A photographer who found himself alone with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has described how the former royal "looked through" him for 40 minutes. Mark Harrison received a mysterious phone call in 2019 asking if he was free for a top-secret job. The next day, after signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), he was in a café opposite Buckingham Palace.
A second call instructed him to enter the palace through a back entrance. Harrison soon discovered the assignment was to photograph the BBC Newsnight interview with then-Prince Andrew, conducted by Emily Maitlis. During the interview, Maitlis questioned Andrew about his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In the aftermath, Andrew stepped back from royal duties, beginning a fall from grace that culminated in his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.
Royal protocol and a 'bizarre' tour
Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He has also successfully challenged Thames Valley Police over search warrants used to raid his residences, with the force accepting the warrants were unlawful.
Speaking to the Fred and Harry Borden channel on YouTube, Harrison described Andrew's behaviour in the hours before the interview. "He greets us all. It's all smiles, all wonderful. And he takes us on a tour down the corridor, and he explains about the tall pillars that are in the marble hall, where they came from, how much they cost," he said.
Harrison called it "a really bizarre moment where I'm walking along, listening to a royal tell me basically how impressive this place is and sort of reminding us all where we are. That's the impression I got was just take note, you're in the proper gaff here."
'Like I am invisible'
"We finish up this walk. We go back in. He sits down in…the chase (producer) told (him) where to sit and everything, and they're micing him up, and he's telling the crew pretty much what to do, which is surreal," Harrison added. "He's saying, 'These are not the mics I would normally wear', and, 'This chair is a bit squeaky, but it's 17th-century; it comes from France', and there's a real sense of, again, it's power."
Harrison said telling experienced BBC staff "about sound" was not something he "would have done" if he had been in Andrew's position. As the team prepared for the interview, Harrison found himself alone in a room with the former prince.
"The crew sort of go and set up another shot and I'm left in this room with Andrew in this huge room on my own. And he has looked through me for the last 40 minutes, I'd say, like I am invisible, like I'm a ghost," he said. Harrison suggested Andrew might have what he described as an "invisibility thing", where "little people are not worth looking at".
Deciding to break the silence, Harrison consulted royal protocol on how to address Andrew before introducing himself as the photographer. He claims the former prince looked "totally shocked" when he approached him. "And he looked like a light bulb had gone off. He looked totally shocked even that somebody was approaching him. And so we shook hands, and he said, 'What are the pictures for?' And I went, 'I have no idea'."
After the encounter, Emily Maitlis arrived to conduct what would become one of the most consequential interviews of Andrew's life.
