An internal inquiry by Pizza Express found no evidence to confirm whether Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor visited its Woking branch on the night he was accused of assaulting Virginia Giuffre, according to a BBC Newsnight report on July 6, 2026.
The restaurant chain investigated the validity of the former prince's alibi following his 2019 interview.
Corporate records from 2001 were unavailable, and the branch manager at the time had left the company.
Police Refuse to Confirm Protection Details
The Metropolitan Police recently refused to confirm or deny if protection officers accompanied him to the restaurant, citing national security.
This drew criticism from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey amid ongoing public protests regarding the handling of the case.
Mountbatten-Windsor had said in the interview, "I'd taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking."
He further detailed the timeline, explaining that family routines were structured around childcare arrangements during that period.
"This has all been worked out by my staff, who've looked at the diary and everything else," he said.
He noted that his former wife was traveling in the United States at the time of the alleged incident, leaving him responsible for their children.
"The duchess [Sarah Ferguson] was away, I think, United States somewhere.
And we had a very simple rule: at that stage, the children had one or other of us for all, most of the, well, as often as we could manage," he said.
He stated that they tried to balance their schedules to ensure a parent was always home. "So if one of us was out, the other one was in.
And then occasionally they would have both of us and on this particular occasion, she was away and I was at home," he said.
The Metropolitan Police maintained their stance on withholding the protection logs to protect individual security protocols.
"Confirming or denying that information is held would reveal whether protection had been afforded to a specific individual other than the King and the prime minister," the Met said in response to a freedom of information request.
Political leaders challenged the police department's justification for withholding the historical logs.
"Of course the police are rightly very careful about giving any information about who they give special protection too," said Sir Ed Davey.
He expressed skepticism regarding the application of national security exemptions for the decades-old logs.
"I completely understand that and it's right.
But too often we see these types of 'neither confirm nor deny' answers where there really isn't a legitimate security reason – and I think that's what's happening here," Davey said.
The politician pushed for greater openness regarding the deployment of protection officers 25 years ago.
"I really can't see how revealing that Andrew had police protection 25 years ago would play into the hands of terrorists as the Met claims," he said.
In a separate public appearance, anti-monarchy group Republic staged a demonstration in Edinburgh during a royal ceremony to demand transparency.
"What did you know about Andrew?" read the placards held by protesters.
The activist organization vowed to maintain public pressure on the institution regarding accountability. "We won't let the royals dodge accountability," Republic said.
Mountbatten-Windsor recently made a brief appearance at the Sandringham Horse Driving Trials to support Duchess Sophie before slipping away from the venue.
