
The Prince Andrew interview on BBC Newsnight came about after Buckingham Palace sought to clear his name amid growing scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The idea was first pitched when Prince Andrew’s then-private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, was...
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Bobby Capucci
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Bobby Capucci
Prices may be higher in Alaska, California and Hawaii. One what's up everyone and welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. So at this point, my guess is everybody's familiar with Prince Andrew's Hindenburg level crash of an interview that he gave to Emily Maitlis. Well now the producer behind it all who chased him down and set the interview up is dishing some tea over at the Daily Mail. So why don't we just dive right into this article today and see what Sam McAllister, the producer and author of this article, has to say. Headline the full inside story behind Prince Andrew's car crash TV interview. The woman who set it all up reveals Beatrice listened to him discuss teen sex claims and says each time I thought he couldn't say anything worse, he did. There's no doubt. It was one of the worst displays I have ever seen I of somebody giving a interview or a public speech or anything like that. Talk about open mouth and insert foot. How many things that he said during that interview have come back to haunt him. I can't sweat, I'm allergic to this. I was in Woking. I don't know her. I mean, come on, all of it has come back to boomerang and bust him directly in his stupid ass head. We were sitting face to face around the small table in Buckingham palace. Three of us from BBC News Night, plus Prince Andrew, his private secretary and Princess Beatrice, who was writing in a notebook. At stake was the interview every broadcaster across the world would have given their right arm to do just then. Would Andrew agree to go on TV and talk about his friendship with Epstein? What followed was an intense two hours of questioning from the Prince and his daughter. And with every minute it became clear that this wasn't one yet. So even to get the interview, Sam McAllister, the producer, had to run the gauntlet, basically right? She had to sit down with Amanda Thrask, who was the secretary at the Time and Princess Beatrice, as well as Prince Andrew, as they work through what the interview might entail. So I'm blown away that they were even able to get this interview, honestly. And if Prince Andrew could go back in time, I'm pretty sure that he'd go back in time and strike this one from everybody's memory. As a Newsnight producer, I'd been pursuing this interview for months and was desperate to land it. So as we talked, I. I decided to give it to Prince Andrew. Very bluntly, sir, I have lived in this country for over 40 years, and until now, I only knew two things about you. It's that you are known as Air Miles Andy and Randy Andy. And I can absolutely tell you that the latter really doesn't help you in your current predicament. Had I blown our chances of landing the interview of a lifetime? My colleagues, presenter Emily Maitlis and Newsnight deputy editor Stuart McLean Lynn, looked genuinely shocked. There was a long pause, then Andrew laughed. The room collectively exhaled. I mean, is she wrong? What do we really know about this guy, besides the fact that he's a grifter? He was terrible at the functionary role he was put in to represent the nation and the Queen. And we also know he is somebody with a proclivity to be a sick and disgusting bastard. It had started, innocuously, an email from a PR to me in November 2018, suggesting a chat about pitch at Palace, Prince Andrew's initiative to support entrepreneurs around the world. Would Newsnight like to interview him? Interview him about it? Of course. They want to do that. Right? And the Prince now, this before the scandal really broke off, Right? So the Prince, of course, is trying to get as much publicity for his little project as possible so he can get more people like Mr. Turk to come in and give him some, you know, dirty money. Allegedly. The simple answer was no. We never agree to puff pieces and never allow interviewees to give conditions. So I politely declined. Do come back to me if the position changes. I signed off. It seemed so unlikely that I didn't even tell my boss. I assumed I'd never hear from their PR again. But six months later, I did. Prince Andrew was now open to a broader chat. Would I be interested in learning more? Absolutely. So this is a career maker right here. If you're a producer, a field producer, and you get a chance to produce a segment like this, this literally is a career changer. You can write your own ticket after this. Everybody from ABC to CNN to Fox News to BBC to wherever you want to go is going to give you a job, because securing this kind of interview, this is a. It's a big deal for a field producer, for sure. The PR said she needed to talk to Andrew's private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, and she'd be back in touch. It was the first time I'd heard Amanda's name, and I immediately Googled her. Now, Amanda Thirsk was basically Prince Andrew's handler for years, and until this Newsnight interview. Once this interview happened, Amanda Thirsk was jettisoned to the wayside. She sounded suitably impressive, a woman who had worked for the prince for seven years, but who'd previously been a banker in the city. The picture that emerged after talking to a couple of friends was someone formidable, clever, thorough, and fiercely loyal to Prince Andrew. Shortly afterwards, I was invited to meet Amanda at Buckingham Palace. I'm not going to lie, I was excited to go, but at this stage, I wasn't hopeful about landing an interview. Now, look, I get it. That has to be a pretty exciting thing to be invited to Buckingham palace, just like getting invited to the White House has to be a pretty exciting thing. But when you're going there for this kind of interview. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that puts a damper on. On all of the excitement. As far as I knew, no member of the royal family had ever been on News Night. We had no connections in the palace. It was rare to even do a royal story. Why on earth would Prince Andrew want to talk to us? My guess is it has to do with the fact that you never do royal stories. He wanted it to appear that it was a neutral outlet doing the story on him, but it really boomeranged. Right. The. The rubber band effect for Prince Andrew was pretty brutal.
Commentator/Co-host
Here.
