Diksha Sundriyal
There are a lot of things that get a person by surprise in Netflix’s ‘Scoop,’ and Prince Andrew’s bedroom full of stuffed toys certainly ranks somewhere at the top. In one scene in the movie, when the Prince finds out about the arrest of his friend Jeffery Epstein, he lashes out at a young aide for putting the stuffed toys on his bed in the wrong order. One assumes that the anger is probably due to the Prince realizing the gravity of his situation and how his association with Epstein is going to create more problems for him. However, the question remains: why does a man in his 60s have so many stuffed toys on his bed, and why does he take their placement so seriously?
Prince Andrew’s Stuffed Toy Collection is Real
It might seem like a made-up detail, but it’s really not. Prince Andrew, in 2010, talked about his love for soft toys, revealing that he has “always collected teddy bears” and has “a collection from all over the world of one sort or another.” He even used to buy them when he was in the Navy, which explains the variety of his collection.
In 2022, Charlotte Briggs, who used to work for the Prince during the 90s, revealed that he had as many as 72 stuffed toys at the time, and it would take a whole day to train the staff about the correct placement of all the toys. She revealed that the Prince’s preferred arrangement was “drilled” into her, and she found it “peculiar” that he wanted everything to be “just right.” She also noted the variety of the teddy bears and how they were from different parts of the world, with many dressed as sailors.
Reportedly, there was also a laminated diagram featuring instructions about how to arrange the teddy bears. The alleged list was titled “DOY (Duke of York) bed: Points for turning down & making the bed.” It was basically an instruction manual about where to place which teddy and in what position, and it specifically asked the staff not to lose the said teddy bears. According to Briggs, the general way to arrange them was to place them in descending order of their size, with the largest bears on the back. But that was just during the day. At night, they would place the teddy bears in their “designated spots” in the bedroom, with some stacked by the fireplace, while his favorite ones (Daddy, Ducks, and Prince) were placed closer to the bed.
Briggs’s account of the toys is confirmed by Paul Page, who worked in the Royal Protection Command from 1998 to 2004. He appeared in ITV’s documentary, ‘Ghislaine, Prince Andrew, and the Pedophile,’ and revealed that he noted about 50-60 toys on the Prince’s bed and also saw a card with the instructions, including pictures, of how to place the teddy bears in their place. Page also stated that if the bears were not placed in accordance with the laminated page, the Prince was known to have shouted and screamed at the staff.
The stuffed toy collection remained at the Prince’s residence in Buckingham Palace for years, but in 2023, when he vacated his suite at the Palace, the entire collection was moved out and is now, most probably, at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, which now serves as his primary residence. Sources have also reported that in recent years, the Prince’s collection has been “scaled back,” though he still remains just as strict about their correct placement as always. Considering all this, it makes sense why the filmmakers decided to include this detail in the Netflix film.
Read More: Scoop: Is Kristina Tyneham Based on a Real Jeffrey Epstein Victim?
