During Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s explosive tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this month, many noticed that they were not asked about the controversial Prince Andrew. Now, a royal author is speaking out to reveal why she thinks Oprah didn’t ask about him.

“I supposed it could be said that he wasn’t relevant,” royal author Anna Pasternak told Fox News. “It could also be out of loyalty and respect for his daughter, Princess Eugenie, who is close to both Harry and Meghan. And if that’s the reason, I think that’s rather charming because I think Eugenie has been a very good friend to both of them.”

“It’s believed that [Eugenie] is probably the only member of the royal family who is the closest to them and has kept in touch,” she added. “We don’t know the reason, but one can only suspect that maybe out of respect for her, they didn’t want to go into her father.”

During the interview, Markle, 39, told Oprah that she and Eugenie, 31, knew each other before the former American actress met Harry, 36.

Andrew has been accused of sexual misconduct by female victims of the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and prosecutors have been trying to talk to him for months. Pasternak said that she realizes that some people think Andrew hasn’t faced the same media backlash as Harry and Meghan after the couple spoke out.

“I think [those people] have a very short memory if they think that because Andrew gave his own interview and the backlash against him was intense,” she said. “He’s become a sort of a royal pariah, a non-person.”

Pasternak was referring to disastrous 2019 interview that Andrew gave to BBC Newsnight, in which the fallen royal alleged he had “no recollection” of ever meeting Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claimed she was made to have sex with him underage. He was widely panned for the interview, and announced afterwards that he was stepping back from royal life.

Though Andrew claimed he would “help any appropriate law enforcement agency with their investigations, if required,” New York investigators said he has yet to speak with them about his friendship with Epstein. Andrew’s attorneys fired back by blaming the U.S. Department of Justice, claiming that the prince had offered three times to give information to investigators, though on a condition that his statements be confidential.

The U.S. attorney in Manhattan then responded by saying that Andrew’s lawyers were misleading the public about his willingness to cooperate.