A general, a refugee, and a model…
who didn't know she was dating a prince. Are these stories from real life or a fairy tale?
Japan's Princess Mako met her future husband, Kei Komuro at a restaurant in Tokyo while they
were students at the International Christian University, as People reported. They became
engaged in 2013, but only announced their plans to marry in 2017. They eventually wed without
the customary fanfare in October 2021 because, according to the Imperial Household Agency,
"[...] their marriage is not celebrated by many people."
Marrying Komuro, a commoner, meant that Princess Mako would forfeit her royal status.
In addition to passing up a lavish wedding, she declined a $1.3 million payout that female members
of the monarchy are eligible to receive upon leaving the royal family. Matters were made even
more complicated by a financial scandal involving his mother, but the couple stood together.
As a result of the negativity and even public protests surrounding their relationship,
Princess Mako was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder,
but Komuro has steadfastly stood by her, saying:
"I love Mako. You only live once,
and I think that my wish is to live my life together with someone that I love.
Until now, we have had happy times, and not so happy times, but we faced them together."
Princess Mako also made a statement explaining why they had not let
public disapproval sway them from their decision:
"To me, he is irreplaceable. Our marriage is a necessary step for
us to be able to protect our hearts in a cherishing way."
“You are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my entire life.
Would you do me the honor of having your number? I'd love to take you out.”
These were the first words American model Keisha Omilana heard upon meeting her future husband,
Nigeria's Prince Kunle Adebayo Omilana. Keisha, who modeled in campaigns for Pantene, Maybelline,
and Covergirl, turned him down initially but then decided to take a chance. For their first date,
he rented out an entire restaurant and covered the floor in rose petals in an effort to impress her.
The couple dated for two years — all without Keisha knowing that he was African royalty.
"I don't go around saying,
'I am a prince, bow down to me.' No, no, that wasn't how I was raised."
His mother referred to her as her "princess,"
but she assumed this was merely a term of endearment. She explained to Business Insider:
"And when you hear, 'princess,' well, all moms call their daughters princess.
So that's what I thought she was saying. But then we sat down and she told me the story of who her
son was, what his name means, where he comes from, and I was just like 'oh my goodness.'"
They have escaped the pressures that most royal couples face: According to Insider,
Kunle turned down his kingship in order to live a normal life with his wife and children.
When Crown Prince Haakon of Norway married former waitress and single mom,
Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby in 2001, his parents supported the union.
King Harald V of Norway and his wife, Queen Sonja even presented their future
daughter-in-law with a beautiful antique tiara to mark the occasion, and Mette-Marit's son Marius,
who was four at the time, participated as a page at the wedding ceremony.
While their relationship was embraced by her royal in-laws,
some Norwegians were concerned about the prince's choice. According to Britannica,
Marius' father had gone to prison for assault and drug possession. However,
the princess made inroads with the public when she held a press conference to address the issue,
and Marius eventually opted out of royal life when he went to college in California.
In 2021, the royal couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary.
When commoner and Palestinian refugee Rania Al-Yasin married Prince Abdullah II of Jordan,
she never expected to become the country's queen. Though her husband was the eldest
son of King Hussein, he was not the next in line to the throne. That changed in 1999,
however, when the king altered the line of succession from his brother to his son,
making Prince Abdullah II his successor.
When the king died a few weeks later,
Abdullah II ascended to the throne and his wife became Queen Rania Al-Abdullah.
"We both believe in the same things, we believe in what we want for our peoples.
And, we just complement each other, I think."
Queen Rania and the king have four children together,
including a son who is the crown prince and is set to follow in his father's footsteps.
According to her website, the queen is devoted to improving the life of Jordanian citizens
and she is UNICEF's first Eminent Advocate for Children. She is involved in numerous
charitable organizations and heads up several initiatives. Though she recognizes that her
life may look like a fairytale, she claims that being queen isn't all it's cracked up to be,
and has taken some major steps toward overhauling what it means.
"In order to really represent it, you have to get to know what the issues are, and really try
to address them. I think that is a responsibility, and in fact it's an opportunity to make change."
Well-known Spanish news anchor Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano was
covering an environmental story when she met Crown Prince Felipe,
who was there to show support. Before long, the two embarked on a romantic relationship.
The prince's love interest initially put off many of his subjects because of her status
as both a commoner and divorced woman, but those concerns fell away over the years.
In the years since their 2004 marriage,
Queen Letizia has won over a large swath of the population.
She is a darling of the fashion magazines and a very devoted mom to the couple's two daughters.
In May of 2019, just days prior to his coronation, the man who would become the king of Thailand
married commoner Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana. The marriage had come as a surprise, as the South
China Morning Post says that the palace had never confirmed their relationship.
It was the fourth marriage for King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who came to know his new
wife when she joined the military unit sworn to protect the Crown Prince. Prior to joining
the elite protection corps, she had worked as a flight attendant for several years.
By 2016, however, she had also risen to the rank of general in the Thai Army.
In 2021, the public had cause to wonder about the queen, who went unseen for several months.
Fears were allayed, however, in 2022, when the Bangkok Post reported that
Queen Suthida was seen attending a gala to celebrate the king's mother's 90th birthday.
In 1959, Farah Diba was a commoner studying architecture at the Iranian Embassy in Paris
when she met Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi at a reception. Married that same year at the age
of 21, she became his third wife and the Queen of Iran. They went on to have four children together
and afterwards, she became known for her charity work and her fight to buy
back Iranian antiquities that had ended up in the museums of other countries.
In 1967, the shah crowned her the Empress of Iran. She told RadioFree Europe:
"I've always said that the day I was crowned [empress of Iran]
represented the crowning of every woman in my country."
By 1979, she would be living in exile due to the Islamic Revolution.
Shortly thereafter, her husband died from cancer,
and she has also outlived two of her children. She has been quoted as saying:
"I always want to keep hope alive and not allow bitterness in my heart,
and I always say that I hope light will overcome darkness."
Until her death in 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco appeared to be living a fairytale.
Beginning life in Philadelphia as one of four siblings in an affluent family, Grace Kelly
grew up to become an Academy Award-winning actress and a favorite leading lady of Alfred Hitchcock.
She met her future husband, Prince Rainier III while traveling to the Cannes Film Festival.
According to the Smithsonian, it was the prince's Catholic confessor who first brought her to his
attention, and after the two met, they kept in touch and were married within a year.
Kelly, who starred in films including "Rear Window" and "To Catch a Thief," gave up acting
and moved to the French Riviera, where she gave birth to three children. With life as a commoner
behind her, Kelly immersed herself in charity work even as her personal life seemed to disintegrate.
With rumors of alcoholism and adultery plaguing her marriage, Kelly was driving along a winding
road when she was believed to have suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and crashed her car,
according to The New York Times. She died soon afterward as a result of her injuries.
When South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock married Prince Albert of Monaco
in 2011, she assumed the title of her husband's late mother, Grace Kelly: Princess of Monaco.
Though inevitable comparisons have been made between the two women,
Wittstock arguably had much more to contend with before marrying her prince.
For starters, he had already fathered two children out of wedlock, which made them
ineligible to ascend to the crown. As such, The New York Times says that the pressure was
on them to produce a legitimate heir, which they did in 2014 upon welcoming their twins.
The Guardian says that royal watchers suspect that Wittstock's experience as a commoner who
married into royalty hasn't exactly been a fairytale. Many speculated that when she
cried during their wedding ceremony, she was not exactly shedding tears of joy. However,
according to The Daily Mail, the princess has refuted those claims.
Do fairytales come true? Perhaps… and sometimes,
they're everything anyone can imagine. Most of the time? Not so much.