TripAdvisor suspends reviews for Pizza Express in Woking after Prince Andrew discussed it in BBC interview sparking flood of spoof comments
- Prince Andrew was asked if he’d slept with trafficking victim Virginia Roberts
- He said he was at the restaurant on one of the nights she said they had sex
- The Woking eatery was bombarded with fake reviews satirising Duke’s claim
TripAdvisor has suspended reviews for the Pizza Express in Woking Prince Andrew discussed during his interview about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Reviews of the restaurant following the interview appear to have been deleted and the most recent is dated one week ago.
A message at the top of the page reads: ‘Due to a recent event that has attracted media attention and has caused an influx of review submissions that do not describe a first-hand experience, we have temporarily suspended publishing new reviews for this listing.
The Duke of York said that he could not have had sex with Virginia Roberts – who claims she slept with Andrew in 2001 – because he was out with his daughters at a pizzeria
Andrew insisted ‘it didn’t happen’, claiming that he does not drink, he does not think he had ever bought a drink in Tramps, and he could not have danced with the then teenager at Tramp because on that day – March 10 – he had taken his daughter Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking (pictured) for a party
Pizza Express Tweeted: ‘9:00 pm – Switch off computer. 10:00 pm – 120 messages on work WhatsApp group telling you to ”check Twitter now” ‘
‘If you’ve had a firsthand experience at this property, please check back soon – we’re looking forward to receiving your review!’
A TripAdvisor spokeswoman said: ‘The recent media attention caused a spike of spoof review submissions that did not meet our guidelines (our guidelines state that a review must describe a first-hand experience) and we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend hosting new reviews on the restaurant’s TripAdvisor listing page.’
Speaking to BBC’s Newsnight programme, Andrew denied he slept with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, on three separate occasions, twice while she was underage, saying one encounter in 2001 did not happen as he spent the day with his daughter Princess Beatrice, taking her to Pizza Express in Woking for a party.
He said: ‘I was with the children and I’d taken [daughter Princess] Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at, I suppose, sort of 4pm or 5pm in the afternoon.’
A series of seemingly mocking fake reviews have now been left for the restaurant, poking fun at the Duke for his performance during the interview
When asked why he would remember a meal at Pizza Express 18 years later, he said: ‘Because going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do, a very unusual thing for me to do.’
Within minutes of his explanation, TripAdvisor and Google were flooded with fake reviews of the Woking restaurant as viewers satirised the duke’s comments.
Prince Andrew has always furiously rejected the allegation by Ms Roberts that they ever had sex, which she claims happened in 2001
One reviewer wrote: ‘Love this place. I had a cracking pizza here in 2001. I remember it was 2001 because it was very strange the guy next to me had an American Hot pizza with extra chillies… not a drop of sweat came off him. Very odd.’
The sweating reference was a nod to Andrew saying in his BBC interview that a claim he was perspiring heavily at a London nightclub was wrong as he had a medical condition at the time which meant he did not sweat.