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The Yorks

Prince Andrew: I have no message for Virginia Roberts

The Duke of York says he has no message for the woman who made accusations of sexual impropriety against him in a major TV interview.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, the Prince affirmed that he has no memory of ever meeting Virginia Roberts, and provided an alibi for his location on the night he was alleged to have had sex with her.

Interviewer Emily Maitlis asked the Duke what his message for Ms Roberts would be should she be watching.

The prince said: “The answer is nothing.”

He added that he has thick skin to cope with the accusations she has made against him.

In the interview, the Duke claimed that the allegations made by Virginia Roberts could not possibly be true because he was at a Pizza Express restaurant at the time.

Ms Roberts claimed she met the Duke at London club Tramp on 10th March 2001 before sleeping with him in Belgravia.

When this was put to him, Prince Andrew said: “That couldn’t have happened because the date being suggested — the 10th of March — I was at home with the children.

“I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at about 4 or 5 in the afternoon.

“And then because the Duchess was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away the other is there.”

Ms Maitlis asked the Duke how he could possibly remember something so specific from 18 years ago.

He replied: “Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is a very unusual thing for me to do.

“I’ve never been . . . I’ve only been to Woking a couple of times and I remember it weirdly distinctly. As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went, ‘Oh yes I remember that’.”