What did the Queen think of the Prince Andrew interview?

Depending on which headline you believe, the Queen either gave full permission for her son Prince Andrew to speak to the BBC about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein or she definitely did not give her authority for such an interview. Either way, if she watched it on Newsnight last night, she must, like the rest of us, feel pretty horrified by his answers. What we don't know is how much schooling was given to Andrew by lawyers and PR advisers before he agreed to talk to Emily Maitlis, the Newsnight presenter. However, someone who worked closely with the royal family at Buckingham Palace for several years once told me that nothing happened inside the palace unless it had first gone through the rigorous protocol procedure. There is no such thing as individual initiative. Everything has to be pored over by the palace top advisers and, ultimately has to receive the ok from the Queen herself. She is the boss of the firm. She is never left out of decision-making. It would be like the chairman of the board of a major company not being involved in a decision that might affect that firm's future. There is absolutely no way that Prince Andrew decided off his own bat to be interviewed by Emily Maitlis on his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, convicted sex offender, without discussing it with his mother. He just couldn't do it. That's not the way the palace hierarchy and the royal family work. Now I agree times are changing, especially with Prince Harry and Meghan. They seem to be breaking away somewhat from the rules of royal family life. But again that wouldn't have happened unless the Queen had been involved in giving her views and making her wishes known. I cannot imagine that the Queen would have been happy at the thought of Prince Andrew appearing on the TV for a confessional interview but she might have been advised by her senior staff that it could work in his favour. The decision to hold the interview in a room in Buckingham Palace rather than in a BBC studio would surely have been taken by the palace and not by the BBC, as a way of ensuring the interview went ahead on royal family terms. Maitlis admitted in a personal article in The Times today that she had felt very nervous. The palace surroundings exacerbated her nervousness. She looked quite tense while Andrew sat back and looked positively relaxed. But those who advised the Queen and advised Andrew got it wrong. He looked as if he thought he had got away with it - the interview I mean. There were reports that he told family members that he reckoned it had gone pretty well. No one else agrees, and I doubt the Queen does either.