(Bloomberg) -- Prince Andrew's disastrous interview over his ties with late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein has seen organizations cut ties from his initiatives.
Even his own charity is distancing itself.
The British royal was nowhere to be seen at Pitch@Palace's global finale on Wednesday evening. The organization, which supports entrepreneurs and was founded by the prince in 2014, held the competition at London's Corinthia Hotel rather than St James's Palace, where past events have been held.
Last year, the Duke of York was the star. Flanked by soldiers in red tunics, he opened the evening with a 10-minute speech before returning to announce the winners and pose for photographs, according to a recording of the event.
This time it was Amanda Thirsk, the prince's longtime advisor and director at Pitch, who welcomed guests before entrepreneurs from nine countries presented their companies after a series of contests around the world in 2019.
The prince's absence is the latest sign of the damage to his reputation following last month's interview. Barclays Plc, Standard Chartered Plc and KPMG have all severed ties with Pitch.
Read more: Barclays Joins Exodus From Prince's Charity After Epstein Furor
“The circumstances relating to my former association with Jeffrey Epstein has become a major disruption to my family's work and the valuable work going on in the many organisations and charities that I am proud to support,” Prince Andrew said in a Nov. 20 statement. “I continue to unequivocally regret my ill-judged association with Jeffrey Epstein.”
The interview and subsequent statement have done little to dampen speculation about the prince's links to Epstein. Questions also continue to swirl around Ghislaine Maxwell, who introduced him to Epstein.
The Epstein scandal overshadowed Pitch's climatic event where startups Jelly Drops, Soldier.ly and Testcard were named entrepreneurs of the year, according to a statement on the organization's website. Pitch didn't respond to requests for comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Metcalf in London at tmetcalf7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Peter Eichenbaum
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