Lawyers for Prince Andrew, the son of Britain's Queen, are seeking to question a psychiatrist who previously treated the woman who accused him of sexual assault, claiming she may be "suffering from false memories".
Court documents show lawyers requesting that Robert, the husband of Virginia Joffrey who indicted the Duke of York, be questioned, as well as psychiatrist Judith Lightfoot under oath.
On the other hand, Joffrey's legal team is seeking to call the former aide to the emir to testify.
Prince Andrew has repeatedly denied allegations of sexual abuse.
As preparations begin for the trial to move forward, after a judge rejected Prince Andrew's request to dismiss the civil lawsuit, both sides are demanding that witnesses from outside the United States be called.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is in charge of the case in New York, gave lawyers until July 14 to collect witness evidence. He said the trial could be held later in the year.
Virginia Joffrey alleges that Prince Andrew, 61, was among men who had sex with her while she was trafficked by the late Jeffrey Epstein, when she was 17, when she was a minor under US law.
According to court documents, the prince's lawyers want to question Robert Joffrey, Virginia's husband, about family finances and the context of his introduction to his wife in 2002.
The prince's lawyers also want to question psychiatrist Lightfoot about what she discussed with Virginia during therapy sessions, her notes as a doctor, and the medications she recommended.
The lawyers argue that Virginia Joffrey, now 38, "may be suffering from false memories", and they also want to hear from the doctor about the "false memories theory".
According to the documents, Dr. Lightfoot and Virginia Geoffrey, who live in Australia, will be asked to testify under oath, either in person or by video link.
A psychiatrist and expert on false memory, Elizabeth Loftus, testified during the trial in December of Geoffrey Epstein's former partner, Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking.
Loftus said people are constantly reconstructing their memories rather than recovering them as if they were from a tape recorder, and that they may be subjected to "post-event guesswork".
But she acknowledged that while 'peripheral memories' of traumatic events may be forgotten, core memories may grow stronger.
Court documents also showed Joffrey's lawyer seeking testimony from two people in Britain.
Her legal team wants Robert Olney, the prince's former aide, to testify.
A letter to a British court said Joffrey had reason to believe Olney had information relating to Prince Andrew's relationship with Epstein, who has been convicted of child sex crimes.
The reason is that Olney's name is on copies of Epstein's list of phone numbers, which are available for public viewing, according to Joffrey's attorney.
Another letter came asking for testimony from Shukri Walker, after she said in the newspapers that she was a possible witness to Prince Andrew's presence at the Tramp nightclub, while Joffrey said she was assaulted.
Geoffrey said they had visited a London nightclub before she was assaulted in 2001. But according to court documents, Prince Andrew denied he was at the nightclub that night, or that he met Virginia.
The latest developments come after Buckingham Palace announced Thursday that Prince Andrew would be stripped of his military titles and royal patronage, and returned to the Queen.
"The Duke of York will continue to perform no public duties as he defends this cause as an ordinary citizen," the palace statement said.
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