Bobby Capucci
All I could see was a load of armed police at an open gate and couldn't believe anyone just walked into Buckingham palace that way. But that's exactly what happened. They looked me up on a list, took my ID and rang through to someone who sanctioned my entry. The sea of police and guns parted and I began the long walk to the palace door. Yeah, how many massage therapists have made the same walk going to see Uncle Touchy in the middle of the night? The hundreds of tourists stacked up against the gates stared as I traipsed across the cobbles, somewhat impeded by a perilously high pair of knee high golden heeled Kurt Geiger boots. I have no idea what those are, but my guess is they're not that comfortable. I was directed to a modest waiting room that featured a Tiny marble mantelpiece with a large gilt mirror and the loudly ticking wooden clock. On a little table sat a framed picture of Her Majesty in a yellow jacket and a hat. Sounds like, you know when you have a grandma that you go visit and she has like an antique room that you're not supposed to go into. Sounds like where this lady ended up. Feeling daring, I picked up the black frame. It wasn't heavy. It looked like a cheap wooden frame from ikea. As I sat there, I could hear the staff chattering about some royal visit to Sandsbury and watched as a soldier came in, removed his huge bearskin cap and talked for a moment about the day. Then two PRs arrived and we were taken upstairs in old fashioned lifts, past huge busts of former kings and queens and through swathes of empty corridors. Amanda's office was a small room peppered with pictures of Prince Andrew and his family. Now, if anyone could be considered a confidant of Prince Andrew, it was Amanda Thirsk for all of these years. And the fact that he let her go the way he did it tells you everything you need to know about the disaster that was this interview. And she played a gigantic part in setting it all up and okaying it. So somebody had to be the fall person here. And it ended up being Amanda. She was exactly as I expected. Impeccable manners, thorough and direct. Not a hair out of place. We talked for two hours and agreed that the interview would encompass everything from Brexit to the future of the monarchy, as well as any other relevant issues that arose then. Amanda said there was just one red line. We couldn't talk about the issue of Andrew's friendship with Epstein. My heart sank. Oh, I wonder why you can't talk about that. Why is that a no go zone? Could it have something to do with the fact that Andrew, knee deep in all of this, had his stupid ass nose involved in all of it? And not only that, as we all know, allegedly abused Virginia. So, yeah, probably not a topic that he wants to bring up. Back then, Jeffrey Epstein wasn't a name that rang bells for a lot of people. Even so, I knew we had to decline the interview. This was in May 2019, and eight weeks later, Epstein was arrested. Twelve weeks later, he was dead. The full scale of his criminal behavior was coming into sharp focus. And Virginia Roberts and other survivors had started to speak. They'd been speaking a little bit earlier than that, but the essence of this is correct. And remember when the survivors took their story to social media, to you, that's when things started to really move in this direction, the direction of at least people being held accountable in some degree. Twenty weeks on, I managed to persuade Amanda that Prince Andrew's position of silence in the face of global scrutiny was untenable. Twelve long days later came the email we had all hoped for. It arrived from Amanda early on a Saturday morning, November 9th. Could presenter Emily Maitlis, our deputy editor, Stuart and I come to the palace in two days? Prince Andrew wanted to meet us, so that got to be pretty exciting. Got all of this going on. The situation with Epstein blooming once again and as a field producer. This is your, this is your day here, right? This is your mea culpa. Monday, November 11, 2019. Morning. Prince Andrew's voice was upbeat as he came into Amanda's room. He was smiling. He seemed friendly. I hope you don't mind, but I brought someone with me. We exchanged glances. Who could it be? A lawyer? Maybe someone from the Queen's staff? And then from behind him came Princess Beatrice. To be frank, the only thing worse than speaking to a prospective interviewee about allegations of sexual impropriety and sex with a 17 year old girl is having to do so in front of his daughter. What sort of buffoon brings their daughter to this conversation? I know you're trying to use her as a set piece to give you an easier time of it, but bro, this is horrible. The idea is to protect your children, to insulate them from your bullshit. That's what a real man does. But I guess we should have never expected that from a punk bitch like Prince Andrew. Princess Beatrice was polite and engaged, but unlike her father, she was evidently anxious about the meeting and clearly there to protect his interests. I'd heard she was close to the Queen. The Prince's eldest daughter was now, I felt, the person who can make the difference between us getting the interview or not. Well, probably correct, right? Who has more sway on their dad than a daughter? We all sat down, crammed into that tiny room a few feet from one another. What was most surprising was there was never any attempt to find out was what we'd, we'd ask or to place conditions on the questions. And that is very surprising, honestly. Usually these, these questions have to be very well tailored for bozos like Andrew or else they have a train wreck like we saw here. But they weren't holding the, you know, the defensible ground. Andrew and his and company, they reached out for this interview because they knew they had to try and do damage control. But what really happened was even more damage for his part, the Prince revealed for the first time that he supposedly had an alibi. He told us about Pizza Express, a children's party. He mentioned his sweating, or lack thereof. He talked about how recently he'd seen Ghislaine Maxwell Epstein's procurer of underage girls, co conspirator, general all around scuzz bag, you know, fellow child abuser and bipedal serpent. I think that's what they meant. He'd admitted he'd made errors of judgment. It was draw jaw dropping stuff. Yeah, errors of judgment, huh? How about errors of everything you've ever done in your life? And then he said something I'll never forget. As we concluded, he turned to Princess, Princess Beatrice and said they had a lot to discuss and should go straight after upstairs to talk about it over a cup of tea with Mum. For a split second, I almost scoffed. What on earth did a grown man need to talk to his mum for? And then it hit me. Mum was the Queen. Well, I get it. I'd want to talk to my mom probably too. She's one of my best confidants. But in a situation like this, being, you know, the Prince of England, you should probably wait to say that until afterwards. You don't need people to know that. Oh, I'm gonna go run the mom and get some Advice. Less than 24 hours later, he agreed to the interview. I felt I wouldn't really believe it until those cameras started rolling. But I wouldn't have to wait long. This was on Tuesday, November 12, 2019. In just two days, we would all find ourselves back inside Buckingham palace, face to face with Prince Andrew again, conducting what turned out to be an interview more shocking than. Than any of us could have ever predicted. I remember listening to it live as it was happening, watching the, the, the, the live coverage of it, and I was blown away. For the whole entire thing pretty much. I mean like the whole entire ass interview. I was just shaking my head like, who let this guy do this? Who, who approved this? I mean, you would have to think that everybody in the palace knows what a bozo Prince Andrew is. And approving an interview like this would end up in disaster. All right, folks, that's going to end part one here, and we'll be right back with part number two in our next update. