Princess Eugenie portrayed as calling Virginia Giuffre photo with Prince Andrew 'fake'

The first episode of the drama showed the lead-up to Prince Andrew's career-ending 2019 Newsnight interview, where he famously discussed his connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

Prior to the interview, the Duke of York was still a working royal and working heavily on his initiative Pitch@Palace,a platform to amplify and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs.

The first episode of A Very Royal Scandal showed Prince Andrew at a Pitch@Palace event with Beatrice and Eugenie.

Speaking to her younger sister, Beatrice said: "You know, the papers are having another go at Daddy about that picture in The Mail?"

Eugenie replied: "Oh my God. That again? It's a fake.

"Anyway, they're always having a pop at him."

The picture which the princesses were referring to was a photograph from March 2001, which showed Andrew and Virginia Giuffre together with his arm around her waist.

It was alleged to have been taken by Jeffrey Epstein, with his former girlfriend and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell can be seen in the background.

Giuffre had accused Andrew in a civil case of "sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress".

Prince Andrew stressed in his Newsnight interview that he had no recollection of ever meeting Giuffre.

Giuffre and Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement in February 2022, and the case was dismissed by the parties' stipulation in March 2022 without going to trial.

The duke has always denied any wrongdoing.

In A Very Royal Scandal, Eugenie and Beatrice were seen joking about their father's nickname, "Randy Andy."

Beatrice said: "I just don't like thinking of him that way."

Eugenie responded: "Oh, it's just a stupid nickname," to which Beatrice said: "I know. It's so cringe."

Princess Eugenie later said: "Remember him telling us how girls used to scream his name in the streets when he came back from The Falklands," before the two sisters burst out laughing.