King Charles III
He was still attached to this teddy bear at the age of 40
Whether as a little prince or a great king: Charles III. likes teddy bears.
© Chris Jackson – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Whether it’s a special teddy bear, nasty garden criticism or the perfect egg: a new book tells bizarre anecdotes about King Charles III.
At least in terms of an old childhood toy, today’s King Charles III. (73) to be an extremely loyal soul. At least that’s according to a new book due out on November 8, titled The King: The Life of Charles III. “Page Six” already wants a look at the work by Christopher Andersen and, among other things, stumbled across an interesting passage about a teddy bear. Accordingly, Charles cherished and cared for his beloved stuffed animal into adulthood – we are talking about his forties.
What’s more, Charles’ former servant Michael Fawcett was hired to look after the teddy bear. If something had to be done about the royal stuffed animal, it is said that the former nanny of the current king, Mabel Anderson, was brought out of retirement. She “was the only human being allowed to put a needle and thread on Prince Charles’ teddy bear. He was well into his forties, and every time the teddy needed repairs it seemed like one of his had to come loose putting children through major surgery,” quotes Page Six from the book.
In other ways, too, Charles apparently clung to his childhood for a long time, as the book claims. Said teddy officer Michael Fawcett had to put the toothpaste on his brush, tie his shoelaces, help put his pants on and shave him – so Andersen is obviously not writing about the royal’s childhood days.
Hard work and soft balls
Elsewhere, according to Page Six, the book describes how hard King Charles was, especially with the gardeners at his Highgrove estate. The chief gardener woke up every day with a list of “instructions and complaints that his boss had written in red ink”. Charles was happy to shout these instructions to his employees with a megaphone while they were gardening.
Andersen quoted one of those allegedly affected as saying: “For someone who has said that he was bullied as a child, Prince Charles obviously liked to bully us. He could be pleasant and polite, but just as often he was grumpy and mean. He never thought twice about shouting insults at you when you took a wrong step.”
The preparation of Charles’ breakfast egg every morning also turned out to be a real dance on the razor blade: “The chefs in the royal kitchen usually prepared several three-minute eggs before you were satisfied that one of them met the prince’s requirements for softness was enough.”