Prince Andrew “laughed” at rape allegations during BBC’s 2019 interview

Prince Andrew was photographed “laughing his head off” while denying allegations of raping an underage girl during an infamous interview in 2019 because he “thought it went very well”.

The unreleased photo of the Duke of York’s interview at Buckingham Palace, captured by a BBC photographer, would further ’embarrass’ the royal family if released, a source told The Sun on Saturday.

Queen Elizabeth II stripped her son of his military affiliation and royal patronage after he defended his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein to Newsnight correspondent Emily Maitlis and indignantly mocked rape allegations.

Andrew, 62, claimed he could not have sexually assaulted 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre in 2001 because he was at a British pizzeria with his daughter Princess Beatrice at the time – and had an illness that prevented him from sweating. Giuffre had claimed he was “sweating profusely.”

“It’s a still of Emily interviewing Andrew. You can see his face and he’s laughing,” the source allegedly said.

“People will feel that it was reckless of him to laugh during such a sensitive interview, but he probably wasn’t aware of the seriousness or consequences of the laugh or what it would look like on camera,” the source continued according to The Sun.

“You have to remember that after the interview he thought it went very well – only to be overwhelmed by a wave of negative reactions afterwards.”

The prince was reportedly urging Mark Harrison’s scathing photo of the interview to be kept private, but the photographer has hinted it could be released in conjunction with an upcoming film about the train wreck interview.

Prince Andrew stepped down from royal duties days after defending his pedophile girlfriend and Epstein’s accused sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell.

He settled with Giuffre in February for an estimated $12 million after she accused him of assaulting her three times, including once at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion.

The disgraced prince admitted no wrongdoing in the agreement and refused to cooperate with US prosecutors. He also said he has no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre and claimed a picture of him holding her waist was edited.

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail while facing child trafficking charges three months before Andrew’s interview. Coroners ruled his death a suicide.