IT WAS one of the most bizarre parts of the Duke of York’s car crash interview with BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis in November 2019.
Questioned about his accuser Virginia Giuffre‘s claims he was “sweating profusely” when they allegedly danced together in Tramp nightclub in London, Prince Andrew famously said he was unable to sweat.
On the night of March 10, 2001, Giuffre, who says she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to have sex with Prince Andrew, claims she danced with the Duke before they went back to Ghislaine’s house.
It was there that the notorious photo of the Queen’s favourite son with his arm around the 17-year-old Virginia was taken, as Ghislaine watched on.
Afterwards, Virginia says, the pair had sex, and Epstein paid her $10,000 (around £8,000).
But when questioned about the claims, Andrew said he was at Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey. He also cast doubt on Virginia’s recollection of the night.
In the interview, Andrew said: “There’s a slight problem with the sweating [claim] because I have a peculiar medical condition which is that I don’t sweat or I didn’t sweat at the time.”
He added: “I didn’t sweat at the time because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenalin in the Falkland’s War when I was shot at.”
Andrew went on to say that this condition has since cleared up. However, there are at least five occasions from around this time where the Duke was either photographed apparently sweating or was recorded as perspiring by witnesses.
Chinawhite nightclub, London, 2000
Pictures from July 2000 show Prince Andrew leaving Chinawhite nightclub in London’s Soho late at night.
He has a blue shirt unbuttoned and appears sweaty and disorientated.
The legendary London nightclub, a favourite haunt of celebrities over the years and his own nephew Prince Harry, played host to the 40-year-old Duke of York.
Tramp, London, 2001
Undoubtedly the most damaging picture for Prince Andrew is the one allegedly taken of him after leaving Tramp nightclub in London with Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Virginia Giuffre.
Giuffre claimed in an interview with the BBC’s Panorama that Andrew was “the most hideous dancer I’ve ever seen in my life”.
She added: “It was horrible and this guy was sweating all over me, his sweat was… raining basically everywhere, I was… grossed out from it, but I knew I had to keep him happy because that’s what Jeffrey and Ghislaine would have expected from me.”
In the notorious photo taken after that night, Andrew appears to be wearing a near-identical blue shirt to the one worn when leaving Chinawhite months earlier.
Andrew has denied ever meeting Giuffre and has maintained his innocence.
Saint Tropez, 2007
In a picture from a party in July 2007, a shiny-faced, wide-eyed and grinning Andrew is seen receiving a hug from American socialite Chris Von Aspen as she tries to lick him.
Other pictures taken on the same night show the prince with his arms around Von Aspen’s waist and neck as she dances in a white mini dress.
Billionaire’s party, Saint Tropez, 2007
Another set of snaps from the same year show the Duke dancing with Canadian socialite Pascal Borubeau at a party thrown by billionaire Tony Murray in the French resort.
He appears sweaty and wild-eyed as he poses with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, who would have been around 18-19 at the time.
A former Saint Tropez partygoer told the Mail Online in 2019: “These were really crazy years for Andrew. He was clearly having a full-blown midlife crisis.
“He would have been 47 or 48 at the time, divorced from Sarah Ferguson, and basking in the attention he got from young women.”
Playing golf in Buckingham Palace
Former Royal protection officer Paul Page claimed he saw the prince sweating while he practised his golf swing in the garden at Buckingham Palace.
Page, who was later convicted for his part in a £3m fraud, also said Andrew made officers collect his golf balls while they were supposed to be guarding him.
However, Andrew’s claims that he couldn’t sweat have been backed up by someone who knew him at the time.
Former US intelligence officer Allan Starkie recalled a night in 1992 when the Duke and Duchess of York visited Annabel’s nightclub in Mayfair, central London, just weeks before they announced their separation.
“It was extremely warm at Annabel’s that night and Andrew was wearing a blue suit of heavy wool,” Starkie recalled last week.
“The evening featured almost constant dancing, and I watched with amazement as he returned from each dance, escorting rather moist partners, yet always bone dry himself.
“It was extraordinary. The rest of us were perspiring madly, but he didn’t seem to have a bead of sweat on him.”
Earlier this month, Giuffre’s lawyers announced they were demanding the prince hand over his medical records to prove that he had a medical condition preventing him from sweating.
His legal team have rejected the request on the grounds it was “harassing and seeks confidential and private information and documents that are irrelevant”.
In 2019, a former aide claimed it was actually hair loss treatment that the Duke was undergoing which prevented him from sweating.
Despite the aide’s claims, Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and Clinical Director at Patient.info, told The Celeb Report Online there were a limited number of medications that could stop sweating.
She said: “There is a long list of drugs that can cause anhidrosis, an inability to sweat. These include treatments used to manage the side effects of medication for severe mental illness, along with treatments for epilepsy, high blood pressure, glaucoma, osteoporosis and mountain sickness.
“But on the whole very few people taking these drugs develop anhidrosis.
“There are only a couple of medications licensed in the UK for managing male pattern hair loss: one is a tablet and one is a topical lotion.
“Neither of them have anhidrosis as a side effect, to my knowledge.”
And Dr Hilary Jones added: “I cannot think of any reason whatsoever why treatment for hair loss, whether it involved medications or transplants, would interfere with the normal ability to sweat.”