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmail.com that's B O B B Y C A P U c c I protonmail.com youm can also find me on Twitter. Obby_cap ucci. Alright folks, we'll be right back with part two. What's up everyone? And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. And now the conclusion of the interview with Prince Andrew. Thursday, November 14, 2019. Fifteen feet. That's how far away I am from the back of Andrew's chair. I can see the soles of his shoes, hardly scuffed and. And the back of his head. New haircut. The hem of his trousers a perfectly judged length and the nervous tapping of his left foot. The chair seems a little small for his body. Yeah, he's a bit of a puff, isn't he? Not in the greatest shape in the world. And of course he had himself a nice new cut and a pair of shoes that are hardly scuffed. When you're rich, you don't wear the same shit too often. Probably a brand new pair of kicks. My own chair is up against the wall of an opulent room larger than most London flats. I'm sitting next to a very friendly woman who, seeing how nervous I am, kindly offers me a martini. Imagine that, sitting at work, someone offers you a martini to calm you down. Pretty nice job, huh, Jen? With a twist. Her Majesty is also a fan. It's one of those exchanges that you can hardly believe is happening. Chatting idly with someone in Buckingham palace about your monarch's penchant for a cocktail. The charming. The charming woman is the Prince's equerry. She's certain his interview will clear. Clear his name. That it's all been a terrible misunderstanding. That after this things will go back to normal. Boy, were they really missing the boat here, huh? They really thought that numbnuts was going to get out there and give the performance of a lifetime. And everybody was gonna say, ah, you know what? He's right. Prince Andrew didn't do any of this. He's an honorable dude and all of his behavior lines up and all of his receipts check out. The reality is none of that's true. He's not an honorable dude and none of his receipts checked out. Emily Maitlis is nervous, busying herself with her notes. The result of two days of relentless practice and brainstorms with a small team. Look, it's always nerve wracking when you have a big interview to conduct. I'm not somebody who does many interviews, but when you have them and you know, you. You know you have one coming up, there's a lot of work that goes into being prepared for it. If you want to give a good interview anyway, you Got to know, obviously, the topic you're going to talk about, but you have to know about the person that you're talking to, dig into their backstory, where are they from, all of that good stuff. So there's a whole entire thing that goes along with preparing for interviews and preparing for one like this. It definitely has to be a bit nerve shaking. I feel panic rise within me. We're about to interview a member of the royal family about his connections with a sex trafficker. We're about to ask him on camera whether he had sex with Virginia Roberts, whether he knew about Epstein's terrible acts, and whether he was complicit. Well, it's nice that somebody did it, considering the authorities have never done it, considering nobody in power has ever done it. And it's nice to see that a news organization at least stepped up to the plate and got him on record. Apart from the equity, Amanda is here with her deputy. That's it. No lawyers, no other royal staff. I'd expected a swarm of people to oversee it all, and I bet if they could go back in time, that's exactly what they would have done. Lawyers everywhere, all kinds of legal counsel to make sure that, you know, things didn't go off the rails. And fortunately for us, and unfortunately for him, that's not what happened. A tall white man comes into the room to say hello. He's introduced as Donald McCabe, communications secretary to the Queen. His visit is quite significant. It means that the Queen likely knows about the interview. Well, yeah, there's no way that this interview happens without the Queen's. Go ahead. Prince Andrew is a dunce and a nonce in the rest of it, but the Queen's still going to make the decisions if the interview happens or not. After speaking to a couple of people, he leaves afterwards. This seems a missed opportunity. If he'd stayed, he'd have known the contents of the interview firsthand. Perhaps he would have realized how terribly this would play out for Andrew, because for the palace, for the monarchy, and it was terrible. Look, here's the thing. People haven't just come up with a reason to hate on Prince Andrew. The dude's a. He doesn't represent the people of England well, He doesn't represent his family well. And in fact, he doesn't represent humanity well. So I don't know why they wouldn't have somebody there to monitor what this idiot was doing. Perhaps they would have had more time to prepare a response, damage, limitation of some kind. As it was the first time McCabe would have seen the interview was more than 48 hours later alongside the entire nation. As I wait for the cameras and lighting to be set up, the equerry tells me that the same room will be used after the interview for palace for the palace cinema night. When we leave, members of the royal household will congregate to watch a film and maybe eat popcorn. Maybe eat popcorn? What is popcorn not allowed to the royal family? Isn't that like a staple? If it's movie night, you guys are going to have the big screen going and some popcorn, some snacks. Prince Andrew suddenly appears and makes his way over to talk to me. He's friendly and chatty. We discuss cinema night and he opens the doors at the end of the room to reveal the projector. Turns out this evening they're showing a Renee's. A Renee Zellweger film. Judy, have I seen it? We chat a little bit about Judy Garland, the weather floods in Green park, and then he moves on to the crew making suggestions about microphones and other technicalities. Oh, so all of a sudden the guy's a world traveled front of house technician, monitor engineer. Now he knows about microphones. Dude wouldn't know about a microphone if one blasted him straight across his face. Twenty minutes later, we're ready to go. Amandl settles herself near Andrew, sitting on the floor, notebook in her hand. Emily nods. The cameras are rolling and we're off. And, well, it is the beginning of the end for Prince Andrew, isn't it? This interview was the death knoll for him. When this interview cracked off and everybody heard from his mouth how much of a tool he is, that was the beginning of the end. The first question Emily asks, why he's decided to talk now is the one I get asked the most today. Why take the enormous risk? It's easy to look back now and say that the decision was reckless. But few people imagine their own answers doing them harm. Yeah, few people who didn't do anything. If you're innocent, that's when you come out and give your big speech. But if you're not innocent, you should shut your mouth and call your lawyer. He didn't do that. His hubris would not allow it. You also have to remember the life Andrew has lived. The second son, always said to be the Queen's favorite, granted extraordinary access and opportunity. Fond over the average CEO would have never taken that risk. They'd have calculated a hundred reasons not to take the chance. But Andrew and his people were must have thought this hour of his life would change the public perception of him. For the Better? Well, they were severely mistaken. And do you think it's any surprise that Amanda Thirsk is no longer part of the crew? We don't know for sure, but we assume he spent the past couple of days in constant rehearsals. Like us, his team must have theorized the questions, decided precisely how to deal with the more serious allegations, considered body language and tone, deliberated exactly if or how he might apologize his answer to Emily's questions. He simply reminds us that his people have been talking to Newsnight for six months and actually, it's a very good opportunity. Look, his body language was bad, his answers were bad, his posture was bad, and in fact, everything about him is bad. After that, Emily gave a master class in calm, methodical, analytical interviewing. The interview is now used across the world by PR and communications professionals and by people in crisis management as a shining example of what answers not to give when you're dealing with controversy. Imagine being the case study. The Prince of England could have done anything in his life, but instead, his legacy is going to be the case study of what not to do when giving an interview. Imagine that. Enjoy your legacy, Prince of Nothing, the Joe Exotic of the Windsor family. I'd assumed Andrew would distance himself from Epstein, condemn him outright and diminish their shared history. Instead, it sounded like they were close friends, and worse, the prince even admired him. Imagine. And that was certainly the tone that came off. If you haven't seen this interview yet, you should definitely go and check it out, because it tells you a lot about Prince Andrew and it tells you a lot about the kind of person he is. Instead, it sounded like they were close friends, and worse, that the prince even admired him. What followed was one astonishing answer after another. Each time I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. The answer showed how totally removed the prince was from the reality of an average life. All of these people are completely removed from what the rest of us have to deal with on a regular basis just to maintain they have no idea about any of it. Had he been on Epstein's private plane? Yes. Had he stayed on his private island? Yes. Had he stayed at his home in Palm Beach? Yes. Had he visited Ghislaine Maxwell's London home? Yes. Was