Strange Things Everyone Ignores About Prince Andrew

Prince Andrew's name has become synonymous with scandal. He's been responsible for many of the royal family's biggest PR disasters, and appears to have a lack of judgment when it comes to choosing his acquaintances. Prince Andrew's controversial friendships have landed him in hot water with both the media and, one can surmise, the monarchy. Take for instance that a buddy of his, described as a "close confidante" by outlets like the Independent, turned out to be a possible Chinese spy.

But let's address the elephant in the room: When it comes to beloved royal family members, Andrew doesn't make the list. He hasn't for years. According to Statista, 58% of the British public had a negative opinion of the royal in 2019. That number has steadily climbed, with 89% looking upon the prince unfavorably in 2025. It isn't much better across the pond in the United States, with Andrew scoring only 28% in popularity, per YouGov. Yet, he's rumored to have been Queen Elizabeth II's favorite child. Many have concurred that this was indeed the case and that many of Andrew's future failures would be a result of the fact that he grew up in a world vastly separated from reality. "[He was] granted extraordinary access and opportunity. Fawned over wherever he went ... Andrew had not been subjected to the normal checks and balances," Sam McAlister wrote in the book "Scoops."

Despite, or perhaps because of, the many scandals that have plagued Andrew over the years, there are several strange things about the prince the public seems to ignore. But the deeper you dig, the more bizarre a figure Andrew becomes.

Prince Andrew might be a grown man, but there's a part of his childhood he simply can't seem to let go of — his prized teddy bear collection. The prince is said to own 72 stuffed bears and has even previously admitted to collecting them. "I've always collected teddy bears. Everywhere I went in the Navy I used to buy a little teddy bear, so I've got a collection from all over the world of one sort or another," he admitted in 2010 (via The Sun).

While having such an extensive collection of teddy bears is rather odd, what's even more strange is that palace staff were literally trained how to arrange all the teddy bears in Andrew's room — and if they messed up, the prince reportedly threw a temper tantrum. A former Buckingham Palace staffer, Charlotte Briggs, told The Sun that she received an entire day of training for how to arrange Andrew's teddies perfectly. "[Andrew] was very clear about how he wanted them arranged," Briggs recalled, saying that palace staff were handed a diagram showing them exactly where the teddies had to be placed during the day. They had to be rearranged before Andrew's bedtime. Messing up the placement wasn't an option, it seems. "It took me half an hour to arrange them — most bizarre thing to be paid for," Briggs said.

Andrew's favorite bears got the royal treatment and had to be placed on thrones located on each side of the Duke of York's bed. As bizarre as it sounds, the public didn't just have to take Briggs' word for it. Paul Page, who served in the Royal Protection Command, told The Sun he once caught a glimpse of Andrew's room filled with a myriad of teddy bears.

If you were close friends with someone who ran a sex trafficking ring, surely you would have noticed at some point that something was amiss, but Prince Andrew insists he had no knowledge of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. The prince's controversial friendship with Epstein has provided the royal household with plenty of headaches, including a lawsuit from one of the women Epstein allegedly trafficked. Virginia Giuffre claimed she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was 17, but the prince has denied these allegations, saying he never met her, despite the existence of a photograph of the two posing together for the camera.

During a BBC interview that led to Prince Andrew's disastrous public downfall, the prince failed to show any remorse whatsoever toward Epstein's victims. He reiterated that he had no idea about his friend of 11 years' clandestine activities, and that he only went to visit Epstein after the allegations became public because he wanted to be "honorable" and break off the friendship face to face. Doing it over the phone, the prince asserted, would have been "chicken."

Given Andrew's decade-long involvement with Epstein and the fact that he was once photographed partying on a yacht with the financier surrounded by nude women, his story that he had no idea about Epstein's crimes doesn't really check out. Neither American nor British authorities have made a case against the prince, who has been forced to take a back seat within the royal family after his name was dragged so thoroughly through the mud. Of course, the topic is never broached by the monarchy these days, which, one could argue, is being the most ignorant of all.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

After Prince Andrew's disastrous interview with the BBC where he downright admitted he had no regrets about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his public image was in shambles, and once Virginia Giuffre accused him of sexual abuse, Andrew's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, stripped her son of his royal titles in 2022. "With the Queen's approval and agreement, the Duke of York's military affiliations and Royal patronages have been returned to the Queen. The Duke of York will continue not to undertake any public duties and is defending this case as a private citizen," a statement from Buckingham Palace read (via the BBC).

