As Prince Harry brings Pizza Express up in legal proceedings against Mirror Group Newspapers, shouldn’t the chain be given a royal warrant given Prince Andrew used it as an alibi also?
Royal warrants normally go to ritzy retailers such as Fortnum & Mason and – until its then owner Mohamed Fayed decided to offend the late Duke of Edinburgh by accusing him of the murder of the late Diana, Princess of Wales – Harrods.
Now, with the Duke of Sussex becoming the first senior royal to be dragged in to give evidence in his case against Mirror Group Newspapers, comes yet another yet also surprising reference to a more ‘mass market’ chain, Pizza Express.
Mentioned in the context of a “private visit” for a lunch at one of the circa 570 restaurants in the chain prior to coronavirus in September 2000 by King Charles III’s second son and a Daily Mirror ‘3am’ column article titled “Harry’s Time At The Bar” by Jessica Callan, Eva Simpson and Polly Graham, the prince – whom answered most questions yesterday before Mr Justice Fancourt with a standard: “You’ll have to ask the journalist” – stated:
“What strikes me about this article in particular is the comment that a week before, I had insisted that one of my PPOs join me and a friend when we had lunch at Pizza Express. I’m unsure of how the Defendant’s journalists could have been aware of any private conversation between me and my PPO, but it is notable because it’s another example of the Defendant seeming to know where I was at a particular point in time.”
“Private visits to restaurants with friends were never publicly announced (in fact, our movements were always intended to be kept secret), nor did this kind of thing fall within any official duties, yet not only did the Defendant seemed to know where I was at all times, they felt able and entitled to report it to the public without any regard for my security or any private life I wished to have, even at the age of just 16.”
More infamously, back when he gave his juggernaut wreck interview to Emily Maitlis for the BBC’s flagship Newsnight show on 16th November 2019, the non-sweating second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II that is Prince Andrew relied on the Italian inspired chain as an alibi against allegations made by Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre concerning sexual shenanigans at the mucky madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s London mews house on 10th March 2001.
Of an incident that supposedly resulted in a payout of circa £12 million from the former husband of Sarah, Duchess of York, Prince Andrew told Maitlis that he couldn’t have been in Belgravia because he had been in Surrey instead. Questioned as to why he so clearly remembered this, he bizarrely justified by stating:
“I was with the children and I’d taken Beatrice to a Pizza Express in Woking for a party at, I suppose, sort of, four or five in the afternoon. And then because the duchess [of York] was away, we have a simple rule in the family that when one is away, the other one is there.”
“Going to Pizza Express in Woking is an unusual thing for me to do; a very unusual thing for me to do. I’ve only ever been to Woking a couple of times, erm, and I remember it weirdly, distinctly. As soon as somebody reminded me of it, I went: ‘Oh yes, I remember that.’”
Subsequently, in February 2022, when the Woking branch of the pizza chain advertised for a new £8.91 per hour cleaner, Twitter users responded with one suggesting: “Luckily for Andrew, Pizza Express has vacancies” and another adding: “Prince Andrew could always apply… After all the publicity he gave them, he should be a cert – maybe even assistant manager material.”
According to a further report, shared in the Express in in February 2023, “Harry and Meghan broke tradition with their wedding food choice” on 19th May 2018. According to the paper’s Dorothy Reddin, “a huge delivery of Pizza Express pizzas [were] delivered to Windsor Castle at 7pm. [They] were believed to have fed Harry and Meghan’s 200 closest friends and family as they danced until the early hours. It’s not clear whether the pizzas were delivered due to a problem with the originally-planned catering or if they were ordered for the staff.”
Today, I ask, given that this chain – founded by the legendary lover of jazz Peter Boizot in 1965 – has provided employment for thousands of Brits and given that senior royals themselves clearly love it so much, isn’t it now time for a royal warrant to be awarded to Pizza Express? After 58-years filling up Brits, surely, after all, the ‘Sloppy Giuseppe’ finally must be deserving of regal recognition.
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
