Princess Beatrice was 'a complete curveball' during Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview

She was unexpectedly in the room with him and Emily Maitlis.

When new accusations emerged regarding Prince Andrew's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the royal attempted to clear his name by agreeing to an hour-long interview with Emily Maitlis on BBC's Newsnight, which aired in 2019.

While the interview was widely viewed as a "car crash" for Andrew, who made a number of eyebrow-raising statements about his involvement in Epstein's criminal activity, the crew apparently also ran into difficulties behind the scenes.

One such difficulty was the unexpected presence of Andrew's eldest daughter, Princess Beatrice, in the room during the interview.

A producer behind Newsnight at the time, Sam McAlister, recently told Times Radio about the incident.

"On the face of it, the reason he bought her is that they were going out, they were going to have a cup of tea or a cup of coffee afterwards," Sam said (via Express).

"So I don't think she'd known he was doing this conversation."

Sam added: "When she found out, understandably, someone wanting to protect her father, obviously that's what any daughter would want to do, she asked to come along too.

"That was my impression. She was kind of there apropos of nothing and suddenly she was in that room with us."

The former producer called Beatrice "a complete curveball in my negotiation tactic."

Despite Beatrice's presence, though, interviewer Emily Maitlis was able to well and truly grill Andrew about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

He was understood to have a friendship with the former financier, who was charged with sex trafficking of minors. One of his accusers, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, also made allegations against the Duke of York - which he has always strenuously denied - and started a lawsuit against him.

However, a settlement was reached in February 2022 before the case went to trial. The settlement is not an admission of guilt.

Since the lawsuit was dropped earlier this year, Prince Charles and Prince William are said to have 'blocked' Andrew's return to royal duties.