Ever since it was revealed that Prince Andrew would be tried for sexual assault and that he was no longer a public member of the royal family, people have been trying to dig up all sorts of stories about his past and present. One of the most bizarre anecdotes exposes his childhood obsession with teddy bears, which stayed with him even when he was in his 40s.
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Teddy bear collection
That’s right! A programme called Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Paedophile revealed that the Prince had an extensive collection of teddy bears when he was little. Apparently, the collection boasted around 50 or 60 stuffed toys that were arranged in a specific manner. If anyone messed with the collection, even by accident, they would be the target of a fierce tantrum from a young Prince Andrew.
Paul Page, an ex-protection officer who was privy to life inside the castle from 1998 to 2004, told Ranvir Singh on his ITV programme:
It had about 50 or 60 stuffed toys positioned on the bed and basically there was a card the inspector showed us in a drawer and it was a picture of these bears all in situ.
The reason for the laminated picture was if those bears weren’t put back in the right order by the maids, he would shout and scream.
Apparently, the collection remained sacred for the Prince even when he was much older. Elizabeth Day, a court writer, was allowed to take a look at his prized possessions during a visit in Buckingham Palace in 2019, and she said:
It seemed rather strange that a grown man should be so amused by a stuffed toy.
Other revelations
In the ITV documentary, the royal cop also speculated that the Prince may have had a more intimate relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell than he publicly admitted. Page claimed:
From the way she was allowed to enter and exit the palace, at will, we realised… suspected, that she may have had an intimate relationship with Prince Andrew.
A colleague of mine remembered her coming in four times in one day from the morning till the evening – she kept coming in and out, in and out…
