Prince Andrew realised his BBC Newsnight confessions were a mistake.

The Duke of York, who sat in for his bombshell interview with Emily Maitlis in 2019, where he spoke about his association with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was ill- advised.

Documents seen by The Times portray that Andrew’s advisor, Dominic Hampshire, Andrew’s wrote to Mr Yang about Andrew’s former Pitch@Palace business initiative and said: “We have dealt with the aftermath of a hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful television interview, we have wisely navigated our way around former private secretaries and we have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t completely trust.”

In his interview with BBC’s Newsnight, Andrew told Emily Maitlis: “I ceased contact with him (Epstein) after I was aware that he was under investigation and that was later in 2006 and I wasn’t in touch with him again until 2010.” He later said that in December 2010: “I had to show leadership and I had to go and see him and I had to tell him, ‘That’s it’.”