"The Queen, it seems, is on board."

Queen Elizabeth may have approved Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview, according to journalist Emily Maitlis. The Duke of York has received much criticism since his 45 minute interview with Maitlis, where he discussed his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In the interview, which has been described as "car crash" and "excruciating," Prince Andrew states that he could not have had sex with then 17-year-old Virginia Roberts because he had been "to Pizza Express in Woking" on that particular day. The Duke had been named in Roberts' deposition against Epstein, who claimed that she had been sex-trafficked to Prince Andrew during this time. Journalist Maitlis, who spoke to Prince Andrew for Newsnight, said today that it appeared as though The Queen herself was aware of the interview before it went ahead. "We have finished laying out our pitch," she wrote in The Times. "An awkward moment of silence falls. And the duke tells us he must 'seek approval from higher up.'" "It dawns on us then that he means the Queen herself. At 8am the next day we have a message telling us to call his office. The Queen, it seems, is on board. "Is she endorsing her son? The need for this interview? Or am I reading way too much into every step, merely because there are so many of them?" This comes after The Telegraph reported that The Queen was not aware of the interview and only became so after it had already been organised. "The statement Buckingham Palace issued said the Queen was aware of the interview but not that she approved it," a source told the publication. "It does seem as if the Duke of York’s private office is operating in silo, which is really quite dangerous because there is a lack of accountability there. Internally, this is being seen as a f**k up." You can watch Prince Andrew's interview in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKQi3wzNFGQ