He knew the liaison didn’t happen, he said, because Roberts has referred to him being “sweaty” — and he once had a medical condition at the time that meant he couldn’t sweat. Also, he remembered taking his daughter Princess Beatrice to a Pizza Express restaurant in suburban Surrey.

When pressed why he recalled this date so clearly, he replied, “because going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing for me to do.”…

On Saturday, reaction to Andrew’s interview came thick and fast. Little of it was in favor of the prince, or of the team who thought it was a good idea for him to go in front of the camera. The Sun, Britain’s top-selling newspaper, rated his attempt with the headline, “Wince Andrew.”

On Twitter, quiz show host Richard Osman mused that “he’s just too thick to even lie properly,” while Craig Oliver, the former communications chief for ex-prime minister David Cameron said, “it will go down as one of the worst PR decisions ever — proof you really can make things a lot worse when you try to explain yourself.”