Despite being stripped of his titles and no longer being an official working member of the royal family, Andrew remained ninth in line to the throne, ascending to eighth in line after the queen died. Royal editor Roya Nikkhah told CBS at the time that, even if Andrew was cleared of any wrongdoing by the court, his days as a working royal were over for good. "His reputation is so damaged in the public eye, not just in the U.K., but around the world," Nikkhah said.

Yet, despite the palace reiterating that Andrew was no longer a working member of the family, he has still made appearances at some public family events, spending Christmas at Sandringham, showing up to the Easter Sunday service with the rest of the family, and most notably, he was allowed to wear a military uniform at the queen's final vigil in 2022 even though his nephew, Prince Harry, who is also no longer a working royal (but has no sexual offense allegations against him) was initially told he wouldn't be afforded the same exception.

There have been whispers that Prince Andrew, as prim and proper as he might try to appear to the public, has a mean streak, and he wasn't afraid to show it from a young age. According to some royal biographers, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward's relationship was strained as kids, with the former consistently bullying his younger brother.

In the book, "Royal Children," Ingrid Seward recounted the relationship between Andrew and Edward. "Andrew bullied everybody and would constantly swipe his younger brother. If he saw Edward going for a particular cake, Andrew would try and grab it first," Seward wrote. Another royal biographer, Nigel Cawthorne, corroborated Seward's account in an excerpt for the Daily Mail. "From the beginning, palace staff found him a handful," Cawthorne wrote. "His nanny, Mabel Anderson, called him Baby Grumpling — because of his temper tantrums and obstinacy."

Cawthorne concurs that Andrew was given special treatment by Queen Elizabeth II, and by the time he was 8 and going to prep school, the young royal had quite the chip on his shoulder, and bullied fellow classmates. He reportedly earned the nickname of "The Sniggerer," for his apparent penchant for dirty jokes, and by the time he left the school, Cawthorne says staff heaved a sigh of relief.

According to various reports, Prince Andrew never quite outgrew his penchant for bullying others, and palace staff who have chanced speaking to reporters sketch a pretty horrific picture of what they've had to endure from the prince. In his book "Gilded Youth," Tom Quinn recounts the stories some staff members have relayed to him, and it puts the prince in a very bad light; yet, it appears he was never held accountable for his deplorable manners. "[Andrew] was always curt to the staff and dismissive of them — he treated them as if we were living in the middle ages," one staffer confided to Quinn.

As Andrew's public popularity dwindled in 2022, former royal protection officer Paul Page spoke up about what he'd witnessed while working at the palace. "There are instances and evidence of Prince Andrew being overbearing and verbally abusive," Page told the Mirror. "His manners are just awful," former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, told royal biographer Nigel Cawthorne (via the Daily Mail). Another staffer who was brave enough to speak up said the prince was consistently rude to palace aides. "[He was] throwing things on the ground and demanding they 'f***ing pick them up,'" the insider told Cawthorne of how Andrew treats his staff.

There are stories even more reprehensible than these that have made the rounds. In Tom Quinn's book, "Yes, Ma'am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants," former palace employees revealed how Andrew fired a staff member because he had a mole on his face, and the prince thought it unbecoming. Another staffer got cut because he made the mistake of choosing a nylon tie for his attire that day.

Many of those who have worked at Buckingham Palace at one point or another have told royal authors and media outlets that Prince Andrew loved fraternizing with women. This is one of the reasons his deniability about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's actions don't seem all that believable. The Epstein saga spawned countless headlines and a few documentaries, one of which premiered on Peacock, titled "Prince Andrew: Banished."