Epstein at Princess Beatrice's 18th birthday party at Windsor Castle? Yes. So all of those affirmatives shows you right away the groundwork for the relationship. How tight they were, how close they were. And the fact that Prince Andrew allegedly was at Epstein's townhouse when Carolyn was raped, again tells you what you need to know. This dude needs to speak to the FBI. He needs to speak to the authorities. But will he? Probably not. In 2008, Epstein was jailed for soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution that cannot even occur. A prostitute cannot be a minor because minors cannot consent. This is child abuse and the rape of a child. That's what it is. Andrew said that they had no contact during that time, but Emily had the killer blow. Within months of his release, he went to stay with him at his New York mansion. Why? Why were you staying with a convicted sex offender? Andrew replied, I went there with the sole purpose of saying to him that because he had been convicted, it was inappropriate for us to be seen together. I felt that doing it over the phone was the chicken's way of doing it. So you're not a chicken when it comes to breaking up with your BFF, Jeffrey Epstein. You'll fly 5,000. I mean, 3,000 miles, five hours over the pond to do it, and then stay the night at. At his house, but you won't even speak to the FBI over the phone. Talk about a chicken. I was incredulous. Was he saying it was the right thing to do, to spend four days at the home of a convicted sex offender, that it was somehow honorable? Emily persisted. Do you regret the whole friendship with Epstein? Andrew should have bitten her hand off for the chance to say quite simply yes. Instead, he said, now, still not. And the reason being is that the people I met and the opportunities I was given to learn either by him or because of him, were actually very useful. Imagine saying this. And all of these girls, 225of them, got money from the estate, by the way. And we know there's a lot more than that. But can you imagine saying that knowing that all of these girls were abused and raped by this guy? I remember having to look down just so I could roll my eyes. He had no recollection of meeting Virginia Roberts or of having his hand around her waist in the infamous photograph taken on the night she claimed he had sex with her as a royal. He said he wouldn't have been physically close to someone like that as a royal. Shut up, dude. In fact, nobody wants to be that close to you. Out came his now notorious alibis that he was at the Pizza Express in Woking that day, that Virginia's recollection of him sweating on the dance floor at Tramp nightclub couldn't be true because he'd lost the ability to sweat. Funny how there's a bunch of pictures of him sweating his ass through all of Those shirts, though, huh? Has this guy done anything but lie throughout this whole entire time? As a former criminal baristor, I knew the answers were a future defense lawyer's nightmare. I realized for the first time that. That Andrew couldn't have taken legal advice before speaking to us. It just got worse and worse. He couldn't have had sex with Virginia, he said, because sex for a man is a sort of positive action, which is very difficult to forget. Was this a royal euphemism for penetration? I mean, imagine having such an overblown opinion of yourself that you think that because you're a royal, everybody's going to remember you, bro. You're a buffoon, okay? In fact, my guess is a lot of the people that you've rolled on top of for the five minutes in your life, they all want to forget you. Emily gave him another chance. I wonder if you have any sense of guilt, regret or shame about any of your behavior in your friendship with Epstein. She handed it to him on a plate. Surely he'd clarify that it had all been a terrible mistake. I looked up from the floor, watched him gather himself for one of the final answers. As far as Mr. Epstein is concerned, it was the wrong decision to go and see him in 2010. As far as my association with him was concerned, it had some seriously beneficial outcomes in areas that have nothing to do with what we're talking about today. Extraordinary that he couldn't see just how terrible that sounded. Emily asked her final question. I mean, this guy is still enamored with Epstein. It seems like here, Epstein sure had you wrapped around his finger. What sort of kompromat did Epstein have on you? Joe, exotic of the Windsor family,
Commentator/Co-host
is
Bobby Capucci
there anything you feel has been left unsaid that you would like to say now? A message of regret for the terrible acts of his friend had committed. Perhaps Andrew's chance ebbed away. No, I didn't. I don't think so. I think you've probably dragged out most of what is required. That was it. An interview more shocking than any of us could ever have predicted. I couldn't look at anyone. I could barely believe his people hadn't stopped the interview. I would have, despite the consequences. How'd you think it went? I asked the equerry. She beamed. Wasn't he wonderful? She said. Oh, yeah, wonderful if you're blind and deaf. And then unable to comprehend things. I'd expected Amanda Thirst to be distraught, the prince to look shaken or concerned. But she was smiling and he seemed ebullient. And then it hit Me. He actually thought it had gone well. He was in such a good mood that he offered us all a tour of the palace. I couldn't go. I wouldn't have been able to speak to him in good faith. Of course, Emily couldn't decline. I don't know how she kept her. Her composure. I wouldn't have went. I would have just. I would have declined and been like, sorry, I'm never. I don't even want to talk to you ever again. After the interview was broadcast, everyone agreed it had been an unmitigated disaster for Prince Andrew. The newspapers also lambasted Amanda Thirsk, ridiculing her for letting him do the interview. I found this profoundly disturbing. What she had done was believe in her boss. His own answers had landed him in hot water. She's not wrong about that, you know. Amanda Thirsk, at the end of the day is just, you know, an employee. Prince Andrew's the boss, and he's the one that shit the bed. I also felt strangely protective towards her. We were both doing our jobs to the best of our abilities. And now her professional life lay in tatters. On November 20, Prince Andrew announced that he was stepping back from public duties for the foreseeable future. Belatedly, he also expressed sympathy for Epstein's survivors. Belatedly, huh? His mom probably told him he had to do that. Amanda Thirst stepped back from her role and eventually left. I messaged her, offered to meet if she was still so inclined. Meanwhile, Ghislaine Maxwell was charged with eight counts relating to grooming underage girls for Epstein. Calls for Andrew to cooperate with the FBI grew louder. And then, just before the 25th anniversary of Martin Bashir's Panorama interview with Princess Diana, Earl Spencer went public with allegations against him and the BBC. The interview, he said, had been procured by Martin Bashir after he had told a litany of lies to Diana and showed her forged bank statements. She never had agreed to do it otherwise. The more I learned about the allegations, the more appalled I was. A graphic designer who'd blown the whistle on the bank statements had lost his job. It seemed clear that there had been some kind of COVID up. All I could feel was betrayal and anger. For that, among many reasons, I decided I wanted to leave the BBC. Before I left, I finally got to see Amanda Thirsk. She was nothing but gracious and wished me the best. We are still in touch from time to time. Well, there you have it, folks. That's going to conclude part two of how the interview with Prince Andrew with Emily Maitlis was procured a pretty interesting look behind the scenes at the life of a field producer and how crazy that can be. They're the ones that get these interviews. They're the ones that set all of this up. So they have a very interesting life. There is no doubt about it. And imagine sitting in on this one. So I thought this would be a good add to the catalog and offer a bit more context and some clarity about how the interview went down. All right everybody, if you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmail.com that's B O B B Y C A P U C c I@protonmail.com you can also find me on Twitter at bo-y/capucci. The link that I discussed can be found in the description box. Up everyone. And welcome back to the Epstein Chronicles. The interview that Prince Andrew gave to Emily Maitlis and the BBC turned out to be one of the worst ideas this dude has ever had. If there was any question about this dude's competency, about this guy's honor before the interview, all of those questions were answered after it. No, he's not competent. No, he's not honorable. And he certainly doesn't understand the scope of what's going on here. He truly thought that he