Emily Maitlis on her famous Royal interview, leaving the BBC and her very tolerant husband

Glacially cool and collected is how Emily Maitlis appeared when she quizzed Prince Andrew in the famous BBC Newsnight interview that led to his downfall.

And yet, in an exclusive interview in Good Housekeeping's November issue, the journalist revealed the nerves she was hiding beneath her calm exterior.

"I remember shaking [the Prince's] hand, and then I excused myself and fled to the toilet. I locked the door and slumped in the corner of this wonderful, very chintzy, very ornate loo," she says.

"I was holding the handbasin at one point and just saying to myself: 'Right, what is this interview about? Find the focus, find the point of the interview.' I was sort of lecturing myself: ‘Don't interrupt, don't be rude, don't forget to be courteous in your address - but also don't pull your punches in the questions.'"

The interview, which was broadcast in November 2019, has now been brought to life in an Amazon Prime Video drama, A Very Royal Scandal, with Emily serving as executive producer. Starring Ruth Wilson as Emily and Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew, the three-part series charts the events surrounding the interview, including its aftermath.

While the interview ruined the Prince, it gave Emily a huge profile and won her and Newsnight an array of awards. But, as Emily revealed to GH, she faced backlash, too.

"There were some people saying to me: 'What have you done to The Royal Family?' Stuff that was way too big and put far too much responsibility on our team’s shoulders," she says.

"But there’s something very disturbing about seeing the effects play out in real time, because you do feel a sense of responsibility. The thing I keep coming back to is, ‘I’m a journalist. I just ask the questions.'"

In 2022, three years on from her interview with the Prince and after more than 20 years at the BBC, Emily made the decision to leave - and she made it clear that she has no regrets.

"I don't really believe in a job for life. I’ll always remain incredibly grateful for what I got from the BBC. I just adored it," she says.

"So it was quite a wrench, actually, to leave the team. But I think there's something that happens when you reach your 50s. You think, 'It's now or never. I can carry on doing the same thing until somebody asks me to go, or I can go now - what's to stop me?'"

Emily, who now co-hosts The News Agents podcast, with fellow journalists Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall, explained that the pace of her life has changed for the better.

"When my kids were little, I was getting up at 6.30am to do the school run. That was why it was the caffeine and vodka years of my life," she says.

"It was really tough. Now my kids are older, if I want to go to bed at 10pm, I can. I look at my face and go, ‘Oh, I can see my eyes again now.’ I think my husband is incredibly tolerant and brilliant. Quite often, it was him doing pick-ups, and him going to see the school plays and the matches and all the rest of it. And I think my kids are pretty tolerant as well."

Her interest in news, she revealed, has rubbed off on her sons, who enjoy arguing 'quite strongly about all the different perspectives'. So, what does Emily wish she'd known when she was younger?

"The advice I give to all young women is: don’t think that just because you’re good at your job and work really hard, it will be recognised," she says.

"One of my best friends helped me see that sometimes you just have to walk into your boss’s office and say, ‘I would like to do this’ or, ‘Can I have this?’ Women always think they’re being pushy, probably because they’re told they’re pushy, and actually sometimes you just need to push a bit harder."

Read the full interview in Good Housekeeping’s November issue on sale from 26th September. All three episodes of A Very Royal Scandal are available exclusively on Prime Video.