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Prince Andrew is well-known within the Royal Family for sharing his mother the Queen’s love of pranks and practical jokes. Her Majesty, who is set to return from Balmoral this month, tricked oblivious American tourists one year at her beloved Scottish estate. Former royal protection officer Richard Griffin recounted how, when she was asked if she had ever met the Queen, Her Majesty the Queen pointed towards Mr Griffin and said “No, but this policeman has.”

Biographer Andrew Morton, in his 1983 book “Andrew: the Playboy Prince” describes another occasion when her son Prince Andrew pulled the leg of American tourists – but this time, at Disneyland. Mr Morton recounts how Andrew was serving aboard HMS Hermes when he flew out to Florida for a three-week tour of duty, He writes: “Andrew was determined to enjoy his trip Stateside. “One one day he slipped away for a visit to the fantasy paradise of Disneyland with the British consul in Atlanta, Mark Goodfellow, as host.

The Duke of York

The Duke of York and the Queen share a similar sense of humour

“It was meant to be a private visit and the prince even donned one of the staff blue coats to try and hide amongst the crowds. “The disguise fooled some visitors – the prince actually guided one innocent soul to an exit.” The incognito prince managed to “shake hands with Mickey Mouse”, and remarked after the visit, “It was magic”. However, news of the royal visitor was not ket under wraps on Andrew’s Naval base. READ MORE: How Sarah Ferguson recalled ‘fiasco’ first meeting with Prince Andrew

A young Prince Andrew in the Royal Navy

According to Mr Morton: “Andrew bowled the American women over. “Once word got around that Andrew was aboard, the phones never stopped ringing with southern belles asking for ‘that English Prine Andy, or whatever he’s called.’” However, another one of Andrew’s pranks on a different American trip, this time to California, would an him in trouble with his mother the Queen. Journalist Sue Arnold, writing in Vanity Fair in 1986, describes the time the Queen and the “furious” Duke of Edinburgh “finally read the riot act” to their second-born son. DON'T MISS

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Ms Arnold writes: “Andrew’s romantic escapades, together with some much publicised midshipman japes (he has a penchant for practical jokes), earned him the reputation of Royal Lout-About-Town, a label that saddened his mother and annoyed his father. “Secretly, however, Prince Philip admires Andrew’s macho action-man image – it reminds him of his own youth.” She continues: “It was only after the famous paint-spraying episode on an official visit to California, when Andrew doused a row of photographers with white paint, that his parents finally read the riot act.”



The Duke of York visiting Austrlaia this week

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