Prime Video's A Very Royal Scandal and Netflix's Scoop both look at what went into landing Prince Andrew’s now infamous interview with Emily Maitlis on Newsnight, with the adaptations revealing plenty of behind-the-scenes information that people might not have known before.
One such detail is introducing the Prince’s private secretary and top aide Amanda Thirsk, who is portrayed as an integral person from the royal’s team who approves of the Newsnight interview and is supportive for it to go ahead - so what happened to Amanda following the interview’s fall out, and where is she now?
In the adaptations, Amanda is enthusiastic about the interview as she believes that it would allow Prince Andrew to connect to the British public on a personal level, and this would allow them to see his personality shine through and ultimately warm to him.
The interview, of course, ended up being a PR disaster for the Duke of York, who was widely criticised for his demeanour and lack of apology for his connections to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As MP Hannah Bardell put it at the time: “Prince Andrew literally has no remorse or regard for the women abused and clearly does not see the problem with being pals with Epstein… The systematic abuse of power is unbelievable.”
© Yui Mok - PA ImagesThe interview also included several tidbits that went viral, including Andrew claiming that accuser Virginia Giuffre must have been mistaken about dancing with him and describing him as sweating profusely due to his inability to sweat and how he wasn’t present at a party as he recalled being at a Pizza Express in Woking while taking his daughter to a birthday party.
© Max Mumby/IndigoWhere is Amanda now?
Amanda, 58, is a mother-of-three who joined the royal household in 2004, becoming Andrew’s private secretary in 2012. According to ITV at the time, the movie was accurate in that Amanda hoped that the interview would serve as “a clear and unambiguous denial from the duke that he'd known anything about Jeffrey Epstein's activities,” however, the interview led to the Prince stepping down from royal duties in 2020.
After moving his office from the Palace, Amanda lost her role as his private secretary. Speaking about the situation in her tell-all book, Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC's Most Shocking Interviews, Sam wrote: “As for Amanda Thirsk, after some prevarication, she lost her job. I really felt for her. In all of our dealings, she had been the epitome of professional.”
© Christopher RaphaelShe also lost her role as the director of Andrew’s venture Pitch@Palace after the venture’s corporate partner, including Barclays, pulled out of the charity. It was reported that Amanda received a five-figure settlement with Buckingham Palace following her termination. According to Sky News, Amanda has landed on her feet in a senior business development role at JD.com, and as of February 2024 was playing a key role in the company doing a takeover bid for the electrical goods chain Curry’s.
