U.S. Rep. James Comer

BBC journalist Emily Maitlis, whose interview ended Prince Andrew's royal career, says that the scandal surrounding late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is only just beginning and that more names will be ruined, Newsweek reports.

In 2019, Maitlis was invited by the prince to speak about his friendship with Epstein and allegations he had sex with a 17-year-old trafficking victim, which he still denies.

At the end of the interview, his reputation was "in tatters," Newsweek says, and the following day he said he asked Queen Elizabeth II if he "may step back from public duties for the foreseeable future."

Andrew is back in the news thanks to a leaked email to Epstein that proved he never did cut off contact with the disgraced financier, telling him "we are in this together" two months after a photo was published in a British tabloid of Andrew and late Epstein victim Virginia Guiffre in New York's Central Park.

"I ceased contact with him after I was aware that he was under investigation and that was later in 2006 and I wasn't in touch with him again until 2010," Andrew told Maitlis, despite that email dated from February 2011.

In an interview with British radio station LBC, Maitlis says more careers are about to be ruined by the Epstein story.

"I mean, the number of people that have ended up lying for Epstein, whose careers have ended up in absolute tatters because of their connection to him. I think we're at the tip of the iceberg, I genuinely do," she said.

Maitlis says the cover-up is crumbling.

"The narrative from Andrew had always been, after I realized who he was, you know, broadly, I ended contact with him," she says. "Now, that doesn't match up because in 2008 [Epstein had] already been a convicted sex offender, he'd served his short prison sentence. And Prince Andrew had told me that he'd broken off contact in 2006, but actually he hadn't."

That photo, she says, was used by Epstein as blackmail, something President Donald Trump's own commerce secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed the late sex trafficker used often, calling Epstein "the greatest blackmailer."

"We still don't know the absolute truth even behind that photo taken in Central Park," Maitlis added. "But much of the reporting has suggested that it was very useful to Epstein because it provided, sort of, kompromat. It links him."