New book claims Prince Andrew was 'obsessed' with pornography

A new book about the royal family has described Prince Andrew as a "coroneted sleaze machine" who is "obsessed" with pornography.

That's author Tina Brown's assessment of the disgraced prince in The Palace Papers, reports the New York Post.

Brown, a former editor at Vanity Fair, reveals that Andrew was unpopular at Gordonstoun school, where the students found him "big-headed, arrogant, and deluded about his own intelligence".

"His penchant for off-colour jokes, at which he laughed inordinately, earned him the nickname 'the Sniggerer'," Brown writes.

Lee Annenberg, the wife of former US ambassador to the UK Walter Annenberg, claims that when Prince Andrew came to stay at their Palm Springs estate in 1993, he "holed up in his bedroom for two days apparently watching porn".

The book, which has been released today in the US, reveals that even after Andrew was married to Sarah Ferguson, his bed was decked out with "50 stuffed teddy bears, many dressed as sailors, that maids had to place in the exact spot Andrew had ordained".

The couple continued to live together after their divorce in 1996 and Ferguson has always claimed they have a close relationship.

However, Brown's book paints a slightly different picture.

A US media executive visiting Fergie at the Royal Lodge in 2015 was shocked when Andrew came into the room while they were having lunch and asked "What are you doing with this fat cow?" Brown writes.

Shocking new claims about Prince Andrew have emerged in a new book. Photo / AP

The exec claims to have been "stunned at his level of sadism. I thought, 'What an a**hole.' She has to sing for her supper. She's afraid of him."

Brown continues, "Whatever the undertow of their curious arrangement, the deal seems to be that he bails her out when she's in trouble, and she backs him up when he's assailed by scandal.

"It is the symbiosis of sheer survival."

While promoting her book last year, Fergie shared her strong support for Andrew amid his legal battle with Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager.

She called him a "kind, great man", saying, "I feel very strongly that in this day and age that we must stand by our hearts, what we think is right with integrity and honour and loyalty."