Royal Wedding: Prince Charles Break-Dances With Teens in 1980s YouTube Video

Snippets from private life show next king of England has amusing, loving side.

ByABC News
April 26, 2011, 8:58 AM

April 27, 2011 — -- A video of Prince Charles break-dancing with young people in the 1980s has made its way onto YouTube, defying perceptions of the Prince of Wales as distant, quiet and not much fun.

In the video, the father of the soon-to-be-wed Prince William is pulled onto a dance floor by teenagers and holds his own as he busts a few moves -- all while dressed in a suit.

"I got a lot of flak for a lot of things," Charles said in a BBC documentary in September. "I mean, potty this, potty that, loony this, loony that."

For the man who will be king of England, there are even more amusing -- even quirky -- stories out there.

There's the video of him wiping away tears of laughter with friends and wife Camilla as a man plays a cat piano at a garden party.

Then there's the white leather toilet seat, which Brian Hoey, author of "We Are Amused," said the Prince of Wales likes to travel with. Hoey's book lists some of the most bizarre habits of the royal family.

"The royal family has this tradition at Christmas time. They always like to give each other what they call 'joke presents,' so Prince Charles' sister once gave him a white leather toilet seat," Hoey said in an interview with ABC News in November. "She thought it was hilarious. He thought it was so marvelous, so comfortable, it now accompanies him everywhere he goes -- all around the world."

In the BBC documentary, Charles admitted to listening in on the conversations of tourists who pay 15 pounds each to see his 900-acre royal estate in Gloucestershire.

"I have eavesdropped on what visitors have said," he said. "When they're going 'round outside the windows. Sometimes you've got to lie on the floor."

He also said he spoke to trees and plants in his garden. "I happily talk to the plants and trees and listen to them," he told the BBC. "I think it's absolutely crucial. Everything I've done here, it's like almost with your children. Every tree has meaning for me."

Colleen Harris, press secretary to Charles, William and Prince Harry from 1998 to 2003, said the prince is also very close to his sons, William and Harry.

"He's portrayed as being a rather cold and distant father," she told ABC News in March. "That's not the person I saw when I worked there. I saw them together. It was a very loving and gently amusing relationship."

ABC News' Lee Ferran, Miguel Marquez, Elizabeth Stuart, Carolyn Durand and Gabriel O'Rorke contributed to this story.