was going to waltz into that interview, run roughshod over Emily Maitlis and put a line underneath the whole entire scandal. That's what he thought. Well, it turned out to be something different. And it wasn't even a car crash interview. It was legitimately the Hindenburg. Right? That's how disastrous this was. And today we have an article from the LA Times about this interview and the headline A Prosecutor's Dream Inside the Bombshell interview that brought down Prince Andrew. And there's no doubt this would be a prosecutor's dream. I've said it a million times. Imagine a seasoned interrogator getting this guy in a room. If Emily Maitland had him shook. Imagine what a real investigator would do like an interrogator who does this for a living. This article was authored by Eton Smallman. A roundtable with three BBC journalists In Buckingham Palace. Queen Elizabeth's second son was deciding whether to do a TV interview that would change his life. Stupid idea. Somebody should advised him not to do this interview and instead go and talk to the federal government. That's what he should have been doing. Speak to the FBI. I want to do the honorable thing. I want to help these girls. Yeah, well you're not doing that hiding behind mummy's skirts and riding around Balmoral on your horse. Joe Exotic of the Windsor family. Three months earlier, in August 2019, the billionaire sex offender pedophile Jeffrey Epstein had been found dead in his New York prison cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. For nearly a decade, Prince Andrew had been dogged by questions about their 20 year friendship and now was facing allegations of his own. Virginia Roberts alleged that Epstein had forced her to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, something the Duke of York has always denied. See, this is the problem. These questions were always there. These allegations were always there. People chose to ignore this stuff so they can continue to have access to the royals. I'm looking directly at you, ABC and Amy Robach. At the palace. Sam McAllister, Booker extraordinaire on the BBC flagship current affairs show Newsnight, who had been in discussions for a year with a publicist working for Andrew's initiative to support entrepreneurs and and his private security took her gamble. Now I wonder when Bill Clinton's going to sit down for a tell all about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. You don't see anyone clamoring for that, huh? And it took the Daily Mail and all of the tabloids in, in the UK to do this, to get Prince Andrew on a hot enough seat where the BBC took action. So when's that going to happen to Bill Clinton? That's the real question here. When is the legacy media gonna hold Bill Clinton to the same standard that we're holding Prince Andrew to now? Of course, let's be very, very clear. Nobody has come out and said that, that Bill Clinton was abusing girls on the island or partaking. My problem with Bill Clinton especially is the lying about all of it. He sends out his spokesperson to give us this canned ass statement that has never changed since the first time he gave it. Even after all of this court documentation that basically shows you that his statement was a lie. But he just gets to go on about his business. Nobody's showing up to air him out. And then the legacy media wonders why people aren't listening to what they have to say. And then they wonder why people are searching for independent content creators or independent journalists to follow. Well, maybe if you dudes would do your job, you wouldn't have to worry. Referring to his extravagant travel at taxpayer's expense and his playboy image, she told him bluntly, sir, I have lived in this country for over 40 years and until now I only knew two things about you and that it's that you're known as Air Miles Andy and Randy. Andy. And I can absolutely tell you that the latter really doesn't help you in your current predicament. Pretty bluntly stated by Emily Mailis. No, and she's not wrong. Who knew anything about Prince Andrew besides that, right? Or that he's out grifting, hanging out with scumbags all over the place. Everyone in the room held their breath. This is not how Britons speak to royalty. Then suddenly. He laughs recalls McAllister in a central London restaurant. There was no way that he could misunderstand or what he was dealing with, with someone who could speak truth to power and who wasn't messing, messing with him. So she wanted to set the standard right away. Right, look, you're not going to bulldoze me, you're not going to run roughshot over me. This is going to be my interview. Three days later, after mentioning it in front of McAllister that he would consult Mum, Andrew did the interview. It would be described as a plane crashing into an oil tanker crash causing a tsunami, triggering a nuclear explosion. That's a pretty apt way of explaining things because it was really bad. So damning were his answers that just four days after the broadcast came the announcement that he would be suspending his public duties. The 50 minute encounter had brought down a prince. Well, I would say that the survivors and their just steadfast commitment for justice, that's what really led the charge. But he sunk himself in this interview, there's no doubt about that. In her new book, behind the scenes of the BBC's most shocking interviews, One World Publication, September 13, McAllister reveals the tense discussions that secured her exclusive despite a perceived coziness between the national broadcaster and the monarchy. To her knowledge, her program had never spoken to a royal. When first offered access in 2018 to do what she calls a puff piece on his charity work, she turned it down, telling his PR people firmly, no preconditions or no interview. As the Epstein questions grew louder, Mallister persevered. And that's what you have to do. You have to be firm, right? If you're going to be a journalist and you're going to be looking for the truth, you. You have to be firm and you can't be swayed by people who are in a powerful position. Remember, as a journalist, as the fourth estate, it's your job to hold these people to account. And when you get too cozy with them and you're depending on them for stories or for scoops, well, you've been compromised. One of the reasons this interview happened is I didn't have any connections in this world, she says, and in the nicest way, I didn't give a toot. I don't think it's helpful, frankly, to be deferential to institutions if you want to get the truth. Well, a lot of people here in America could hear that these days. I mean, all of a sudden you have people who say you can't rage against the machine, which is pretty odd considering all of the raging against the machine we have seen recently. She kept in mind the sweet spots that might motivate the prince to go ahead. A desire for vindication and time to celebrate his 60th birthday in style and to walk his daughter Beatrice down the aisle. See, what you got to do is you gotta float some bonuses to people like Andrew, right, to get them to bite. And one of the best ways to do that is to massage their ego. She also, she also shared her view with him directly. His silence meant the public was drawing conclusions on his guilt. Finally, she told him it was a no brainer that any interview about sexual impropriety with women would have to be conducted by a woman. And lucky me, I had one of the best female presenters in the country in the form of Emily Maitlis. The program was also edited by a woman, Esme Ren. Now, okay, that's all fine and well, but I really don't care who does this interview. I don't care if a little green man from Mars did the interview, as long as they exposed Prince Andrew like a shaved dog's ass. McAllister even ventured to make several jokes with a royal interlocutor, though she demurs on the details. Probably the most banterous parts wouldn't be right for me to reveal, but you heard some of the things that he was willing to say on camera, so you can probably imagine how frank some of those exchanges were. See, I don't like this. If you're going to do a tell all book, tell all, dish all the tea, let's hear it all. What did he say that was gross? What he said on the record left audiences aghast and says McAllister changed the lexicon of the country. Andrew denied his accuser's claims he was perspiring when they first met because he had a peculiar medical condition, which is that I don't sweat. His alibi was a children's birthday party at at the chain restaurant Pizza Pizza Express in the provincial English town of Woking. And we know he's BSing about the sweat. We've seen many, many photos of him Drenched in sweat. So I don't even know what he's talking about. He said that after Epstein's 2008 conviction, he had insisted on spending several days in the financier's New York home. Pedophile. To break off his friendship because of his judgment. And it was probably colored