But an attempt to offer the British visitor a traditional refreshment went awkwardly wrong when White House staff served tea American-style, leaving Charles apparently unsure what to do with the bag.
David Charter, author of Royal Audience: 70 Years, 13 Presidents – One Queen’s Special Relationship with America, said: “Ronald Reagan was horrified when he had Prince Charles into the Oval Office, and they brought him a cup of tea that still had the tea bag in it, and he could see that he wasn’t drinking this cup of tea, and he thought he’d made a terrible faux pas.”
Charter added it was “a very small little faux pas like that” that “somehow only endear each side (the British and Americans) to the other a little bit more”.
Reagan, who served as president between 1981 and 1989 and died aged 93 in 2004, recorded his embarrassment in his diary after the May 1 meeting.
He wrote: “Charles. He’s a most likeable person. The ushers brought him tea – horror of horrors, they served it our way with a tea bag in the cup. It finally dawned on me that he was just holding the cup & then finally put it down on a table. I didn’t know what to do. Mike escorted him back to the W.H. and apologized. The Prince, ‘I didn’t know what to do with it.'”