Barbra Streisand revealed that she could’ve been the future Queen of England had her friendship with a young Prince Charles taken a more romantic turn.
Early last month, during a new radio program called “Music and Memories With HRH The Prince Of Wales”—part of the U.K.’s national Thank You Day honoring the NHS for their hard work throughout the pandemic—Charles reminisced fondly about the first time he ever met the singer. “I have always been a great admirer of the incredibly versatile American actress and singer Barbra Streisand,” he confessed. “Back in 1974, when I was serving in the Royal Navy…as a young lieutenant in the frigate HMS Jupiter, we called into the United States navy’s base in San Diego, California…when I heard that she was currently making the film [Funny Lady, a sequel to Funny Girl] in the Warner Brothers Studios…I was lucky enough to visit the set and to meet her there.” The royal was just 26 at the time, and Streisand was 32. He continued, “I shall never forget her dazzling, effervescent talent and the unique vitality and attraction of her voice and her acting ability. This next song, ‘Don’t Rain on my Parade,’ is therefore full of special memories of—I hardly dare think of it now—47 years ago.”
During a conversation with U.K. presenter Ross King this week, Streisand responded to the royal’s compliments about her, saying that “it was so sweet” of the Prince of Wales to share some of those “special memories.”
She added her own recollection of those events, explaining that, “He asked to meet me. So he came to the recording studio. I offered him a sip of tea and I thought, ‘They didn’t have to test me for poison or something? No’’” And, after that, “we became friends, and I loved spending some time at Highgrove for a weekend fundraiser and going through his gardens,” she said. Later on, she was staying in a hotel in London when she noticed some fresh-cut flowers on a table in her assistant’s room. “I said, ‘Who sent me that?,’” she recounted, “and she said, ‘A fan called Charles.’ And I said, ‘Really? Let me see the note’—and there was his seal. And they weren’t, like, from a florist because they were from his gardens and it’s a different look.” But still, Streisand’s assistant “just mistook it for a fan. It was so funny. I thought, ‘That’s Prince Charles!’”
However, she noted that their friendship all took place “before he met Diana,” adding, “I had a very funny line on stage when he came to see [my] show. I said, ‘You know, if I played my cards right, I could have wound up being the first Jewish princess!’”
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