Barbra Streisand’s Everyday Moment With Young King Charles Became an ‘International Incident’
When celebrities and British royalty meet. It’s happened time and time again over the years, and, as such, there are many stories about Hollywood stars meeting royals. One of the latest comes from Barbra Streisand. The award-winning singer recounted meeting a young King Charles III in her 2023 memoir. Although she inadvertently created the “equivalent of an international incident,” it marked the start of a lifelong friendship.
Barbra Streisand and the king met at a California recording studio in 1974
In her memoir, My Name Is Barbra, which debuted on Nov. 7, 2023, Streisand shared the story of how she and King Charles met. It was 1974, and the young prince’s naval career brought him to San Diego, California, where Streisand was working, recording the Funny Lady soundtrack.
“He asked to meet me,” Streisand wrote. “So, he came to the recording studio.” But, as she shared, the atmosphere wasn’t ideal for getting to know each other.
“The prince was utterly charming when he came to the studio,” she said. “But frankly, it’s hard to have a real conversation when you’re surrounded by fifty photographers snapping pictures.”
“I offered him a sip of tea, and I thought, ‘They didn’t have to test me for poison or something? No.’”
(Sidenote: The royal family has specific etiquette rules for drinking tea.)
“The future king of England actually drank from my cup,” she continued, calling it “apparently unprecedented.”
“When the British press reported on this,” she said, “they turned it into the equivalent of an international incident.”
Streisand didn’t know King Charles found her ‘attractive’ when they met
Elsewhere in her memoir, Streisand shared how she learned King Charles had been attracted to her. The now-81-year-old recalled being told that the then-Prince Charles referred to her as “devastatingly attractive” with “great sex appeal.”
Furthermore, she was apparently his “only pinup,” or person whose poster graced his dorm room at Cambridge University.
“Who knew?” Streisand wrote. “Certainly not me. And it’s probably better that I didn’t when we met, because it would have made me self-conscious.”
Streisand later noted how, in 1994, she sang “Someday My Prince Will Come” with King Charles “sitting in the Royal Box and revisited their first meeting over tea.
She recapped the story of how they met onstage “as the news footage of that meeting played on the Jumbotron” before remarking: “‘Who knows? If I had been nicer to him, I could have been the first real Jewish princess!’”
As she learned after the concert, the young prince — described as “Some guy named Charles” by her assistant — sent a bouquet of fresh flowers from his garden in what Streisand called a “lovely gesture.”
Barbra Streisand and King Charles are still ‘friends’ today
Since they first met, King Charles and Streisand have become close. As the Grammy winner revealed in her 2023 memoir, they “became friends” and have been pals for decades.
“I loved spending some time at Highgrove [King Charles’ country home] for a weekend fundraiser and going through his gardens,” Streisand wrote, noting their friendship blossomed “before he met [Princess] Diana.”
The “Guilty” singer also shared she spent a considerable amount of time with the king through the years, from having tea in Los Angeles in 1994 to a 1995 Highgrove visit (via Entertainment Weekly).
The two still keep in touch, sending each other gifts — flowers, drawings, and paintings — for their birthdays.
