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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor reportedly had one bizarre habit which caused concern for the late Queen, a new royal book has claimed. Despite being long referred to as the late monarch's favourite child, there was apparently one trait in her second son that worried her.

In the serialisation of his new book, Queen Elizabeth II, published in The Mail on Sunday, esteemed royal author Robert Hardman claims that Andrew's "childlike tendencies" when it came to his eating and drinking habits hinted at deeper-rooted problems.

Writing in his book, which is being released to coincide with what would have been the late Queen's 100th birthday this month, Mr Hardman says: "He never drank alcohol and always stuck to room-temperature water."

The source continued: "Fair enough, but I once asked him why and he answered like a child: 'I tasted it once when I was a teenager and I didn't like it.' That's why the Queen would always worry about him."

While Andrew was allegedly very particular about drinking tepid water, he always refused to consume alcohol. "He sometimes went to nightclubs, but he did not drink, he did not take drugs," the author added.

Mr Hardman's claim is backed up by a previous statement from the disgraced royal. "I haven't got the head for it," Andrew previously told The Evening Standard when asked why he didn't drink alcohol.

Elsewhere in his new book, Mr Hardman recalls another incident from 2011 before the former Duke of York was stripped of his role as the UK's trade envoy.

The author writes: "An eminent public servant was arriving with his family and several hundred other guests on their way to an investiture at Buckingham Palace.

"'We were walking across the quadrangle and suddenly this blue Bentley appeared and did a handbrake turn, throwing up gravel over other people's cars,' a family member recalled.

"'Someone said, "I bet that's Andrew." And sure enough it was. And everyone was talking about it as we went in because it had just spoiled things. He lived at Buckingham Palace, whereas we were just the little people going in there for our big day. And he just had to make it all about him.'"