Various prominent figures lend their voices to the documentary, with former royal protection officer Paul Page recalling, "We used to have a joke that [Andrew] should have a revolving door in his bedroom. The amount of women going in and out of there, it was just literally every other day someone would be coming in to see him ... a different one every time." Journalist Helen Kirwan-Taylor supported Page's claims, saying the prince "couldn't keep his trousers closed." Andrew's name was thoroughly dragged through the mud in the documentary, with royal author and correspondent Phil Dampier saying that, while the prince had managed to steer clear of alcohol and drugs, his weakness was sex.

It seems no one has been happier to ignore the mounting damaging claims against Andrew than his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. Amid the media tempest regarding Andrew's connection to Jeffrey Epstein, Sarah said on "Lorraine" that her former husband "is such a good man, he's a thoroughly good man, he's a very gentle man, he's a really good father."

In one of her statements, Virginia Giuffre recalled being at a nightclub with Prince Andrew, saying they were dancing and that he was "profusely sweating." When asked about this during his BBC "Newsnight" interview, Andrew said he had no recollection of being at the nightclub Giuffre described and implied that she was lying because he had a medical condition at the time that prevented him from being able to sweat.

"I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falkland's War when I was shot at and I simply ... it was almost impossible for me to sweat," the prince countered. "And it's only because I have done a number of things in the recent past that I am starting to be able to do that again. So I'm afraid to say that there's a medical condition that says that I didn't do it." The explanation was almost laughable and barely believable. When asked to provide proof of his diagnosis by Giuffre's lawyers, Andrew refused, with his lawyers asserting the request was a form of harassment and that the documentation was confidential.

James Hamblin, MD, MPH, wrote in an article for The Atlantic that Andrew's claim of temporarily being unable to sweat was most likely balderdash. "Anhidrosis is not consistent with the account Prince Andrew gave during the interview," Hamblin wrote. "Anhidrosis is rarely temporary ... A temporary inability to sweat would defy medical precedent."

Word on the street is Prince Andrew used to be quite a handful when he still traveled to fulfill royal duties. Ex-diplomat, Simon Wilson, came forward in the 2023 documentary "The Real Crown: Inside the House of Windsor," to dish on the prince's list of demands when he journeyed abroad. A constant companion on the royal's travels apparently came in the form of a six-foot ironing board, which the former diplomat said left everyone in the near vicinity perplexed. "We were shocked when a 6ft ironing board was trying to be negotiated into one of the embassy cars," Wilson said of one of Andrew's travels in 2002. "I asked the valet and said, 'This is insane'. And the valet's response was, 'No one knows how to iron his Royal Highness's trousers like me.'" And that was the end of it; the six-foot ironing board had to be brought along for the ride.

The ironing board wasn't the only thing on the prince's list of demands, however. Wilson also recalled how they received a checklist ahead of time that informed them what the prince preferred to eat and how he liked his water. "[Andrew] would only drink water, it had to be at room temperature, no ice," Wilson recalled.

Despite all his demands, Andrew refused to speak at the events he traveled to attend. Once, he threw a grown-up tantrum, staying glued to his seat instead of getting up and simply delivering his prepared speech. "[He] tapped the ambassador on the head two or three times and said, 'This is the man who'll tell you all about trade' and sat down," Wilson said, adding that one could hear a pin drop after the awkward exchange.

Royal experts have said Prince Andrew will never make a comeback under King Charles III's reign, and this might leave the Duke of York quite peeved at his brother, since rumor has it he's always secretly wanted to be king.

In his book, "Yes, Ma'am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants," Tom Quinn questioned palace staff about Andrew, and one of them told the royal author, "A bit like his aunt Margaret, Andrew always behaved as if he was frustrated about not being the first-born and therefore destined to become king. This frustration made him a bit of a bully in private, I think." In another of Quinn's books, titled "Gilded Youth," a palace staffer claimed Andrew resented Charles for his place in the line of succession. "I really think he looked down on Charles," the aide confided. "And, as with so many younger royal princes, thought he would make a much better king than his eldest brother." Given Andrew's track record, most of the public would likely beg to differ.