Prince Andrew Came Close to Being King as Charles 'Cheated Death'—Podcast

Prince Andrew came dangerously close to becoming king during the 1960s and 1970s as his older brother Charles "cheated death" on a number of occasions, the monarch's biographer has told Newsweek's The Royal Report podcast.

Christopher Andersen, author of the upcoming book The King: The Life of Charles III, told chief royal correspondent Jack Royston and royal commentator Kristen Meinzer that the new monarch came perilously close to death numerous times, including during air force training, skiing accidents and road incidents.

"He's such an enigma and complicated and inconsistent person," Andersen said of the king as a biographical subject.

"One of the interesting and curious things is the number of times he's cheated death, which I thought was fascinating."

One of these incidents occurred during the monarch's university days in the 1960s, before he married Princess Diana and produced his heir, Prince William.

"He recently revealed that, when he was at Cambridge, at Trinity College there, he was outside the library on his bicycle and was struck by a bus," the author told Royston and Meinzer.

"And, miraculously, he said how he survived he never knew. Had he not survived, it's interesting to think that Andrew would be king."

Before Charles became a father to Prince William, had he died or become severely incapacitated, Andrew was second in the line of succession. This is the official order in which members of the royal family would accede to the throne.

When Andrew was born in February 1960, up until 1982 with the birth of William, he was second in line behind Charles, 73, and ahead of his older sister, Princess Anne, 72. With the birth of both William and Harry and their own families, Andrew is now eighth in line to the throne.

Another instance where Charles could easily have lost his life but miraculously didn't occurred during his training days with the Royal Air Force.

"The strings of his parachute got tangled in his feet, and he was turned upside down," said Andersen of a particular training exercise.

"He only managed to right himself at the last minute, again a very, very close call. And again, Andrew would have become king at that time."

One of the most well-documented cases where Charles' life was endangered was during a skiing holiday in 1988 with Princess Diana.

The royal couple, along with Prince Andrew's wife, Sarah Ferguson, and a group of friends, were skiing in Switzerland when a large avalanche occurred on the Gotschnagrat mountain they were on, overlooking Klosters.

The mountain's slopes are among the highest in the region at 7,500 feet and notoriously dangerous, making them a challenge for experienced skiers, which the royal party were.

When the avalanche occurred, reports said that the royals were able to move out of the line of the drift, but two of their friends did not.

Major Hugh Lindsay, a friend of Charles and Diana's who was a former equerry to Queen Elizabeth II, died. His wife, Sarah, who worked at Buckingham Palace as a press officer, was expecting their first child.

"He narrowly missed being killed in that avalanche," said Andersen. The incident was dramatized in season four of the hit Netflix drama series The Crown.

There were also additional scares for Charles, the author added, including "two weeks before Diana's death, in Mallorca, Spain, he lost control of his car and almost went over a cliff."

The princess died in August 1997 at the age of just 36 after injuries sustained in a high-speed Paris car crash.

"And I'm sure there were other occasions as well," Andersen said. "On the polo field, he was injured so many times, he certainly could have been killed during that potentially deadly game as well."

Charles became king on September 8, 2022, following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who celebrated her 70th year on the throne in February.

Andrew, following allegations of sexual assault and criticism over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, was forced to retire from public life for good in January 2022.

Now that his elder brother is monarch, there is little hope for the royal to make a public comeback.

The King: The Life of Charles III by Christopher Andersen, published by Gallery Books of Simon & Schuster, will be released on November 8.

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