Though they can be full of luxury and prestige,
royal marriages aren't immune to problems. For tales of affairs,
drug addiction, and deception — stay tuned to find out about these turbulent royal marriages.
Princess Anne, if you're not totally schooled on your British royals, is Queen Elizabeth II's
second-born child and only daughter. Initially, the royal was married to Captain Mark Phillips
in 1973, and had two sons. But, according to Express, in 1989 a series of love letters to
the princess from the queen's equerry Timothy Laurence were stolen from her briefcase, and they
quickly ended up in The Sun. Not surprisingly, her first marriage subsequently came to an end.
The letters exposed the princess' affair with an otherwise common man living in the
English countryside, but according to that same Express story, police
were never able to ascertain who lifted them. The princess separated from her first husband in 1992,
and promptly appeared at the Caledonian Ball with Laurence,
according to the 2002 documentary "The Real Princess Anne". Pictures of the new pair plastered
the tabloids shortly after, and Anne married her second military man that December in Scotland.
"She married first an army officer and then a naval officer so there
must be something about the military that attracts her."
In September of 2009, the Daily Mail reported that Princess Caroline of Monaco
was about to divorce her third husband, Prince Ernst of Hanover. Apparently,
the two had not been seen together since June, and cited this third failed marriage as evidence
that a 13th century French curse on the family was back in full effect.
Prior to her 2009 divorce, Caroline had been married to Stefano Casiraghi,
who died in 1990 while racing a sailboat off the coast of Monte Carlo. This was
after Caroline had divorced her first husband Philippe Junot, who was described by UPI as a
"Parisian playboy." The outlet also alleged that Caroline had tired of their jet set lifestyle,
and word on the street was Junot hadn't slowed down since getting hitched,
so it didn't seem to be a huge shock when the marriage ended in 1980.
Imagine putting all the time and effort into planning your wedding, only to have the spotlight
stolen by the Prince and Princess of Denmark. In perhaps the most public Danish royal drama since
"Hamlet," the South China Morning Post posted a story about Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra
attending a wedding titled "How Princess Alexandra ran out on Prince Charmless." The newspaper quoted
Paul Madesen of the Copenhagen tabloid Ekstra Bladet saying —
"The prince was drunk and, according to independent sources,
he was getting close and very intimate with some of the other ladies."
Princess Alexandra clearly was having none of it, and allegedly
shouted for her driver to get her car and left in a huff. Madesen curtly added -
"After that, it is understood divorce proceedings were initiated."
According to the U.K.'s Standard, Malaysian Sultan Muhammad the Fifth was introduced to
former Miss Moscow, Oksana Voevodina, and the two quickly struck up a long-distance
relationship via text and phone chats, eventually marrying in July 2018.
The royal stepped down as King of Malaysia, and according to the South China Morning Post,
it may have been because the royal family was opposed to his marriage.
However, by July of 2019, the same outlet reported that the Sultan's lawyer had said that
Mohammad had divorced his wife via triple talaq – saying the Arabic word for divorce three times.
This form of dissolution is irrevocable in several Muslim counties.
Voevodina didn 't take kindly to her marriage ending this way, as the Daily Mail reported her
posting a video of the couple's child destroying a picture of his father. The story went on to detail
the nasty specifics of their divorce settlement disputes and to question the child's paternity.
While married to Princess Stephanie of Monaco, the Associated Press reported that Daniel Ducruet
was photographed kissing a Belgian stripper in an Italian tabloid. The pair had met at an auto
race before meeting at a villa belonging to Ducruet's friend in the Cote d'Azur. There,
an enterprising paparazzo caught their tryst on camera, and the Associated Press subsequently
reported that Princess Stephanie filed for divorce in October of 1996.
By all appearances, this appeared to be a classic case of someone being caught cheating… or was it?
After getting busted, Ducruet insisted that he'd been set up and according to the Independent,
he sued the paparazzi for going too far. They were ultimately found guilty and given suspended
sentences for their roles in framing the former royal, along with fines of about 5,000 pounds.
Princess Victoria Melita was the granddaughter of both Queen Victoria
and Tsar Alexander II, and her marriage to Grand Duke Ernest of Hesse is one of the
most bizarre and scandalous in royal history. The main problems for the
marriage were that the princess was in love with the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich,
and according to Vanity Fair, Ernest had a widely known preference for the company of men.
According to historian Leslie Carroll,
after Princess Victoria discovered her husband in bed with a male kitchen staffer,
she begged her grandmother to be released from the marriage. The queen told her no,
and the princess had to wait until 1901 when Queen Victoria finally died to get her divorce.
