The author of a new book about King Charles III claims the monarch has a regular traveling companion: a childhood teddy bear.
Christopher Andersen, whose The King: The Life of Charles III is slated for publication next week, told Entertainment Tonight that Charles is still attached to his fuzzy companion.
“He's had it since he was a very small child,” the author said. “The only person who's been allowed to mend King Charles' teddy bear is his childhood nanny, Mabel Anderson, who he remains very close to."
Charles also has a few odd preferences related to food and drink, Andersen said.
“When he goes to dinner parties at other people's homes, he often brings his own chef, so they can prepare a meal for him that he'll eat separately at the table,” the author said. "I think one of the funniest quirks—a number of royals have this, the queen had it as well—they don’t like square ice cubes. They carry around ice cube trays, have them brought with them wherever they go, because they don’t like the clinking sound that square cubes make."
Andersen’s book reveals two of the king’s crushes, Page Six reports. One is Barbra Streisand, about whom Charles once wrote, “People look at me in amazement when I say she is devastatingly attractive with a great deal of sex appeal.”
The other: actor Joan Collins. In a letter, Andersen claims, Charles wrote of the Dynasty star, “She was very amusing and with an unbelievable cleavage! All raised up and presented as if on a tray!” (Your Majesty, what would your teddy bear think?)
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
