Inside ‘boisterous bruiser’ Prince Andrew’s childhood and the telling remark he made about ‘common people’, according to royal author

He was widely thought to be the late Queen’s favourite son, which gave the young boy a licence to get away with behaviour his siblings could not.

Prince Andrew, 65, grew up ‘boisterous, self-willed, extroverted, confident and active – everything Charles was not,’ according to a royal author.

His outgoing personality was the delight of the late Queen Elizabeth II who was a shy and reserved child like her father, King George VI.

Nigel Cawthorne wrote in his book War of the Windsors that the Queen announced to friends with pride: ‘Andrew isn’t a bit shy’.

In his childhood years Andrew was known for his practical jokes, once pranking the Queen Mother with a whoopee cushion and sprinkling itching powder in his mother’s bed.

‘Indeed, he was often pushy, demanding and domineering,’ wrote Cawthorne.

‘He’s his father all over again,’ said a friend of the family.

Prince Philip was proud that ‘at least one of his sons was a chip off the old block – but was also conscious of the dangers’.

Philip had warned Andrew shouldn’t always get his own way. And yet, according to the royal author, he often did. 

‘Wherever they went, the skylarking continued’, wrote Cawthorne, who added that Andrew did not always endear himself to the target of his pranks.

Even the late Queen, described as the ‘master of the understatement’ by Ingrid Seward, conceded he was ‘not always a little ray of sunshine’. 

At eight, Andrew was sent to Heatherdown Prepatory School in Ascot, Berkshire, where he gained a reputation as a bit of a bully – or ‘a natural boss’, according to Philip. 

Unlike Charles who dreaded being sent to boarding school, it was a dream for the congenial Prince Andrew. 

Cawthorne wrote: ‘As he was not heir to the throne, Andrew got an easier time and took to it like a duck to water. An extrovert, competitive and sometimes aggressive, Andrew did not submit to bullying.

‘At Heatherdown he developed into a boisterous bruiser. Sharing a dormitory with six others, he complained the TV watching was restricted.’

It seems at Buckingham Palace, watching TV was a regular activity for Andrew and his mother.

The royal author wrote that once the young prince had climbed on to the Palace roof to turn the TV aerial so that when the Queen sat down to watch the horse racing from Sandown Park, there was no picture. 

‘Occasionally, Andrew’s arrogance revealed itself. One evening, the Queen and Prince Philip arrived as Andrew and Mabel Anderson were watching the long-running TV soap opera Coronation Street. 

‘Blowsy barmaid Bet Lynch was in the midst of a rowdy argument when Andrew commented disdainfully: “Oh God, look at all those common people”.

‘His father reprimanded him immediately. He gave the royal teenager a clip around the ear and told him sternly: “If it wasn’t for people like that you would not be sitting here”.

‘For once, the usually talkative prince fell silent.’

Andrew’s nanny, Mabel Anderson, called him Baby Grumpling because of his temper tantrums and obstinacy. 

His other nickname was ‘that young imp’ as he was always getting up to mischief, such as removing all the valves from Mabel’s radio or tying the sentries’ shoelaces together. 

Royal biographer Tom Quinn wrote in his book, Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, that one servant claimed Andrew would act ‘frustrated’ about not being the first born.

They recalled: ‘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.

‘If he liked a member of his staff, he could be very loyal and supportive, but he couldn’t resist being imperious and bossy and bad-tempered if anything went wrong or wasn’t done exactly to his liking.’

Andrew has been embroiled in a series of scandals over the years, such as his associations with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and controversy over his links to an alleged Chinese spy.

In 2022, Andrew was accused of ‘overbearing’ and ‘verbally abusive behaviour’ towards Palace staff.

The public’s view towards Andrew can be seen clearly in the YouGov opinion polls as he remains the least popular royal with nine in ten Britons – 89 per cent – now seeing the Duke of York negatively.

Most recently Prince Andrew’s youngest daughter, Princess Eugenie, shared a sweet photo tribute to her husband Jack Brooksbank to mark Father’s Day but failed to give a nod to her own father.

She does not appear to have mentioned Andrew in Father’s Day posts since 2020.

While the late Queen – and even Philip to an extent – found Andrew’s antics amusing as a child, they had less time for his challenging behaviour when he became an adult.

Royal biographer Ingrid Seward revealed in her bestselling book My Mother And I that Philip ‘berated’ Andrew for being ‘pointless’ because he never fulfilled his early potential. 

It is likely that Philip’s scathing comments about his son were in reference to Andrew’s actions outside of the military.

During the 1980s ‘randy Andy’ – as the press called him – gained a reputation for being the ‘playboy prince’ during his bachelor years, with Andrew linked romantically to a string of models and actresses.

While he did eventually settle down and marry Sarah Ferguson in 1986, their marriage was short-lived and ended in separation in 1992 and divorce four years later.

Since he left active service in the Navy in 2001, Andrew’s ventures have come under intense scrutiny.

While for many years Andrew was celebrated as the royal family’s ‘scallywag‘, royal biographer Robert Lacey wrote the Prince’s ‘dubious choice of business contacts came to shadow his reputation’.

This culminated with Andrew stepping down from his role as a working member of the Royal Family following his notorious interview with BBC Newsnight about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

When the Queen died in 2022, royal author Phil Dampier told MailOnline: ‘Prince Andrew will be devastated by the Queen’s death because he was always her favourite child. 

‘Although he was in disgrace because of his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, he still saw more of her in private than his siblings.

‘There was an unbreakable bond between them and she must have been devastated when his name was dragged through the mud. 

‘He only had himself to blame of course and it’s difficult to feel sympathy for him, but as a mother she always supported him.’