Prince Andrew traditionally hosts a reception for British business leaders, media, academicians and politicians at the yearly World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. However, for 2015, there were speculations he would skip the event because of the controversy generated by recent "sex slave" allegations against him.

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An American woman, Virginia Roberts, said she had sex with the prince four times when she was 17 as part of her duties as a "sex slave" to billionaire to Jeffrey Epstein - the prince's close friend. 

The royal, however, showed up on Thursday and used the event to answer for the first time in public the accusations hurled by Roberts even if Buckingham Palace had twice denied that he had sex with an underage girl.

"Firstly I think I must, and want for the record, to refer to the events that have taken place in the last few weeks, and I just wish to reiterate and to reaffirm the statements which have already been made on my behalf by Buckingham Palace," The Guardian quotes the Duke of York.

A day before his Davos appearance, the lawyer of Roberts sent a letter to Prince Andrew with a request for him to participate in a two-hour interview. The Week reports that the palace refused to accept the letter.

In her court submissions, Roberts, now 31, said Epstein paid her US$15,000 to be silent about having sex with Prince Andrew, whom she called "Andy" and was aware he was a member of the royal family.

She said that of the four times she had sex with the prince, one was an orgy with him, Epstein and eight more girls who were all looked below 18.

Tagsprince andrew, sex slave, Davos 2015, Virginia Roberts, Jeffrey Epstein, Duke of York