Prince Andrew of York is once again embroiled in a scandal related to his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the American millionaire who committed suicide in 2019 after being arrested for sexual abuse.
This time, however, what has caught the public’s attention is one of the strange manias revealed by one of his former aides: his obsession with teddy bears.
Prince Andrew’s teddy bears
According to Paul Page, one of the staff at Buckingham Palace, Prince Andrew not only had a large collection of teddy bears, but they had to be placed in a certain way on his bed.
In fact, there was a diagram in his bedroom showing how these teddies should be arranged.
This obsession with teddy bears is not new, as Andres de York himself revealed in 2010 that he had a large number of them, especially from different parts of the world.
“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 said.
But what is most striking is that Prince Andrew was very meticulous about the arrangement of his teddy bears.
As Charlotte Briggs, who worked at Buckingham Palace in the 1990s, revealed to The Sun, she was tasked with arranging 72 teddy bears on the prince’s bed and in various places around his room.
“As soon as I got the job, I was told about the teddies and it was drilled into me how he wanted them. I even had a day’s training. Everything had to be just right. It was so peculiar.”
She added: “It was so odd. After all, he was a grown man who had served in the Falklands.”
“But he absolutely loved the teddies and was very clear about how he wanted them arranged.”
But most worryingly, this teddy bear story comes at a time when Prince Andrew has appeared on the “Epstein List” linking several famous personalities to the sexual predator.
Prince Andrew Scandals
This isn’t the first time Prince Andrew has found himself embroiled in a sex scandal. In November 2019, the BBC broadcast an exclusive interview with him in which he discussed his relationship with Epstein and defended himself against allegations that he had sexually abused a minor.
The interview was described as a disaster, and Prince Andrew was forced to retire from public life.
Since then, he has tried to keep a low profile, but this new revelation about his obsession with teddy bears has put him back at the center of controversy.
Meanwhile, the public continues to be puzzled by Prince Andrew’s strange mania, wondering how it is possible for someone with so much power and wealth to be so obsessed with simple stuffed animals.