunity to show sympathy to Epstein’s many, many victims. He could have maintained that he knew nothing about Epstein’s crimes and appeared compassionate simultaneously and not doing so seems like a huge missed opportunity. This simple move would have been seriously powerful and would have gone much further to countering months of bad PR than his bluster about straightforward shooting weekends and sweating.

The biggest takeaway from all of this is that Andrew clearly feels like he is a victim here too.

Woe is me, the poor royal just trying to eat pizza in peace and get my sweat on.

If you want to really settle in and see exactly why the royal is receiving almost universal condemnation, here’s the full interview:

[sources:abcnews&newsau]