Never forget the time Meat Loaf tried to push Prince Andrew in a moat

Danny Jones

‘You can’t touch me. I’m royal’

This morning, we all learned about the loss of music legend and actor Meat Loaf and the internet is rightly paying tribute to an icon. However one story we weren’t expecting to hear was the time he tried to push Prince Andrew in a moat.

One more time: Meat Loaf tried to push Prince Andrew in a moat.

Speaking to The Guardian back in 2003, Meat Loaf – born Marvin Lee Aday (though he later changed his name to Michael) – revealed that the Queen apparently “hates” him after an incident that occurred in 1987.

While appearing on It’s A Royal Knockout, a one-off charity event that saw several royals get involved with the hit adventure game show format that had already proven hugely popular for more than 20 years at the time, Loaf burnt his bridges with the Royals.

According to multi-faceted star: “Fergie [Sarah Ferguson] wasn’t exactly flirting with me, but she was paying attention to me, and I think Andrew got a little – I could be wrong, I’m just reading into this – I think he got a little jealous.

“Anyway, he tried to push me in the water. He tried to push me in the moat. So I turned around and I grabbed him and he goes, ‘You can’t touch me. I’m royal.’ I said, ‘well you try to push me in the moat, Jack, I don’t give a sh*t who you are, you’re goin’ in the moat.'”

While the Duke of York’s reputation was in no way near in the same level of mire at the time as it is today – the 61-year-old’s long-running sexual assault allegations once again brought back to the forefront, resulting in him losing his titles – there is something very satisfying about knowing someone once tried to chuck an actual royal in to a moat.

While the royal version of It’s A Knockout was a short-lived disaster and the show itself finally came to an end after 35 years in 2001, you can still watch the one-time BBC special in all its horrific glory on YouTube.

Sadly, there’s no footage of the moment Meat Loaf tried to dunk the prince – but sometimes things are better left to your imagination anyway.