Pizza Express held inquiry into Andrew's Woking claim

Pizza Express held an internal inquiry into whether Andrew Mountbatten Windsor had visited its restaurant in Woking, BBC Newsnight has learned.

The former prince claimed in his infamous 2019 Newsnight interview that he had been at the branch in Surrey on the day he was alleged to have slept with Virginia Giuffre, one of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's victims.

BBC Newsnight has now discovered the pizza chain investigated the claim and found no evidence that he had, or had not, been there. Our research has also found no record of anyone seeing him there on the night in 2001.

Mountbatten-Windsor did not respond to a request for comment but he has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

Newsnight has revisited the 2019 interview in light of the Epstein files, and Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office by Thames Valley Police. He was subsequently released under investigation.

Giuffre alleged she was forced to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor three times, including when she was aged 17.

One of these was alleged to have taken place on 10 March 2001, when Giuffre said she had dined with him, danced with him at a nightclub and gone on to have sex with him at the house of Ghislaine Maxwell, a friend of the then-prince, in Belgravia, central London.

In his Newsnight interview, Mountbatten-Windsor said he had instead taken his daughter Princess Beatrice to a party at a Pizza Express in Woking at "4pm or 5pm in the afternoon" on that day before spending the night at home.

The vast majority of the interview was broadcast, but a small amount of material was not included because of time constraints.

This included Mountbatten-Windsor talking in more detail about Pizza Express, including a claim that his staff had looked at a diary to find out more information.

"I'd taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking," he said in the interview.

"This has all been worked out by my staff, who've looked at the diary and everything else.

"The duchess [Sarah Ferguson] was away, I think, United States somewhere. And we had a very simple rule: at that stage, the children had one or other of us for all, most of the, well, as often as we could manage.

"So if one of us was out, the other one was in. And then occasionally they would have both of us and on this particular occasion, she was away and I was at home."

Mountbatten-Windsor's mention of Pizza Express in the interview made headlines worldwide in 2019, with some newspapers labelling it an "alibi".

Newsnight has now been told that in 2019, the senior management team of Pizza Express looked into the plausibility of Mountbatten-Windsor's claim because they believed it was a matter of public interest.

Bosses held an internal inquiry that involved looking for records from that time period, none of which could be found, and trying to talk to past members of staff and local management.

The manager of the Woking branch in 2001 had since left the business so could not be spoken to, it is understood.

Following its internal inquiry, the chain concluded it had found no evidence to suggest Mountbatten-Windsor had visited and was telling the truth, and nothing to suggest he was not.

Newsnight has made extensive inquiries to see if there is any record of a customer or staff member having seen him at the Pizza Express restaurant, but has found no evidence of him being there.

One of the routes we tried was submitting a Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police, asking if any royal protection officers accompanied the former prince to the Woking branch 25 years ago.

In response, the force said it could "neither confirm nor deny" whether it holds this information, citing "national security" among other reasons.

"Confirming or denying that information is held would reveal whether protection had been afforded to a specific individual other than the King and the prime minister," the Met said in reply to us.

This is despite Scotland Yard previously referring to Mountbatten-Windsor's close protection officers, including in a press statement issued in February.

The Met's response has drawn criticism from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.

"Of course the police are rightly very careful about giving any information about who they give special protection too," he told the BBC.

"I completely understand that and it's right. But too often we see these types of 'neither confirm nor deny' answers where there really isn't a legitimate security reason – and I think that's what's happening here."

He called for an "exception" to be made by the force to reveal the information.

"I really can't see how revealing that Andrew had police protection 25 years ago would play into the hands of terrorists as the Met claims," he added.

Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025 aged 41.

Mountbatten-Windsor's military titles and royal patronages were removed by the late Queen in 2022 and he was stripped of his "prince" title last year. He also left his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge, amid pressure on the Royal Family over his links to paedophile financier Epstein.

He has consistently and strenuously denied any wrongdoing.