Emily Maitlis has revealed the sickening question she received from Prince Andrew ahead of her infamous Newsnight interview with the royal.
The journalist serves as executive producer of the upcoming Prime Video series, A Very Royal Scandal, a retelling of the 2019 interview.
And in scenes set to air in the first episode, Ruth Wilson’s Emily reveals that before Prince Andrew agreed to the terms of her interview with BBC Newsnight, he asked the presenter if she had ever suffered abuse.
As the BBC crew attended a pre-event meeting with Prince Andrew, played by Michael Sheen, alongside his daughter Beatrice and his private secretary Amanda Thirsk.
And before agreeing to the interview, the Duke leans forward before asking: “Have any of you ever been victims of abuse?”
A very real scandal has exposed the sick question Prince Andrew asked Emily Maitlis before the infamous Newsnight interview that left the BBC star reeling.
And in scenes set to air in the first episode, Emily (Ruth Wilson) reveals that before Prince Andrew (Michael Sheen) agreed to the terms of her interview with BBC Newsnight, he asked the presenter if she had ever been abused.
Visibly shocked by the question, while Emily’s two employees quickly insist no, the journalist herself appears to freeze.
As the silence persists, she quickly adds, “No.”
Prince Andrew asks, “Nothing in your life?” to which Emily replies, “Nothing that can compare.”
“So your judgment wouldn’t be influenced by anything at all?” clarifies Amanda, played by Joanna Scanlan.
“Not at all,” Emily confirms as the meeting draws to a close.
However, the chilling question lingers in Emily’s mind and she tells her husband later in the episode: “Do you know that at the end of my meeting with Prince Andrew he asked me if I had ever been abused? I felt horrible.”
“What did you say?” asks her husband Mark Gwynne as Emily replies: “Well, nothing, having a stalker is not even remotely comparable and I don’t want to talk about it.”
Emily was the victim of a stalker for 27 years after Edward Vines bombarded her with letters following a fixation that stretched back to when the pair attended Cambridge University together in the 1990s.
Before agreeing to the interview, the Duke leans forward and asks: “Have any of you ever been victims of abuse?”
Visibly shocked by the question, while Emily’s two employees quickly insist no, the journalist herself appears to freeze.
However, the chilling question lingers in Emily’s mind and she tells her husband later in the episode: “Do you know that at the end of my meeting with Prince Andrew he asked me if I had ever been abused? I felt horrible.”
In 2022, Edward was jailed for eight years after writing a series of letters from HMP Nottingham declaring his “unrequited love” with “emanations of affection” for her.
In 2022, Edward was jailed for eight years after Writing a series of letters from HMP Nottingham declaring his ‘unrequited love’ with ‘displays of affection’ towards her.
In March 2023, he was sentenced to a further nine months in prison after also trying to write to the presenter’s mother.
Vines had insisted he would continue writing letters to Maitlis until she spoke to him “about her behaviour in 1990”, when he claimed “she snubbed him at Cambridge University”.
A court heard that while awaiting sentencing for breaching his restraining order 20 times, he attempted to write to Maitlis’ mother Marian between July and August 2022.
And the connection between the terror felt by a stalker and Prince Andrew’s question about abuse is clear on the actress’s face.
Amazon Prime released the trailer for the upcoming drama A Very Royal Scandal last Wednesday and it will launch on the streaming service on September 19.
This comes after Emily revealed the awkward request she received from Prince Andrew after her high-profile interview ended.
The interview was widely branded a “car crash” for the Duke of York, but Emily has now revealed she actually wanted to spend even more time talking about sweat and Pizza Express.
On Prince Andrew’s request, she said: ‘Once we finished the interview, I said to him as a courtesy, “Is there anything that hasn’t been included that you want to discuss?” and Prince Andrew said, “Well, actually, there were a couple of things. You didn’t include my alibi.”
Prince Andrew asks, “Nothing in your life?” and Emily replies, “Nothing that can compare.”
Amazon Prime released the trailer for the upcoming drama A Very Royal Scandal last Wednesday, it will be released on the streaming service on September 19.
‘I wanted to talk about the fact that I had been to Pizza Express on the night in question.
‘And it was a very difficult time for us because, on the one hand, I knew that if I included some of the things that I wanted to mention, for example the sweat and the Pizza Express alibi, it wasn’t going to help his case, in fact it was going to make it look worse.’
Emily added: “I felt a kind of responsibility to not let him into that situation, but on the other hand, I also felt a responsibility to include the things that he had said that were important for him to say.”
The News Agents host went on to reveal that it was harder to get interviews afterwards because it scared people off.
“It’s a funny thing, actually. On the one hand, you’d think it would be pretty easy to get people to do interviews with you because they’ve seen you and heard about you,” he said.
‘And on the other hand, nobody wants to interview you because they’ve seen your interview and heard about you.
“I think it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. Some people come to you and others run a mile.”