If you watched Season 2 of "The Crown," you're likely familiar with the story of Queen Elizabeth
II's sister, Princess Margaret, and her marriage to society photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones.
Jones seemed to have not even a fleeting interest in monogamy, as Newsweek reported
he began an affair with his best friend's wife, Camilla Fry, while he was still engaged. Fry
gave birth to their daughter three weeks into the royal honeymoon. It set a difficult tone
for the marriage, as according to the Evening Standard, Armstrong-Jones, also known by his
official title of Lord Snowdon, had extramarital affairs as far back as 1969. His biographer,
Ann De Courcy, confirmed these allegations in a Channel 5 documentary about the couple.
"Tony never really dropped earlier girlfriends. There was a constant
succession of women and I think men but it's difficult to say."
Princess Margaret wasn't exactly sitting around waiting for her husband to come home the whole
time either; Good Housekeeping reported her having affairs with both a nightclub pianist
and a friend of Lord Snowden's. Her most famous boyfriend, however,
was Roddey Llewellyn. According to Harper's Bazaar, the then-25-year-old was photographed
with Princess Margaret on a Caribbean vacation. The scandalous pictures would
ultimately lead to Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden's marriage coming to an end.
In February 2020, The Sun reported that Queen Elizabeth's oldest grandchild, Peter Phillips,
and his wife, Autumn Phillips, had announced they were separating. The story quoted several close
friends as saying Peter was upset about the ending of a marriage he allegedly thought was going well,
though it should be noted none of those "friends" were named.
The Sun did, however, speculate that the couple's two daughters might have
dual Canadian citizenship, and since their mother is Canadian, they might return to the
great white north after their parents split, with The Sun reporting a source as saying -
"Maybe she has been influenced by Harry and Meghan's departure. Perhaps she thought if that
can happen then I can leave as well? That might be unfair on her but you have to consider it."
However, the couple was quick to quash the rumors of the impending move
to the land of the maple leaf, announcing in a statement
that they would both continue to live in Gloucestershire and co-parent their daughters.
Emperor Puyi's marriage to Empress Wanrong apparently soured quickly,
as according to China Daily, Puyi ran out of their royal bedroom the night of their wedding.
As Shine later reported, it was indicative that Puyi did not love Wanrong at all.
A 1924 coup forced the imperial couple to move to Tianjin, where Wanrong reportedly became addicted
to opium. She also was said to have had affairs with two of the emperor's aides, even having a
child with one of them. Shine says two depressing legends exist about the fate of the child:
either Puyi threw it into a boiler in a fit of rage, or that it was stillborn.
Either way, Wanrong slowly succumbed to mental illness as a result and died in prison
in 1946. Puyi went on to marry again,
but according to the 2001 book "Decoding the Secrets of The Last Marriage of the Last Emperor,"
he may have been gay, and he was unable to give his next wife a child.
Insofar as royal marriages ending badly, none became as much of a public spectacle
as that of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. It began as the ultimate fairytale marriage,
as Lady Diana married Prince Charles at St. Paul's Cathedral in front of an estimated
750 million viewers in 74 countries, with the BBC reporting that over half a million
people clogging the streets to try and watch the procession. But the fairytale didn't last long.
"And I suppose in love?"
"Of course." "Whatever ‘in love’ means."
By 1986, People reported that Prince Charles had begun an extra-marital affair with
Camilla Parker-Bowles, and by 1989, CBS News reported Princess Diana confronted Camilla
about it at a party. But Princess Diana was apparently not without her dalliances either,
with The Guardian reporting in 1992 that she and James Hewitt's relationship
was allegedly more than just friendly.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated in 1992 and
as Princess Diana famously told the BBC in 1995 -
"There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
Additionally, The New York Times reported Prince Charles saying that the relationship couldn't be
saved, and possibly the most famous marriage in recent history ended in divorce in 1996.
In 2006, Tessy Antony de Nassau married Prince Louis, Prince of Luxembourg.
The pair had met while serving in the army together, but in 2017,
after having two children, the pair announced in a statement that they would be divorcing.
For Tessy, it was allegedly
an especially difficult time. On the "Tell It Like It Is" podcast, she explained -
"When the divorce broke out, my body just shut down. Literally, I couldn't walk, properly speak,
eat [...] I had so much anxiety and couldn't even go shopping for food."
According to her, it was a combination of pressure, stress, and fear of public
scrutiny. As she is a businesswoman, she found it difficult to accept the marriage
had ended in failure. Eventually, Tessy started taking medication for depression,
but she knows getting over the divorce will take time, saying via the Tatler -
"Divorce was one of the most painful things I have gone through. I lost 98% of my friends."