Britain’s Prince Andrew affirmed that he doesn’t remember a woman who has accused him of sexually exploiting her in encounters arranged by Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to BBC, the Duke of York said that he has “no recollection” of meeting Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who says Epstein paid her $15,000 after she had sex with the prince in 2001 when she was 17.
In an interview scheduled to broadcast in hours, Andrew repeated his denials for having any involvement in any manner with Epstein’s case. The sex trafficker Epstein committed suicide last summer in New York.
“I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady, none whatsoever,” Andrew told the BBC, according to excerpts of the interview released Friday.
Andrew said in the BBC interview that he regrets not cutting ties with Epstein after the financier was convicted in 2008 of sex crimes involving teenage girls. He saw Epstein, a sex offender, following his release from custody in Florida.
“I kick myself for (it) on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the royal family,” Andrew said, “We try and uphold the highest standards and practices and I let the side down, simple as that.”
According to the interview, the Duke of York said he first met Epstein 1999, three years after his 10-year marriage with Sarah Ferguson ended in porce.
Earlier, Giuffre released a photo showing her posing with the prince in London and recently challenged the British royal to speak out, telling reporters: "He knows exactly what he's done, and I hope he comes clean about it."
Giuffre claimed that Epstein flew her around the world on his private planes to have sex with powerful men, and that she had sexual encounters with Andrew in London and New York and in the U.S. Virgin Islands when she was 18.
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