Prince Andrew had an alibi for that night he allegedly met his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, but a new report stated that this might not hold because his daughter, Princess Beatrice, cannot remember the Pizza Express party his father said they attended.
Daily Mail published the first of four parts of its investigative piece into Prince Andrew's links to Giuffre and his friend, Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking activities. The first part, released Friday, claimed that the Duke of York's daughter had no recollection of the details her father divulged on his TV interview, where he denied ever meeting Giuffre.
Sources revealed to the Daily Mail that Beatrice was indeed at the Pizza Express party on the day in question, March 10, 2001. The family who hosted the party attested she was present but they couldn't recall if Prince Andrew was also with her. They said they remember this because they made a "deliberate decision" not to have photographs at the party because Beatrice, their daughter's friend in prep school, was there.
On the Duke of York's diary for the said date, he apparently had an appointment with a home manicurist. Prince Andrew was still living at Sunninghill Park during this period.
Daily Mail also asked the housekeeper who was on duty at that time but cannot remember that weekend since it happened a long time ago. The bodyguard assigned to the Queen's son, on the other hand, has already passed away.
A spokesperson for the Duke of York apparently refused to comment on the latest report, per The Sun.
Guiffre, then barely 18 and went by the name Virginia Roberts, claimed that she slept with the Duke of York three times while under Epstein's employ. She gave a detailed testimony of very first meeting with Prince Andrew at the London nightclub Tramp.
However, Prince Andrew said in his BBC interview with Newsnight that he could not be at the club because he drove his daughter to Pizza Express. His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was in the United States, so he claimed that he was with his children for much of that weekend as this was their arrangement.
Prince Andrew also said in the interview that his Pizza Express trip stood out because he's never been there and it's an unusual place for him to be.
It's not the first time Prince Andrew's alibi has been scrutinized. In February, an unnamed Buckingham Palace officer said that Prince Andrew was at his mother's official residence in the early morning of March 11, 2021, and was yelling at a guard. This suggested that Prince Andrew could not have been at home with his daughters on that weekend his wife was not in town.
The Metropolitan Police, however, said that they cannot discuss the logs or records for March 10 or 11 to the press. A spokesperson for the Palace also declined to comment on the alleged statement made by the officer.
