Journalist Emily Maitlis has said she “fled to the toilet” before her interview with the Duke of York to tell herself “don’t pull your punches”.
The 54-year-old former BBC reporter said it had been “the stuff of dreams” to be played by Gillian Anderson and Ruth Wilson in dramatisations of the interview, in Netflix film Scoop and BBC drama series A Very Royal Scandal respectively.
She told Good Housekeeping that despite being proud of her work, there was “something very disturbing” about seeing the impact of the interview play out.
Maitlis said: “I remember shaking [Andrew’s] hand, and then I excused myself and fled to the toilet.
“I was holding the handbasin at one point and just saying to myself, ‘right, what is this interview about? Find the focus, find the point of the interview’.
“I was sort of lecturing myself: ‘don’t interrupt, don’t be rude, don’t forget to be courteous in your address – but also don’t pull your punches in the questions’.”
The interview saw Maitlis quiz Andrew on his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and saw him deny having sex with then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, saying he was in Pizza Express in Woking on the day it was alleged to have happened.
Following the interview, the duke paid a financial settlement to Giuffre, formally ending a US civil case brought against him. In the settlement he accepted no liability and he has always rejected claims of wrongdoing.
Canadian-born British journalist Maitlis went on to say that her younger self “wouldn’t believe” that parts of her life would end up on TV dramas.
She added: “I just thought it was a hoot. I couldn’t believe it.
“It’s the stuff of dreams, isn’t it, to be portrayed by Gillian Anderson and Ruth Wilson? If I had to describe that to a younger version of myself, I just wouldn’t believe it.”
The journalist said: “There were some people saying to me, ‘what have you done to the royal family?’.
“Stuff that was way too big and put far too much responsibility on our team’s shoulders.
“But there’s something very disturbing about seeing the effects play out in real time, because you do feel a sense of responsibility.
“The thing I keep coming back to is, I’m a journalist, I just ask the questions.”
Maitlis also spoke about her decision to leave the BBC in 2022, saying she was “grateful” to the corporation but had thought it was “now or never” when she entered her 50s, so decided to leave.
Her post-BBC work has seen her appear on Channel 4’s election night coverage, present a daily news podcast called The News Agents and work as an executive producer on A Very Royal Scandal.
The full interview can be read in the November 2024 issue of Good Housekeeping, which is now on sale.
