Pizza Express investigated the Pizza Express Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor inquiry after the former prince said he had been at its Woking restaurant on 10 March 2001. The company’s internal review found no evidence that he had, or had not, been there, adding a corporate record to a claim that sat at the center of the 2019 Newsnight interview.
In that interview, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor said, "I'd taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking," and described it as "4pm or 5pm in the afternoon". He also said, "This has all been worked out by my staff, who've looked at the diary and everything else."
Newsnight interview
Newsnight learned that Pizza Express’s senior management team looked into the plausibility of the claim in 2019 because it believed the matter was of public interest. The broad outline of the inquiry matches the public dispute around 10 March 2001, when Andrew Mountbatten Windsor said he was at Pizza Express in Woking and Virginia Giuffre said she was elsewhere with him that day.
The 2019 interview was widely noted because some newspapers labeled the Pizza Express reference an alibi. Newsnight said its research found no evidence that he was at the branch in Woking, but also no evidence that he was not there. That leaves the company’s internal review in the same narrow lane: it did not settle the claim, and it did not produce a record placing him inside the restaurant.
10 March 2001
The date at issue is specific. Virginia Giuffre alleged that she was forced to have sex with Andrew Mountbatten Windsor three times, and one alleged encounter was said to have taken place on 10 March 2001. She said that day included dinner with him, dancing at a nightclub, and sex at the house of Ghislaine Maxwell in Belgravia, central London.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s account was different. He said he had taken Princess Beatrice to a party at Pizza Express in Woking and then spent the night at home, adding, "The duchess [Sarah Ferguson] was away, I think, United States somewhere." He also said, "So if one of us was out, the other one was in."
Epstein files
Newsnight revisited the 2019 interview in light of the Epstein files and Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s arrest in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office by Thames Valley Police. He was subsequently released under investigation. The renewed look back brought Pizza Express’s internal review into the story, because it shows the company itself tried to test the claim’s plausibility rather than leaving it entirely to the public argument.
The practical takeaway for readers is straightforward: the inquiry did not resolve where Andrew Mountbatten Windsor was on 10 March 2001, and the available record still stops at the same disputed point. The remaining question is the same one that drove the interview in the first place — whether he actually visited the Pizza Express branch in Woking that afternoon.
