LONDON - Prince Andrew's effort to put the Jeffrey Epstein scandal behind him may have instead done him irreparable harm.
While aides are trying to put the best face on his widely criticized interview with the BBC, royal watchers are asking whether he can survive the public relations disaster and remain a working member of the royal family.
The question facing Queen Elizabeth II and her advisers is how to protect the historic institution of the monarchy from the taint of a 21st-century sex-and-trafficking scandal and the repeated missteps of a prince who has been a magnet for bad publicity as he struggles to find a national role for himself.
"Prince Andrew, I think, really has to stay out of the limelight for the moment because there really, I think, is no coming back from the damage that was done at least, not in the near future," Kate Williams, a royal historian and professor at Reading University, told ITV News.
Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, tried to end years of speculation about his role in the Epstein scandal by granting a no-holds barred interview to Emily Maitlis, the respected presenter of the BBC's Newsnight program. But the strategy backfired when the prince failed to show empathy for the young women who were exploited by Epstein even as he defended his friendship with the American financier who was a convicted sex offender.
FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 10, 2018 file photo, Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York attends the opening ceremony of the conference entitled Epitomernok 200 (Architect 200) at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) headquarters in Budapest, Hungary. Prince Andrew's effort to put the Jeffrey Epstein scandal behind him may have instead done him irreparable harm. While aides are trying to put the best face on his widely criticized interview with the BBC, royal watchers are asking whether he can survive the public relations disaster and remain a working member of the royal family. (Tamas Kovacs/MTI via AP, file)During the interview broadcast Saturday night, the 55-year-old prince appeared awkward and overly legalistic.
While Andrew said he regretted staying at Epstein's Manhattan home in 2010, after Epstein had served a prison sentence for a sex crimes conviction, Andrew defended his previous friendship with the billionaire investor because of the contacts it provided when he was preparing for a role as Britain's special trade representative.
The prince denied sleeping with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who said she was trafficked by Epstein and had sex with Andrew on three occasions, including twice when she was 17.
Epstein died Aug. 10 in a New York prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death has been ruled a suicide by the city's medical examiner.