Prince Andrew’s alibi falls apart as Beatrice can't recall seeing him at Pizza Express party he says he attended
Prince Andrew's "alibi" for the night he allegedly had sex with Virginia Roberts is reportedly in shreds.
According to The Sun, Princess Beatrice has "absolutely no recollection" of the Pizza Express birthday bash on March 10, 2001, that her father referenced during his "trainwreck" BBC Newsnight interview last year after he became embroiled in the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal. The royal, however, has strongly denied having any form of sexual contact with Roberts.
Meanwhile, the family who hosted the now infamous party reportedly cannot recall what happened and have no pictures from the event, according to the Daily Mail. The British newspaper also claims that housekeepers at his Sunninghill Park residence “can’t remember” his movements at the time. Furthermore, it has now emerged that a royal protection officer who was assigned that weekend has died.
Andrew's diary, according to the paper, shows that he had a manicure booked for the afternoon he says he dropped his daughter at the party. It also claims that Princess Beatrice has "absolutely no recall whatsoever" of the party or her father picking her up as she went to "any number" of Pizza Express parties as a child.
“We had made a deliberate decision from the outset not to take photographs of, or around, Bea as it seemed to be permanently open season among some parents who indulged in this sport," the family told the paper. “The party was almost 20 years ago. We were living in Woking and had two daughters at prep school there. Not only were their birthdays celebrated in Pizza Express but almost every beginning of term, end of term, and half-term. Pizza Express was just the place they liked to go for their treats.”
“Bea was one of our daughter’s friends at school," they added. “There were no special arrangements or formalities regarding her parents, they were frequently around the school and the girls’ social lives. They were informal and unobtrusive.” A spokesman for the duke told the outlet it would "not be appropriate to comment on any of these matters.”
Now 35, Roberts has claimed she had sex with the British royal three times between 1999 and 2002, in London, New York, and on Jeffrey Epstein's private Caribbean island. The former sex slave gave an account of Andrew "pouring with perspiration" when they danced at a London club in 2001. She claimed she met him at the club Tramp before sleeping with him at Ghislaine Maxwell's house when she was aged 17 -- something the prince has vehemently denied.
Andrew told the BBC: “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.”
When asked why he would remember something so specific from 18 years ago, he said: “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’.”