Princess Beatrice was the "biggest shock" in a "seismic moment" during royal crunch talks, a TV producer has claimed.
Former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister was the person who persuaded Prince Andrew to take part in his 2019 career-ending TV interview.
Actress Billie Piper depicted McAlister in Netflix's new film, Scoop, which reenacted the Newsnight interview.
According to McAlister, Princess Beatrice was a key figure in persuading Queen Elizabeth's second son to take part in the interview with Emily Maitlis.
Princess Beatrice is the eldest daughter of Prince Andrew
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Scoop shows the princess 35, turning up to a key meeting between McAlister, the Duke of York and Maitlis to discuss the interview.
As a result of the furious reaction to the broadcast in November 2019, Andrew was forced to step back from frontline royal duties.
Princess Beatrice was a major factor in the interview taking place, McAlister claimed.
She told The Daily Mail’s podcast, The Crown: Fact or Fiction: "So when you arrive to find out that he's brought a surprise guest, Princess Beatrice, [that's] a bigger shock.
Charity Wakefield playing Princess Beatrice in ScoopNetflix"And so I really felt that was a massively seismic moment.
"My calculation was, in those three seconds that I had to think about it, she is the game changer, because if we alienate her, then when she's theoretically asked about this option, if she is very negative then that's going to end it.
"She was very respectful, very friendly, a delight to deal with. But I really felt for her in that room. That's a hard proposition.
"I think, you know, this is a human story ultimately."
Princess Beatrice and Prince Andrew met with McAlister and Maitlis
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Sam McAlister booked Prince Andrew for the interview
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McAlister said she found Beatrice to be "very friendly, very respectful, very cool, calm, sophisticated, clearly very clever and collected."
She also explained why Beatrice decided to support her father sitting down for the car crash interview.
McAlister added: "It's a daughter who loves her father and is looking out for him.
"And perhaps if he had mentioned that he was meeting Emily Maitlis and Newsnight, she might have gone, oh, maybe I should come with you. So, you know, obviously, she adores her father and obviously he adores her."
