Ahead of its newly announced release date on September 19, Amazon Prime has revealed a first look at Michael Sheen portraying Prince Andrew in its upcoming series A Very Royal Scandal.
The series delves into the Duke of York’s notorious Newsnight interview from November 2019.
A Very Royal Scandal centers on the real-life interview in which Prince Andrew addressed the serious allegations linking him to Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Guiffre.
The show “follows the actions of Maitlis and Prince Andrew leading up to the interview, the pivotal event itself, and the lingering questions that forever altered their lives,” according to its synopsis.
Prince Andrew faced widespread criticism following the interview for defending his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and failing to acknowledge Epstein’s victims.
A Very Royal Scandal is the second dramatization of Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview to air in 2024; earlier in April, Netflix released its own version titled Scoop, starring Rufus Sewell as Prince Andrew and Gillian Anderson as Maitlis.
Emily Maitlis serves as an executive producer on A Very Royal Scandal, and the series is reportedly “told more from her perspective,” according to Variety.
This series is part of an anthology of limited series that includes 2018’s A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant, and 2021’s A Very British Scandal, which focused on the notorious divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, played by Paul Bettany and Claire Foy.
In the November 2019 Newsnight interview, Prince Andrew publicly addressed his relationship with Epstein for the first time and denied allegations that he had sex with Virginia Roberts (now Guiffre) when she was 17.
He claimed to have “no recollection of ever meeting” Guiffre and dismissed the authenticity of a photo showing him with his arm around Guiffre’s waist, stating, “I have absolutely no memory of that photograph ever being taken.”
Shortly after the interview aired, Prince Andrew announced that he would step back from public duties.
In January 2022, Queen Elizabeth II stripped him of his military titles and patronages amid Guiffre’s civil sexual assault lawsuit, which has since been settled. Prince Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