by his tendency to be too honorable. But that's just the way it is. Basically saying I'm just an honorable, honorable guy, and you're just. You're gonna have to accept my excuse. That's why I'm so honorable that I have to fly across the pond, stay the night at this pedophile's house, just to tell him we can't be friends anymore. Does that sound like the honorable behavior of a prince, or does that sound like the behavior of a stooge? You tell me. And his description of Epstein having conducted himself in a manner unbecoming, managed to break even the quietly forensic demeanor of Maitless. Unbecoming, she interjected, her face contorted in disbelief. He was a sex offender. All the while, the prince failed to express any concern for the survivors and asked if he regretted the whole Epstein friendship. Replied no, still not. Well, I bet you you do now, you dumbass. This is a man who is so stuck in his own hubris and his own opinion of oneself that he can't even see the forest through the trees. And every single day he makes a. A decision to try and come back into the public. It shows you under a microscope, the kind of dirt ball we're dealing with. Yet none of those was the most jaw dropping moment for McAllister. Rather, it was a very excruciating answer where he's trying to say that he couldn't have had sexual relations with Virginia Roberts because as a man, sexual relations require a positive act, whatever the that means. This guy is just rambling. He was prattling. He had no idea what he was talking about. And I couldn't believe what I was hearing when this interview was going on. My jaw was on the ground the whole entire interview, folks. He was obviously talking about the royal member. We don't want to make light of what obviously was an extremely serious series of allegations against him and Epstein. But to be in Buckingham palace listening to him talking about that was really quite unforgettable. It was also arresting that the journalist spent much of the time staring at the ornately decorated ballroom carpet, carpet, carpet to conceal her eye rolling. Wow. Imagine being that bad at an interview where you're trying to defend yourself. That the presenter who is interviewing you is trying to not roll their eyes. And not only that, you're a prince and she's one of your subjects and that's how she feels. I mean, imagine how the rest of the world feels about you. Joe Exotic of the Windsor family. My throat charmingly starts to make a kind of burpee noise. She has a final giveaway. I sweat. The irony of ironies. So she's sitting across from a guy who says he can't sweat, and she starts to sweat. Pretty funny, if you ask me. As a former criminal defense Baristor, McAllister knew full well the legal ramifications of Andrew's answers, describing them as a prosecutor's dream. She adds, I was surprised that he gave those explanations, which, if you were dealing with litigation, would have been relatively easy to disprove if they were lies. He thought that he was gonna. He honestly thought that he was gonna get up there and charm the pants off of everybody. He thought that all of you were going to eat out of the palm of his hand. Because his whole life, that's what happened, right? Nobody ever told him he was a douchebag. Nobody ever said to him, hey, Prince Andrew, you're an. Here's a three piece combo in a soda. You think this guy ever got his ass beat ever once in his life? You can tell who grew up not getting beat up in their neighborhood. You can tell by the way they behave as adults. Robert's attorney later revealed she and her team had examined the interview for inconsistencies. Frankly, it was very helpful for us, she said. And it really was. All you had to do was take one look and you could see the inconsistencies. The revelation may explain why Andrew was so keen to settle his US civil sexual assault case with with Roberts in February this year, paying a reported 16 million to a woman he told Maitlis he had no recollection of ever meeting. And this is another reason why I've said from the jump that the price tag on this was a lot bigger than they thought, than they were trying to say recently. Oh, it was only a few million dollars. Yeah, right. Andrew was cooked, folks. He had nowhere to go. The party was over for this dude. The only way out was to have this settlement. And do you really think that boys and the rest of the crew over there were going to just let him waltz on out of there without it being painful? McAllister, who has since left the BBC after being denied a bonus pay, a bonus, pay raise or promotion, has already struck a deal to turn her book about what she calls our version of Frost Nixon into a feature film. While Maitlis is having her story adapted for a TV drama. The producer says she believes Britain has a blind spot journalistically when it comes to holding the Royal Family accountable in the same way as others who spend the public money. She is not wrong about that. There needs to be a lot more accountability for these so called royals. But she still thinks the U S could learn something about exacting interviews from across the pond and cites the 2021 Oprah Winfrey exclusive with Megan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry as an example. Again, she's not wrong. Where are all of the journalists in America like Emily Maitless, who want to sit down with Bill Clinton and get to the truth of it? So far I haven't seen any of them. It was an incredibly interesting conversation that they had, but by no stretch of the imagination was that in an accountability interview. I think that our tradition of rigorous conversations really does allow for accountability and that's hugely important, particularly in this generation of fake news and, and, and loss of trust in the media. As I've always said, if you can run a multi million dollar company and you can run a country, then 10 minutes with a presenter isn't any problem, is it? She checks herself. Well, for some people it is clearly. Yeah, some people, huh? I'm looking directly at the Clintons. I have had enough of these people finding a way to shuck and jive their way out of this nonsense. And if Prince Andrew can get the spotlight thrown on him, when's that going to happen here? I guess I shouldn't hold my breath though, right? At least over in England they went hard on Prince Andrew. So that's a victory. And now this disgusting, moronic imbecile is going to have to face the consequences for the rest of his life. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmail.com that's B O B B Y C A P U C c I@protonmail.com. you can also find me on Twitter at B O B b y/cap ucci. The link that I discussed can be found in the description box. All right, folks, we'll be back with a little bit more later on. Hope that all of you are having a good one.
Commentator/Co-host
All right, so headline BBC's Emily Maitlis reveals Prince Andrew was happy with his Newsnight interview as she praises his candor despite car crash results. Oh boy. All right, this should be a good one. It is widely regarded as the Car crash, Hindenburg interview that eventually forced Prince Andrew to step back from public life. But the Duke of York was happy after filming the Newsnight program about his relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. According to Emily Mailis. The BBC presenter said she had not expected the Fuhrer over the interview by critics who lambasted Andrew for failing to show regret or empathy for Epstein's victims. Huh? You didn't expect that? What, so you thought you were gonna run this interview, Mrs. Maitlis, and people were just gonna be like, ah, that's all right. You know, his story checks out. Andrew's story checks out. He can't sweat. He was getting pizza. He's never met her. His fingers are too fat. Come on.
Bobby Capucci
This is all.
Commentator/Co-host
These are all solid defense strategies here, folks. I mean, really. He repeatedly denied claims he had sex with one of the women, Virginia Roberts, when she was 17, but was then accused of lying by Ms. Roberts. Oh, and accused of lying by me, by the way.
Bobby Capucci
And.
Commentator/Co-host
Okay, here we go. You folks ready? I have to do it. I just can't help myself.
Bobby Capucci
You know who else thinks that Prince Andrew is lying?
Commentator/Co-host
Oh, here we go. Everybody in Alaska thinks you're a liar. They think you're a liar in New Mexico. They think you're a liar in Arizona. They think you're a liar in New York. They think you're a liar in Delaware, sir. And they think you're a liar in Florida. They think you're a liar in New Mexico's. New Mexico. You get where I'm going with this, right, folks? He's a liar. Nobody believes him. Okay, I don't believe him. I'm sure most of you out there don't believe him. Of all the emails I have received about this case, only one person has sent an email saying that they don't believe Virginia Roberts when it comes to this case. So I don't.
Bobby Capucci
I don't.
