Prince Andrew’s Off-Camera Explanation for His ‘Non-Sweating’ Claim Revealed

Photographer Mark Harrison has recalled an exchange with Prince Andrew during preparations for the Duke of York’s infamous 2019 BBC Newsnight interview. Harrison, who went to Buckingham Palace to take photographs alongside the broadcast, said Andrew gave a more elaborate account of his claimed inability to sweat while the cameras were off. According to Harrison, Andrew connected the condition to his experience training as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot. He said the prince described being taught to resist the instinct to turn away from an incoming missile and instead respond in the opposite way. Andrew reportedly suggested that this training had led to what he called an absence of sweating. Harrison recounted the story in an interview with fellow photographer Harry Borden. He said the exchange took place during a break in filming, when interviewer Emily Maitlis asked Andrew whether he had previously explained the condition on camera. Harrison recalled Andrew answering that he had not. When filming resumed, Andrew did not repeat the helicopter-training explanation, Harrison said. Instead, the prince returned to the account he gave in the broadcast, attributing his claimed inability to sweat to a condition he said had followed an adrenaline overdose during the Falklands War. The televised interview, which aired on November 16, 2019, drew widespread criticism over Andrew’s answers about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and his response to Virginia Giuffre’s account. His explanation about sweating became one of the most widely discussed moments. Harrison’s recollection now adds a behind-the-scenes detail about what Andrew told Maitlis before the cameras were rolling.