Striding out of a glitzy private members’ club, Prince Andrew appears to have regained some of his old swagger.
Our exclusive pictures reveal how – despite the imminent release of a Netflix film about his disastrous Newsnight interview – the Duke of York enjoyed lunch with his close friend and ex-business partner, billionaire sports tycoon Johan Eliasch.
Their meeting earlier this month at Harry’s Bar in Mayfair, central London, will fuel speculation that Andrew is determined to end his internal exile and rehabilitate his public image. It also raises the prospect that cash-strapped Andrew could be contemplating a fresh business venture.
Worth an estimated £3.8 billion, Mr Eliasch was a director of the Prince’s flagship business enterprise – the Dragons’ Den-style initiative Pitch@Palace – but resigned in 2021.
The company was thrown into disarray after Prince Andrew’s Newsnight interview in November 2019 about his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince Andrew has rarely been seen outside Windsor Great Park, where he lives in the 30-room mansion Royal Lodge, amid the fallout of the scandal over his friendship with Epstein.
In 2022, Andrew paid a reported £12 million to settle a civil case brought by Virginia Giuffre, 40, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17 after she was trafficked by Epstein. Andrew vehemently rejects her claims.
The Duke is now braced for the release of Netflix’s Scoop on Friday – a dramatisation of the Newsnight interview. In another blow, rival streaming giant Amazon is planning its own three-part series about the interview.
Despite this, Andrew appeared to be a man on a mission as he emerged from Harry’s Bar shortly before 3pm on March 19.
‘Andrew definitely wasn’t hiding,’ said one onlooker.
‘The doorman tipped his hat at him as he came out and Andrew acknowledged him and then strode to his car. He didn’t care who saw him. He seemed upbeat that he was back in central London.’
Andrew and Mr Eliasch, the Swedish head of sports equipment firm Head, have been friends since a charity tennis tournament at Buckingham Palace in 2000.
The following year – while a guest of Mr Eliasch and his then wife Amanda – Andrew was pictured on a yacht off Thailand frolicking with topless women.
Mr Eliasch has remained one of the few loyal friends who have stuck by the Duke.
In August 2019, two weeks after Epstein’s death, Mr Eliasch defended Andrew, saying: ‘Anybody who knows the Duke well knows that he is intensely loyal to his friends and sometimes that loyalty is not in his best interest.’
Later that year it emerged that Andrew and Mr Eliasch had quietly set up a company called Naples Gold together. The firm was dissolved in 2021.
Andrew and Mr Eliasch did not respond to a request to comment.
James Parker is a UK-based entertainment aficionado who delves into the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. From Hollywood to the West End, he offers readers an insider’s perspective on the world of movies, music, and pop culture.