Commentator/Co-host
Honestly, I don't know how you don't believe. And it's not her. Let's get something clear. It's not like I just believe whatever Virginia Roberts says. She has evidence backing this up. This stuff is corroborated. There's other people that were there. There's other people that saw her with this man. It is just absolutely, positively so disgusting to me for people to deny that this occurred. It's so silly. The interview also led to renewed calls for Andrew, 59, to be interviewed by the FBI about his friendship with disgraced financier Pedophile Epstein, who was found dead in his prison cell. Earlier this year, Ms. Maitlis praised the Duke for his candor in answering her questions. In an age when many public figures attempted to avoid scrutiny, he had no choice. What else was he. Was he gonna do? He knows what's coming down the pipe. He knows that the party is over for him. All right? And his candor? What do you mean, his candor? He wasn't candid. He was very. He obfuscated and he lied and he threw up smoke screens. If he was being candid, he wouldn't
Bobby Capucci
have lied about that picture.
Commentator/Co-host
He wouldn't have said, oh, I've never met Virginia Roberts. I've never. That wasn't me in the picture. My fingers are too fat. What? I don't. I don't understand Candor. There's no candor there. She said that after the interview, her impression from him was definitely that he had been happy with it. She told the Radio Times she had been shocked by the public reaction to it, saying, I didn't see it coming. Oh, my gosh, really? She must be tone deaf, too. She didn't see it coming.
Bobby Capucci
Anybody.
Commentator/Co-host
I don't understand how, as a journalist, you didn't see that coming. I mean, it took three seconds to hear what he was talking about, and I just put my hand to my head and said, oh, my Lord, what A, is this guy doing to himself? Now, don't get me wrong. I'm glad that he gave the interview,
Bobby Capucci
but if I was his lawyer, there
Commentator/Co-host
would be no way I would let him, A, give an interview or B, talk to anybody without being subpoenaed, because this guy is obviously guilty. It wasn't an attempt to bring down the Royals, just a chance to understand the story.
Bobby Capucci
She doing some face saving here, folks?
Commentator/Co-host
Is she doing a bit of safe face saving so that she has access to the Royals still? Could that possibly be? What's going on? Come on, Ms. Maitless, I was starting to like you. She added, I admire him for his candor and his engagement with the questions. In an age of so much deviation and circumnavigation and quite often a failure to put yourself up for scrutiny. What? Okay, great. Yeah, he sat down with an interview with you. He had no other choice. What was he going to do? The walls are closing in on him. His buddy Ghislaine. And she's missing. She doesn't.
Bobby Capucci
He doesn't.
Commentator/Co-host
No one knows where she is. Everyone's abandoned him. He. It wasn't like Andrew was part of the trafficking ring, folks. He was the dumbass who got caught up in the honey trap. Okay? He got caught up because he's a deviant, not because he's a sex trafficker. But unfortunately, your ignorance that she was trafficked does not absolve you of your crimes. A, she was underage, and B, she was a trafficked girl. And C, you enabled Jeffrey Epstein's behavior for years. Prince. During the interview, Prince Andrew said he did not recall meeting Ms. Roberts and emphatically denied that he had sex with her on the occasion. She said they first met in 2001 when she claimed she was trafficked to Britain by Epstein. Claims. Okay, she's 17. She's on a plane, she's being used for sex. Going across international lines from America to England. Sure sounds like trafficking to me. Okay. And not only does it sound like trafficking, it. It sounds like engaging in a criminal enterprise, AKA rico. And I don't mean RICO suave, folks. I mean the same RICO charges that decimated the Italian community in the 80s. He also questioned Ms. Roberts account of them dancing. Of them dancing together at the London nightclub Tramp when she said he was sweating heavily. The Duke of York said he suffered from a medical condition at the time, which meant he didn't sweat. Okay. He also sought to cast doubt on the authenticity of a photograph that showed him with his arm around Ms. Roberts waist, but conceded that it was difficult to prove if it was a fake. Obviously, it's not a fake. The FBI has the picture. We saw the. The photographer from New Zealand who took the pictures first. We. He came out and we'd read that article.
Bobby Capucci
He.
Commentator/Co-host
He knows it's not a fake. The only one saying it's a fake are Andrew's lick spittles. The only ones who are saying it's fake are Andrew's people. The rest of us know the truth. Andrew admitted he had let the side down again. What is this? What is he, a soccer player? What do you have, a soccer match? He scored an own goal. You let the side down.
Bobby Capucci
What does that even mean?
Commentator/Co-host
You let your family down. You let your whole country down. You let the girls down. Really, though. That's who you really let down, Andrew. You're supposed to be a prince. All right? You're probably. I'm guessing. I'm guessing he's a knight, too. I think he's the Knight of the Garter. That's fitting.
Bobby Capucci
But honestly, you're.
Commentator/Co-host
You're a prince if you're. You're hanging out with a guy like Jeffrey Epstein. You have your own daughters that are young. You don't stand up to this dude and say, screw you, dude. I don't want to be involved in that. What, are you crazy? And if you do have some sexual proclivities, right, There are places where, where
Bobby Capucci
sex work is legal. Go there and get involved. Do what you got to do, buddy. The girls could love to have the money. Come on, Come out to Nevada. Go up to the Chicken Ranch. They'd love to have you. You can go have the Lamar Odom treatment.
Commentator/Co-host
Andrew had admitted he had let the side down when he had failed to cut ties with Epstein immediately after he was jailed in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minority and are registered and registered as a sex offender. Not that he. Not that he let the side down by actually messing with Virginia Roberts. Oh, no, no, no. He didn't let the side down because he had sex with an underage girl when he was a prince and she was trafficked. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. The only way he let the side down was because he was friends with Epstein and he didn't break it off the. It's just absolutely and positively tone deaf the way these people think about life. The prince said he visited him in New York in 2010 after Epstein's release to break off the friendship, but regretted staying at his house while he was there. He told Ms. Maitlis, 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. I'm sorry I had to break out my terrible English accent. I do apologize to all of the listeners from England. I know it's a really horrible, terrible English accent, but I can't help it.
Bobby Capucci
That's what I hear in my voice
Commentator/Co-host
in my head when I. When I'm reading this, I hear his stupid voice in my head and he sounds. It makes me want to punch him right in the face. After the Newsnight interview. After the Newsnight interview was broadcast in November, several of Andrew's business sponsors for his pitch at Palace Initiative announced they would no longer back the project. Many of his loyal patronages are also sought to distance themselves from him, and he eventually announced he was stepping down from all his patronages in his royal duties. Meanwhile, Ms. Roberts, now known by her married name Virginia Giffrey, gave her own interview to Panorama, in which she insisted the Duke was lying when he denied meeting her.
Bobby Capucci
And then if you watch both of
Commentator/Co-host
the interviews, folks, and like we all have, you can see how uncomfortable Andrew was as a. As opposed to the. The anger and the pure fire that Virginia Roberts was spitting and you could tell the pain. Just look at Virginia Roberts's face in any one of these interviews and look at the pain in this poor girl's face. The, the what she's had to go through for standing up to these people is absolutely absurd. It makes me so mad, it makes me so disgusted that the keeper, Alan Dershowitz, the tighty whitey wearing sicko, would have the audacity to talk all sorts of trash about this young lady.
Bobby Capucci
Meanwhile.
