Buckingham Palace ‘let down Prince Andrew’ with its handling of sex abuse allegations, says close friend

Prince Andrew was let down by Buckingham Palace over the way he handled sex abuse allegations, one of his close friends has claimed.

Paul Tweed has said there was a litany of shortcomings in the legal and PR strategies adopted by the palace and the duke’s legal team. The Telegraph has reported.

He argues in a new book that it was a mistake not to publicly address the facts after Prince Andrew’s catastrophic interview on BBC Newsnight.

Mr Tweed also says it was a mistake not to immediately speak to Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers after she made her allegations to avoid being served with legal papers.

He suggests that the settlement reached out of court instead only resulted in Prince Andrew being forced to ‘buy off’ Ms Giuffre.

Prince Andrew with BBC journalist Emily Maitlis at Buckingham Palace on the day she interviewed him for Newnight in 2019

Prince Andrew and his father Prince Philip watched the horse racing at Epsom Downs, in Surrey, in 2016

Ms Maitlis questioned Andrew about his association with Epstein, and the Prince denied sex accuser Virginia Giuffre’s allegations against himself

Mr Tweed is a friend of the York family and joined them at the Royal Box at Ascot in 2016 and was invited to Princess Eugenie’s wedding two years later in 2018.

His book, titled My Life as an International Libel Lawyer to the Rich and Famous, tells how he entered royal circles eight years ago when he was asked to advise Sarah, Duchess of York.

In one chapter he discusses why he thinks the Duke of York has been tried in the court of public opinion, saying the price Andrew has paid since the allegations ‘could hardly have been higher’.

However, the author has said that he does not wish to criticize the decisions made on behalf of the duke and that he is not aware of all the advice his friend has received.

Prince Andrew faced public outrage when he repeatedly denied Ms Giuffre’s allegations.

The duke claimed he was unable to have sex with Ms Giuffre in 2001 because he was away with his daughter Princess Beatrice for a birthday party at Pizza Express in Woking.

He was also criticized for not saying he regretted his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender.

Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, then aged 17 at Ghislaine Maxwell’s mansion in London

Andrew attended Royal Ascot with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (green dress) in June 2000

Andrew and his daughter, Princess Beatrice, at the Queen’s funeral in 2022

In March 2022, he paid a multi-million pound settlement to his accuser, formally ending the civil sexual assault case she brought against him in the US.

As a result of being forced into effective retirement, he lost his £249,000 income from the Sovereign Grant, but retained his palatial home, the 30-room Royal Lodge in Windsor.

Prince Andrew was subsequently asked to step back from his royal duties by his father, the late Duke of Edinburgh.

An insider at the royal estate previously told the Telegraph: ‘There was no shouting or screaming, Philip told him in no uncertain terms that he had to resign for the sake of the monarchy.

‘Philip doesn’t like being judged by the media, but he is realistic enough to realize that Andrew’s actions posed a danger to the structure of the royal family.’

They described the conversation as ‘tense’ and that Philip had told Andrew ‘that he had to take his punishment’.

Prince Andrew’s disastrous interview was recently the subject of a Netflix film, Scoop, which followed the process by which the BBC secured an interview with Prince Andrew.

Emily Maitlis, who conducted the interview, recently admitted that she thought she would be fired after it aired.

Andrew, the Queen and Prince Philip attended the Derby in 2013

Andrew and the late Duke of Edinburgh on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 2015

She said: ‘You don’t go to a job interview with the royal family without thinking you could lose your job.

“But you know, that’s almost a very real possibility; the stakes are high.

‘We knew that if the tone had been wrong, if the facts had been wrong, if the questioning had been wrong, that would have been the end for me and the team at the BBC.

‘It turned out that the consequences were different. But we were very aware of it.’

She also revealed that Prince Andrew actually wanted to spend even more time talking about sweating and Pizza Express.

At Prince Andrew’s request, she said: “When we finished the interview, out of politeness I said, ‘Is there anything that wasn’t recorded that you wanted to discuss?’ and Prince Andrew said: ‘Actually there were a few things. You didn’t mention my alibi.

‘He wanted to talk about being at Pizza Express that night.

‘And it was a very complicated moment for us, because on the one hand I knew that it wouldn’t help if he mentioned some of the things he wanted to talk about, for example the sweating and the Pizza Express alibi. In his case it would even look worse.’

Emily added, “I felt a kind of responsibility not to let him get into that, but on the other hand, I also felt a responsibility to include the things that he had said were important for him to say.” ‘

Buckingham Palace declined to comment when contacted by The Telegraph.