Panicky BBC journalist Emily Maitliss took refuge in the loo before her Prince Andrew interview

EX-BBC journalist Emily Maitliss was so panicky before her Prince Andrew interview that she hid in the loo for five minutes.

And she revealed she was so worried about wearing the wrong outfit for the TV showdown, she packed a suitcase to take to Buckingham Palace.



Panicky BBC journalist Emily Maitliss took refuge in the loo before her Prince Andrew interview
Emily Maitliss was so panicky before her Prince Andrew interview that she hid in the loo

Her 2019 Newsnight interview with the Duke of York about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came shortly before he was forced to step down as a senior member of the Royal Family.

But Emily, 52, admitted she felt “dreadful” going into the palace that day.

She said: “I hid in the loo. I’m not really joking.

“A good interview is made in the five-minute silence that you spend on your own before it, and I think that is golden time for me.

“I suddenly realised that I just needed five minutes on my own.”

And on her suitcase packed with spare outfits, she told the High Performance podcast: “It was a slight reflection of the state of my mind that I couldn’t quite decide.

“I was like, ‘What if I’ve got the wrong thing? I might spill coffee, I might spill tea, I might be sick’.”