Tonight is going to be a difficult night for the British royals and Prince Andrew in particular, as BBC One airs its highly anticipated documentary 'The Prince and the Epstein Scandal'. The Panorama documentary includes an interview with Virginia Roberts, the woman who was allegedly forced to have sex with the disgraced prince at the behest of paedophile financier Jeffery Epstein.
'He knows what happened, I know what happened'- Virginia Roberts
The documentary is believed to open a set of fresh troubles for the Duke of York who was sacked from his royal duties after his disastrous interview on BBC. Virginia Roberts had claimed that she was forced by Epstein to have sex with Andrew on three occasions, including the first time when she was just 17 years old. During his interview with BBC, Andrew had denied this claim maintaining that he hadn't met Virginia ever.
In a 20-second clip, aired on BBC Panorama's twitter handle, a visibly emotional Virginia could be heard saying, "It was a really scary time in my life." A voiceover then goes on to describe, 'The BBC speaks to the woman who says she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew, an allegation the Prince categorically denies. "He knows what happened, I know what happened. And there's only one of us telling the truth, Virginia could be heard saying towards the end of the clip.
The 30-minute programme extended to One hour
The 20-second extract of the interview was released after the BBC decided to withdraw the documentary's publicity clip owing to the concern regarding the sensitivity of the programme. However, the programme has been extended to one hour. 'Monday's programme, 'The Prince and the Epstein Scandal' will now be one hour long," tweeted BBC Panorama.
The show will be aired at 9.00 pm (GMT) on BBC One. The documentary can also be watched on BBC iPlayer. The show will be repeated on BBC News on Wednesday and Friday at 3.30 am and BBC Two on Saturday at 2.10 am.
Documentary may reveal Andrew's and Maxwell's relations with Epstein
The interview was recorded three weeks before Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview was aired in November. In the recently revealed court documents, Epstein's right hand and recruiter Ghislaine Maxwell had revealed that she had hired Virginia to give private massages to now dead paedophile. However, the allegations levelled by Virginia against the Duke of York were turned down by a US court in 2015 citing them to be immaterial and impertinent.
