Food chain Pizza Express has revealed findings of an internal enquiry into claims made by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor during his controversial Newsnight interview in 2019.
To recap, Andrew alleged in the interview that he had dined at Pizza Express in Woking with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, on one of the dates Virginia Giuffre claimed she had been forced to have sex with him. Giuffre, who was one of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's victims, said she was forced to have sex with the former Prince Andrew three times, including when she was aged 17.
One of those alleged occasions was March 10, 2001. Giuffre – who sadly took her own life last year – said she had dined with the then-Prince and then went to a nightclub with him. Later that night, she claimed to have had sex with him at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Meanwhile, Andrew said in his Newsnight interview that he had taken his daughter to Pizza Express at about 4 or 5 pm that day and then spent the evening at home. He also claimed his team had cross-checked this with his diary at the time.
Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing in relation to the Epstein files and Guiffre's accusations. Nonetheless, Newsnight has learnt Pizza Express ran an internal investigation following his interview with Emily Maitlis. This is because senior management at the food chain believed it to be a matter of public interest.
Pizza Express' enquiry involved looking for records from the time period (although none could be found) as well as attempting to make contact with former staff members. However, the manager of the Woking branch could not be spoken to, as they have since left the business.
Ultimately, the internal enquiry found no evidence to suggest Andrew had or hadn't visited the Pizza Express branch on the night in question. On top of that, Newsnight has done further research in the hope of uncovering potential witness accounts from customers, but has been unable to find any evidence of him being there.
