My what? Charles lifts the lid on leather loo seat
BRITAIN: It was said to be made of soft white kid leather, given to him as a joke Christmas present by Princess Anne.
But Prince Charles found his personal lavatory seat so comfortable that it was packed, at his insistence, every time he travelled overseas. Or so the rumour went.
Now the heir to the British throne has had his own say, apparently so frustrated by the absurdity of the claim that he could not help but swear.
‘‘My own what?’’ he asked, incredulously, when asked about the allegation during a radio interview in Australia. ‘‘Oh don’t believe all that crap. The very idea.’’
The rumour was revived in a new biography, Rebel Prince: The Power, Passion and Defiance of Prince Charles, by Tom Bower. It has been published and republished many times over the years – but never, until now, had it been addressed by the heir to the throne.
Charles was caught off guard when asked about the mythical lavatory seat by a DJ from Brisbane station Hit105 as he carried out an engagement in the city alongside his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, as they embarked on a seven-day tour of Australia.
Before swiftly moving past the microphone, the duchess was also cornered and asked if her husband’s denial was true. ‘‘So he doesn’t carry his own toilet seat when he travels?’’ the reporter asked. ‘‘Don’t you believe that,’’ she laughed.
Julian Payne, the prince’s director of communications, referenced the exchange later on Twitter. ‘‘The Prince and the Duchess’s tour of Australia and Vanuatu begins: 30 engagements, 7 days, 1 Commonwealth Games, 0 personal loo seats,’’ he wrote.
The seat is one of the Prince’s many alleged habits and eccentricities, for which he has long been lampooned. It is often accompanied, as in the latest biography, by the claim that he also travels with his own personal supply of Kleenex Velvet lavatory paper, something that has yet to be confirmed or denied.
Other snippets that have gone down in royal folklore include the claim that the prince has his toothpaste squeezed on to his toothbrush by his valet.
He has been said to ship his entire bedroom ahead of him when he stays with friends, and employs Indian military veterans to pick slugs off his plants by torchlight. It has also been said that he takes his own organic food grown at Highgrove on his travels, and receives a supply of milk from the Windsor herd.
When Charles turned 64 in 2012, Clarence House decided to mark the milestone by scotching many of these oft-repeated rumours on its website.
It is not true, for example, that at breakfast he is presented with seven boiled eggs, each cooked to varying degrees of softness and lined up before him so he can choose his favourite.
Nor is it correct to suggest that the prince dislikes all modern architecture, advocates untested alternative medical therapies or owns a Bentley. He does, however, pay income tax, and regularly attends church. No word yet on the Indian slug pickers.
– Telegraph Group