Emily Maitlis feared she would be sacked by the BBC for Prince Andrew's 'car crash' interview

Emily Maitlis has revealed she was terrified of being sacked by the BBC for the famous Prince Andrew interview.

The infamous 2019 interview was widely branded as being a car crash for the Duke of York, who spoke about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The News Agents presenter also said it made it more difficult to get interviews afterwards as it scared people off.

And at the time, she was scared of losing her job if the interview went south.

Emily Maitlis and Prince Andrew following the BBC Newsnight interview in November 2019 (left); and Gillian Anderson as Maitlis and Rufus Sewell as Andrew in Netflix film Scoop (right)

Prince Andrew spoke about his links to Jeffrey Epstein in an interview with Maitlis in 2019

She said: You dont go into an interview with the royal family without thinking you could lose your job.

But you know, thats almost a very real possibility - the stakes are high. 

We knew that if the tone had been wrong, if the facts had been wrong, if the questioning had been wrong - that would have been the end of me and the team at the BBC.

As it turned out, the ramifications were different. But we were highly aware of it.

The interview was recently dramatised in the Netflix film Scoop, which looks at the story behind the journalists Newsnight interview.

But Maitlis, who is played by Gillian Anderson, said she was not involved because I think the last thing they want is me peeking around the edges offering her views.

It was an adaptation of a book by Sam McAlister, the producer who sealed the interview. Meanwhile, Matilis is continuing work on her own version of the story for Amazon called A Very Royal Scandal.

Gillian Anderson (left) stars as Emily Maitlis (right) in the Netflix film Scoop

Rufus Sewell (left) plays Prince Andrew (right) in Scoop which came out on Netflix

McAlister has also spoken out about Scoop, and was asked by Hello! on the red carpet whether she had received contact from Buckingham Palace. Laughing, she replied: Im still waiting on my CBE but Im not sure its going to happen.

However, Maitlis did reveal that Prince Andrew actually wanted to spend even more time talking about sweating and Pizza Express.

Of Prince Andrews request, she said: Once wed finished the interview, I said as a courtesy, Is there anything that didnt get included that you wanted to discuss? and Prince Andrew said, Well actually, there were a couple of things. You didnt include my alibi.

He wanted to talk about the fact that hed been at Pizza Express on the night in question.

Emily Maitlis revealed the awkward request she received from prince Andrew after their notorious Newsnight interview ended

And it was a very complicated moment for us because, on the one hand, I knew that if he included some of the stuff that he wanted to talk about, for example the sweating and the Pizza Express alibi, it was not going to help his case, in fact, it was actually going to make it look worse.

Emily added: I felt kind of a responsibility to not let him walk into that, but on the other hand, I also felt a responsibility to include the things that he had said were important to him to say.

The News Agents presenter went on to reveal how it was more difficult to get interviews afterwards as it scared people off.

Its a curious thing actually, on the one hand, youd think it might make it really easy to get people to do interviews with you because theyve seen your interview and theyve heard of you, she said.

And on the other hand, nobody wants to do an interview with you because theyve seen your interview and theyve heard of you!

So, I think its slightly double-edged. Some people come towards you, and some run a mile.