Prince Andrew’s senior aide admitted to an alleged Chinese spy that the Duke of York’s 2019 Newsnight interview was a disaster, court documents have revealed.
Files reveal how Andrew’s aide, Dominic Hampshire, thanked Yang Tengbo, the alleged spy, for standing by the Duke of York in the months after the car crash interview, where he discussed his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Hampshire told the Chinese businessman that the Newsnight appearance had been “hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful”.
In December 2024, a court rejected Yang’s appeal against being banned from the UK.
This was after it was revealed he could be secretly working for the Chinese state.
Yang has denied all wrongdoing and allegations of espionage.
In a rare statement, Prince Andrew also said that he “ceased all contact” with Yang following the Government’s advice.
The Duke of York was forced to step down from royal duties after the interview.
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During the interview, Emily Maitlis questioned the duke about claims by Virginia Giuffre that she was coerced into having sex with him when she was 17.
Prince Andrew and Giuffre settled their civil sex assault case out of court in February 2022. The settlement did not accept liability, and the Duke of York has never admitted guilt.
Andrew has refused to discuss his Newsnight interview in the years since, which was broadcast in November 2019.
However, documents released on Friday from the immigration case of the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo show that Prince Andrew’s aides acknowledged that the interview was a disaster.
In a letter dated March 2020, Hampshire wrote: “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.”
Andrew gave the former BBC journalist a tour of Buckingham Palace following their interview, unaware at the time of the imminent backlash his answers to Maitlis’s grilling would trigger
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Hampshire told Yang that they had developed an “unusual bond of friendship and trust, support and loyalty”.
He added: “I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit. With my principal and indeed his family. You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship.
“Without overstatement … Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”
