Prince Andrew's Collection Of 72 Teddy Bears Gets Special Attention, Former Palace Maid Says

Prince Andrew's collection of stuffed toys was so big it took a full day of training for new staff to care for them and an hour each day to arrange them, according to a former palace maid.

Charlotte Briggs told The Sun that when she worked at Buckingham Palace in the 1990s, one of her jobs was putting the Duke of York's 72 teddy bears in their place on the royal's bed and around his room every day.

"As soon as I got the job, I was told about the teddies and it was drilled into me how he wanted them," she told the outlet. "I even had a day's training. Everything had to be just right. It was so peculiar."

Prince Andrew, a former Royal Navy helicopter pilot who flew in the Falklands War, mostly collected bears dressed as sailors in uniforms and caps, the former maid said.

In the morning, she would arrange the collection so that the biggest teddy bears were put at the back, then placed in order of size to the smallest at the front.

Then at night, Briggs or another maid used a diagram to put the teddy bears in their designated positions around the room. The small bears were stacked in an unused fireplace, while other stuffed animals — including two hippos and a black panther called "Daddy," "Ducks" and "Prince" — were placed on the bed or around the room. Prince Andrew's two favorite teddy bears were placed on mahogany thrones at his bedside.

"It was so odd," Briggs said. "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."

"It took me half an hour to arrange them," she insisted, calling it the "most bizarre thing to be paid for."

Former royal protection officer Paul Page also talked about Prince Andrew's teddy bear collection for ITV's new documentary "Ghislaine, Prince Andrew and the Pedophile."

"It had about 50 or 60 stuffed toys positioned on the bed," Page said, according to the New York Post. "There was a card the inspector showed us in a drawer, and it was a picture of these bears all in [place] on the bed. And the reason for the laminated picture was that, if those bears weren’t put back in the right order by the maids, he would shout and scream and become verbally abusive."

Prince Andrew is currently facing a civil trial after a judge refused to throw out a sexual assault lawsuit against him last week.

Buckingham Palace has since released a statement on Prince Andrew's royal status, announcing that Queen Elizabeth decided to strip him of his military affiliations and royal patronages.

The palace said the duke will continue not to undertake any public duties and will defend his civil case as a private citizen.