Prince Andrew may this week speak publicly for the first time to rebut claims he had sex with a 17-year-old girl introduced to him by the multi-millionaire convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duke of York is understood to be considering whether to speak on camera about allegations levelled against him earlier this month by Virginia Roberts when he attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.
Buckingham Palace has issued a series of robust denials that the prince had “sexual relations” with Roberts and that “any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors” was “categorically untrue”.
Roberts alleged in legal papers in Florida that she had become Epstein’s “sex slave” and was forced to have sexual relations with Prince Andrew in London, New York and on Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands during an alleged orgy with other underage girls.
The Davos summit attracts heads of state and world business leaders, and the prince is due to attend a reception for his Pitch@Palace initiative, which aims to promote young entrepreneurs. It will be his first public engagement since the scandal broke on 2 January.
The prince and his aides are considering whether to invite TV cameras into the event where he is scheduled to make a speech about British entrepreneurship.
Aides believe allowing in cameras would show he was not being derailed from carrying on business as usual by the scandal. They are also understood to be considering whether he should allude to the denials his office has made in a bid to move on from the Epstein affair.
For more than two weeks, the prince and his advisers have been wrestling with how to handle what they have described as “lurid and deeply personal” allegations. It is understood to be very unlikely that he would directly reference Roberts or use language such as “sexual relations” in any statement. Instead, he is thought to be considering a form of words that would acknowledge the story, underline his position of robust denial and express his desire to move on.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on speculation about what he might or might not say. A spokeswoman said: “The media arrangements for the duke’s visit to Davos have not been determined as yet.”
The former Home Office minister, Norman Baker, last week warned that Prince Andrew’s attendance at Davos could damage British interests even though he is not an official trade envoy, a position he stood down from in 2011.
“Clearly he has been linked with Mr Epstein in an unhelpful way,” the Liberal Democrat MP said. “He is a member of the royal family, he is hosting a reception, and the small print may say he is there unofficially but that is not the way he will be received.”
Sir Digby Jones, former director general of the CBI and trade minister under Gordon Brown’s Labour government, defended the prince’s attendance, saying he was “innocent until proven guilty”.
