Barbra Streisand reveals flirty relationship with ‘charming’ Charles & opens up on love affairs with top celebs
BARBRA STREISAND has revealed she had a flirty relationship with King Charles, writing in her new book that she did not realise how much he fancied her.
The unlikely friendship with the “utterly charming” royal is disclosed in the singer’s upcoming memoir, My Name Is Barbra.
The King, 74, is said to have had Streisand, 81, as his “only pin-up” while studying as a youngster at Cambridge University and described her as “devastatingly attractive” with “great sex appeal”.
His admiration is even said to have made Princess Diana tell an aide that she would not have been surprised if the two had an affair.
Commenting on Charles’s remark about her “sex appeal”, The Way We Were singer Streisand says she is glad she did not know about it when they first met because it would have made her self-conscious.
She explains in her book that they initially linked up when Charles was on duty with the Royal Navy in San Diego in 1974.
He made the brief trip from San Diego to Los Angeles, where his crush was working on the sequel to her hit 1968 movie Funny Girl.
When asked who he had wanted to see in LA, Charles is said to have replied he wanted to meet Barbra, “the woman behind the voice”.
Photographers captured the moment Streisand offered him a sip from her mug of tea, which she says was treated at the time like an international incident.
Barbra writes: “The fact is, both Prince Charles and I are shy, but somehow we still managed to connect, because that proved to be the beginning of an unexpected friendship.”
In the book, she tells of her regret that she was not as gracious as she could have been because she had to get back to work.
The pair met up again when Streisand performed at Wembley Arena in 1994, with Charles watching from the Royal Box.
The then Prince of Wales also arranged to go backstage before the show.
Streisand performed Disney song Someday My Prince Will Come and told the audience how they first met, quipping: “Who knows? If I had been nicer to him, I could have been the first real Jewish princess!”
The next day she received a bouquet from him.
Barbra writes: “It was simply signed ‘Charles’. And the flowers were fresh from his garden!
“He wrote, ‘It was such a treat to attend your concert last night — you were wonderful and I adored every minute!’ ”
Streisand adds: “The Prince is the most gracious host and made everything easy for me, even sending his chauffeur to The Dorchester hotel to pick me up.”
Charles and Barbra saw each other again for tea later that year at LA’s exclusive Hotel Bel-Air.
Streisand says they shared an interest in “gardens and organic food and the health of the planet” and that Charles later sent her organic oat biscuits from his Duchy Originals brand.
In 1995 — the same year that Diana admitted in a controversial BBC interview with Martin Bashir that she had been unfaithful to Charles — he invited Streisand to stay at his Highgrove residence in Gloucestershire.
The pair sat next to each other for a candlelit dinner in a tent with “lots of interesting talk about art and architecture”.
‘Most gracious host’
The singer says she slept later in a beautiful bedroom with a four-poster bed and the following day, after lunch, Charles walked her around Highgrove, showing her the paintings of his ancestors.
More recently, Streisand says, Charles gave her a card with one of his watercolour paintings on it for her birthday, and sent a video message for her 80th last year.
She goes on to describe the friendship as “extraordinary”.
She recalls an exchange she had when she met the Queen in 1975 at the London premiere of her movie Funny Lady, which she was working on when she first met Charles the year before.
When she asked the Queen why only women had to wear gloves to shake the royal’s hand, Elizabeth replied she would have to think about it but suggested it was down to tradition.
Streisand also reveals that following a scare in London during her pregnancy with son Jason Gould, now 56, she visited the Queen’s gynaecologist.
The memoir, an excerpt of which has already been published by Vanity Fair magazine, also details Streisand’s love affairs with high-profile figures, including Miami Vice actor Don Johnson and tennis star Andre Agassi, plus a one-night stand — probably — with Hollywood heart-throb Warren Beatty.
She says she was besotted with Johnson, now 73, and that their romance in the late 1980s made her feel like a high school girl who was going out with the captain of the football team.
But as the relationship began to cool, she phoned him only for his ex-wife, Melanie Griffith, to answer.
It brought the romance to a close, with Johnson going on to remarry Griffith in 1989.
Barbra recalls: “I called him in Miami one day, and Melanie answered the phone.
“They had been married briefly a dozen years earlier, and she often called when I was at Don’s house.
“At that point she was in rehab, and Don had conquered his own drug habit and was trying to help.
Love affairs
“I had no problem with him talking to her, but I did have a problem with him not having the courtesy to tell me the truth about their current relationship.
“I can’t be with a man who is not straight with me emotionally.
“So that was it.
“The romance was over, and it was fun while it lasted.”
Streisand says that to this day when she sees Johnson at parties, he whispers “I love you” in her ear, but she never says it back.
Her fling with Agassi, 28 years her junior, also clearly left a mark.
The singer says she did not even know who the tennis ace was when Las Vegas casino tycoon Steve Wynn told her the star was an admirer.
Agassi, 53, later called her to say how much he had admired her 1991 film The Prince Of Tides — and they were on the phone for two hours.
Barbra says: “It was a completely unexpected relationship, and it was fun.
“He sent me six dozen roses after one dinner.
“He came out to the ranch.
“I remember playing tennis with him as my partner in doubles, and I was trying so hard that I tore my meniscus (knee cartilage).
“I actually heard it pop, but I didn’t want to stop, even to ice it, as I didn’t want to look like a wimp.”
Her time with actor Beatty, 86, was obviously less memorable.
Describing how she was recently talking politics on the phone with him, she says he told her he remembered why they broke up.
She had to ask when they had been together. And when she hung up, she wondered if she had ever slept with him.
She writes that she “kind of” remembers, adding: “I guess I did. Probably once.”
Barbra also writes about a love affair with her friend Joan Collins’s ex-husband Anthony Newley.
She explains how she admired the British actor and singer’s “Cockney charm”.
She broke off the relationship after Newley did something that hurt her, but she does not say what.
Streisand says they began sleeping together in 1969 after he announced his separation from Collins and she announced hers from first husband Elliott Gould.
But she tells of her regret when decades later, in 1992, Newley’s agent gave her a disc with lyrics he had written about her in which he admitted she had been too much woman for him.
Streisand says that despite being deeply touched, she did not reach out to her ex-lover.
Happy to be in England
He passed away in 1999 aged 67.
Streisand also reveals she is always happy to be in England as she loves “everything British”.
She likes our politeness, black cabs and stores such as chinaware shop Thomas Goode.
- My Name Is Barbra (Century, £35) is out on Tuesday.