Commentator/Co-host
Meanwhile, Ms. Roberts has insisted she the Duke was lying when he denied meeting her. She said he had felt ashamed and dirty after they had sex, adding, I had just been abused by a member of the royal family. I mean, wow, wow, wow, wow. I had just been abused by a member of the royal family. Think about that, folks.
Bobby Capucci
Think about how chilling that is. A lot of you out there have
Commentator/Co-host
daughters, A lot of you have sisters. We all have mothers. We all have, you know, aunts, cousins, whatever it may be. Think about them having the same treatment by Jeffrey Epstein. Think about somebody you care about for a minute. Put yourself in the shoes of these people. There's no redress. There's no recourse. What can they do? They went to the authorities, nothing. They went to the media, nothing. They went to everybody they possibly could go to, nothing. Well, guess what? That party, that's over. Because independent content creators, we're stepping in to fill in the gap. We're stepping in to tell these people we're here. We're gonna report on this story and that's just the end of it. Nobody can stop us. I don't have any sort of editor. I don't have anybody who's telling me what I can or can't report on. And I can. I plan on continuing to be that way, to be very independent from any sort of influence of trying to get me knocked up, of course, because it is way, way too important and we are way too late in the game for anything like that to occur. We are right.
Bobby Capucci
We're moving the ball, folks.
Commentator/Co-host
I've told you, it's like a football game. It's like a tactical game of football. Might only get a couple yards per carry, but guess what? Positive yards get them first downs, play those sticks, keep them out of the end zone. And that's basically what's going on on a daily basis. We're not going to let up the, the whole entire, the whole entire story is just beginning.
Bobby Capucci
I mean, we pull on one thread
Commentator/Co-host
and we end up somewhere completely else. So the battle is on. And I know that you folks are ready. You folks are biting down on your mouthpiece, and I'm doing the same thing. Because I can't. I can't. I can't stand by and just let this occur. I can't stand by while these people are walking. Walking the streets. I cannot. It's just. I can't come to grips with that. That. That's the reality that we live in. I don't. I refuse to believe that as a nation, we're gonna let this occur. And I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to keep this story in the public view. I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to keep this story out there. And I'm gonna keep on talking about it. Even if I'm de. Platformed, even if they take away my show, even if they deplatform me. You can find me on Las Vegas Boulevard with a bullhorn spreading the word because I've had enough. I have just. I'm just fed up. And this is. This is how. This is how I fight back. This is my. My way of telling them to screw off. This is my way of telling the elites that were onto them and that's it. And that's just the end of it. Because what they've done to Virginia Roberts, what they've done to these other girls, what people like Harvey Weinstein and nxivm have done, it is just unconscionable. And what's even worse is the fact that they were protected by certain politicians and they were protected by their friends in the media. Well, that's coming to an end, folks. This is this year, 2020. You know what's going down. Everyone in the back, say it loud with me. We're turning predators into prey in 2020. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that@bobby capuchirotonmail.com that's B O B B Y C A P U C c I@protonmail.com and if you would like.
Host: Bobby Capucci
Date: June 6, 2026
Episode Theme:
This episode delivers an in-depth exploration of the infamous BBC Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew—widely considered a turning point in the Epstein scandal and a catastrophic moment for the British Royal Family. Bobby Capucci weaves behind-the-scenes insights from Newsnight producer Sam McAllister and presenter Emily Maitlis, analyzing the circumstances that led to the interview, Prince Andrew’s disastrous performance, and the fallout that ensued. The discussion emphasizes media complicity, survivor advocacy, and broader issues of accountability among global elites.
Capucci sets out to dissect both the mechanics and impact of Prince Andrew's 2019 Newsnight interview. By pulling from first-hand accounts and media coverage, the episode exposes how the interview came to be, chronicles its jaw-dropping missteps, and discusses its consequences for Andrew, the Royal Family, and the Epstein case as a whole. The core message: this interview shattered the Prince’s credibility and shifted public and legal scrutiny onto figures who had, for years, enjoyed near-total impunity.
Sam McAllister’s Determination: Newsnight producer Sam McAllister spent months pursuing the interview, even after initial approaches centered on benign topics like Prince Andrew’s charity initiatives.
The Palace Dynamic: Negotiations included Andrew, his private secretary Amanda Thirsk, and notably his daughter, Princess Beatrice—whose presence during discussions about sexual abuse allegations struck McAllister (and Capucci) as bizarre and ethically suspect.
"What sort of buffoon brings their daughter to this conversation?... That's just horrible. The idea is to protect your children, to insulate them from your bullshit. That's what a real man does." [13:07]
Initial ‘Red Line’: The palace originally tried to bar Epstein questions, but McAllister refused to accept such a precondition. Once Epstein’s arrest and subsequent death fueled global outrage, Andrew’s silence became untenable, pushing the palace to relent.
Amanda Thirsk’s Role: As Andrew’s chief aide and confidant, she played a crucial part and ultimately served as the “fall person” post-disaster, forced out after approval of the interview.
"Imagine having such an overblown opinion of yourself that you think that because you're a royal, everybody's going to remember you, bro. You're a buffoon." [29:30]
“Where are all the journalists in America like Emily Maitlis who want to sit down with Bill Clinton and get to the truth? So far I haven’t seen any of them.” [46:50]
[05:45] On the Interview's Impact:
"If Prince Andrew could go back in time, I'm pretty sure that he'd go back in time and strike this one from everybody's memory."
[22:00] On Andrew’s Responses:
"Every answer was a masterclass in what not to do if you’re facing a scandal—he literally became the global case study in PR disaster."
[28:30] On Andrew’s Description of Epstein as 'Unbecoming':
"Unbecoming, she interjected, her face contorted in disbelief. He was a sex offender."
[37:25] On Media Accountability:
"If you're going to be a journalist and you're going to be looking for the truth, you can’t be swayed by people who are in a powerful position. Remember, as a journalist, it’s your job to hold these people to account."
[63:44] On Survivor Pain:
"I had just been abused by a member of the royal family. Think about how chilling that is... There's no redress. There's no recourse. What can they do? They went to the authorities — nothing. They went to the media — nothing. Well, guess what? That party, that's over."
Capucci’s monologue is fiercely critical, raw, and often darkly humorous—a signature mix of skepticism, advocacy, and blunt language. He spares no punches for Andrew, the Royal establishment, or legacy media, consistently centering the survivors and the necessity of accountability. The episode alternates between detailed narrative, incredulous commentary, and calls to action for listeners and independent journalists.
This “Mega Edition” is both a post-mortem on Prince Andrew’s spectacularly bad interview and a passionate critique of the institutions and cultural blind spots that allowed Epstein and his accomplices to operate unchecked. Capucci uses the episode as a rallying cry for survivor justice, independent journalism, and a long-overdue reckoning with all those who protected and enabled elite abusers.
Contact:
bobbycapucci@protonmail.com
Twitter: @bobby_capucci
Recommended Viewing:
“We’re turning predators into prey in 2020 [and beyond].” – Bobby Capucci [65:09]