Unusual Memory: King Charles Recalls Queen Elizabeth’s Surprising Actions During Bath Time…See More

King Charles recalled seeing his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, doing something unexpected at bath time for a specific reason.

Some members of the royal family have exhibited behavior over the years others have found strange or unusual such as King Charles reportedly traveling with his own toilet seat and paper, Princess Anne demanding staffers serve her blackened overripe fruit for breakfast, or Prince Andrew needing to have his stuffed teddy bear collection lined up on his bed a certain way.

Well apparently their mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, demonstrated some bizarre behavior in front of her two oldest children when they were very young that Charles still remembers to this day. However, she had a good reason to do it..

Here’s what the monarch remembers his mom doing at bath time and why.

Upon the death of her father in 1952, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II. Her coronation took place in 1953. At the time, her oldest son Charles was four years old and recalled something odd he saw her wear but later learned it was to prepare for her crowning.

Express noted that the documentary Coronation Girls follows the story of 50 Canadian women who attended the queen’s coronation and 12 who later met the king when they returned to London. The monarch shared with them what his mother did in preparation for her coronation.

“I remember it all so well because I remember my sister and I had bath time in the evening. My mama used to come up at bath time wearing the crown to practice,” he said. “I’ve never forgotten. I can still remember it vividly.”

The monarch elaborated on his mother’s decision to practice wearing it, saying: “You have to get used to how heavy it is … It is very important to wear it for a certain amount of time because you get used to it then.

“But the big one that you’re crowned with, the St. Edward’s Crown, it weighs five pounds. It is much heavier and taller, so there’s always that feeling of feeling slightly anxious, in case it wobbles. You have to carry it, you have to look straight ahead.”

The team used the International Gem Society‘s gem size guide to gauge the number of carats in the gems and looked at the catalog of the queen’s fabric supplier, and several other reference materials to determine their rough weight.

They then “estimated the weight of the velvet and ermine based on the size of the crown and subtracted all of this from the total weight of the crown to give us the weight (and value) of the gold in the crown.”

The most expensive components in the crown are the seven sapphires valued at more than $2 million followed by 26 tourmaline stones, which cost around $345,000. The team then concluded that the crown is worth over $4.5 million.