Thank youpublished at 22:20 Greenwich Mean Time 16 November 2019
Thank you for joining us for tonight's exclusive Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew.
We're drawing our live coverage to a close now but you can read our news story here.
Prince Andrew has been speaking to Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
The Duke of York says it was the "wrong thing to do" to stay at the convicted sex offender's home in New York
The prince says he has "no recollection of ever meeting" Virginia Roberts - now Virginia Giuffre - who says she was forced to have sex with him
He says he was at home with his children on the night it is alleged he had sex with Virginia Giuffre
If "push came to shove" the prince says he would testify over allegations regarding his conduct and his links to Jeffrey Epstein
Epstein, 66, took his own life in August while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges
George Bowden and Claire Heald
Thank you for joining us for tonight's exclusive Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew.
We're drawing our live coverage to a close now but you can read our news story here.
Jonny Dymond
BBC royal correspondent
There were three big questions and a whole pile of smaller ones that needed answering in this interview.
On the big three, the Duke of York was pressed time and time again - did he have sex with Virginia Giuffre (then called Virginia Roberts), as she claims?
Why did he go back to see (and stay with) Jeffrey Epstein two years after the businessman's conviction and imprisonment for child sex offences?
And how did he explain the photograph of him with his arm round the waist of the 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre.
What we learnt from tonight’s interview with Prince Andrew
The interview draws to a close, with the prince telling Emily Maitlis, when she asks if there is anything left unsaid: “I think you’ve dragged out most of what is required and I’m truly grateful for the opportunity that you’ve given me to be able to discuss this with you.”
The prince adds that he kicks himself for staying with Epstein in 2010, after the financier’s release from prison.
He says: “I stayed with him and that’s… the bit that… as it were, I kick myself for on a daily basis because it was not something that was becoming of a member of the Royal Family and we try and uphold the highest standards and practices and I let the side down, simple as that.”
Jonny Dymond
BBC royal correspondent
"The wider family" has rallied round – the Queen in particular.
What they’ll make of a prime time Saturday night interview is another matter.
But he took the plunge.
Asked if he now has a sense of regret over his relationship with Epstein, the prince says it was the wrong decision to visit the convicted sex offender in December 2010.
He says he benefited from his association with Epstein but had nothing to do with the financier’s crimes.
The prince adds: “Do I regret the fact that he has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming? Yes.”
Emily Maitlis interjects: “Unbecoming? He was a sex offender.”
The prince says: “Yeah. I’m sorry, I’m being polite. I mean in the sense that he was a sex offender.”
The Duke of York says he was not aware of an arrest warrant for Jeffrey Epstein when he was invited to Princess Beatrice's 18th birthday party in 2006.
Jonny Dymond
BBC royal correspondent
When Andrew meets Ghislaine Maxwell earlier this year he says they don’t discuss Epstein at all?
The man who provided them with private jet flights, use of his houses and private island, their friend who went to prison and that Andrew flew to the US to cut off contact with?
"He wasn’t in the news… we had moved on".
The prince says he does not believe his relationship with Epstein has been damaging to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
He says it has been damaging to him as it has been a constant drip of questions regarding his involvement.
The Duke of York has said he would testify under oath if that was the legal advice he was given as he would be "duty-bound" to do so.
Prince Andrew says that the scandal surrounding his friendship with Epstein has been a “constant sore in the family”.
He adds that his immediate family felt at a loss when more specific allegations were made in 2015.
He says the wider Royal Family could not have been more supportive.
Emily Maitlis turns to Ghislaine Maxwell, who was Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend and the person through whom the financier was introduced to the prince.
Asked whether Ms Maxwell, the daughter of late media mogul Robert Maxwell, has questions to answer over her role, Prince Andrew says: “If there are questions that Ghislaine has to answer, that’s her problem I’m afraid, I’m not in a position to be able to comment one way or the other.”
He adds that he last saw Ms Maxwell earlier this year prior to Epstein’s arrest in July. He says the pair did not discuss Epstein.
The prince says his reaction to Epstein's death in August was one of "shock".
Prince Andrew says if push came to shove and he received legal advice to testify under oath he would do so.
He adds that there could be closure in future for both him and everyone else impacted by what he describes as “very strange and unpleasant activities”.
He says he would take legal advice before providing a statement to police.
The Duke of York has told the BBC he has wracked his brains but cannot recall any incident involving Virginia Roberts - now Virginia Giuffre - who has said she was forced to have sex with him three times.
Emily Maitlis repeats the claim by Virginia Roberts’ legal team that “you could not spend time around Epstein and not know what was going on”.
The prince says that with the benefit of hindsight one might question: “Was that really the way that it was or was I looking at it the very wrong way?”
He compares Epstein’s house to Buckingham Palace in that both have lots of people walking around.
“I live in an institution at Buckingham Palace which has members of staff walking around all the time and I don’t wish to appear grand but there were a lot of people who were walking around Jeffrey Epstein’s house.”
“You’d notice if there were hundreds of underage girls in Buckingham Palace, wouldn’t you?” Emily Maitlis asks.
The prince says he would have noticed if that was the case at Epstein’s home.