They don’t get any bigger than when the Duke of York sat down with BBC Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis for an intense, hour-long interview concerning allegations the Prince had sex with a teenager.
As an experienced body language expert and psychologist Darren watched the Prince with laser-like scrutiny as the 59-year-old broke his silence on the topic of the allegations and Jeffrey Epstein.
Darren was asked to analyse the filming session by the Daily Mirror and below is the core of that insight we thought you’d like to see…
They gave it the headline
“The behaviour I observed during the documentary is consistent with someone being evasive and potentially deceptive,” Darren told MirrorOnline.
“I am not convinced the account was consistent or congruent with the true emotion of the Prince.”
During the interview, Ms Maitlis raised allegations made by Virginia Giuffre that the Duke of York had sex with her when she was seventeen.
She also asked the Prince whether he thought the alleged victim was lying and how he came to be photographed with the then-teenager.
Mr Stanton suggested the Duke’s reaction during such intense periods of questioning were not consistent with somebody telling the whole truth.
“I noted Prince Andrew at times appeared to feign or overcompensate some expression of surprise,” the psychologist said.
“Either he was already aware of the information and tried to again distance himself from already knowing it, or he was trying to convey total surprise.
“Either way, it didn’t appear to be genuine.”
A key point of the interview focused on photographs taken of Ms Giuffre and Prince Andrew together. Darren noted that the Prince refused to categorically deny meeting the then teenager, instead using ‘evasive, non-committal language’.
The body language expert also argued that the way the royal was sitting was unnatural and appeared to have been considered prior to the interview.
“He has very stoic body language,” said Darren. “I believe he has been heavily coached.”
Darren suggested that at numerous points throughout the interview Prince Andrew ‘overcompensated’ in terms of the intensity and duration of his eye contact.
That, along with periods of rapid blinking, is an indicator of dishonesty, he said.
Darren has provided detailed body language analysis for just shy of a decade, having formerly worked as a police officer.
“The Prince Andrew interview is very interesting,” he told the Mirror. “Because there are a number of concerning behaviours.
“As the interview commences, the prince is sat still in the same position pretty much for the duration of the interview.
“As he was questioned he begins to display some interesting gestures which are the body’s unconscious gestures – in psychological terms, we call this leakage.”
Darren on to compare one part of the interview to former US president Bill Clinton’s famous ‘non-denial denial’ when he was grilled over the Monica Lewinsky affair.
“When he is asked about his time at Epstein’s house and the photographs, he replied: ‘I have no recollection or I’ve been trying to remember.’ This is not a straight-out denial.
“If someone was confidence they had not been present in a location or behaviour, the response would be indigent and categorical, the use of this kind of language is reminiscent of President Clinton saying ‘I did not have relations with that woman’.
“There are lots of uses of that we call distancing language… to create a distance between themselves and a person or situation.
“When asked if he would give a legal deposition he begins to move back to the fallback position of ‘it’s up to my legal team’.
“Someone who was keen to help and had no knowledge of anything would simply answer ‘yes, I’ll do anything I can’. Not begin to waffle and talk about legal advisors.”
Known as The TV Human Lie Detector, Darren has previously provided analysis of other members of the royal family, including Meghan Markle described as a “very comfortable woman” who regularly adopts “power poses”.
To find out more about Darren and see his showreels go to his full bio page HERE