Prince Andrew denies having sex with underage girl

(Image credit: WPA Pool/Getty Images)

While at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Prince Andrew spoke for the first time about the allegations that he had sex with an underage girl.

Buckingham Palace has issued denials of the claims by a woman identified in court documents as Jane Doe #3, but the prince said he wanted to go on the record with his own response. "I just wish to reiterate and to reaffirm the statements which have already been made on my behalf by Buckingham Palace," he said. "My focus is on my work."

The woman alleges that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew, his friend Jeffrey Epstein, and other men when she was 17, Reuters reports. Her lawsuit, filed in Florida, centers on Epstein, who was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in 2008. The woman's lawyers have sent a letter to Andrew requesting that he be questioned under oath, but reports say that Buckingham Palace has refused to accept the letter.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.