The dating history of the British royal family reads like a guidebook to scandal
and controversy — and these are some of their most scandalous romances of all.
Because who would have thought Charles and Diana could have had quite so many affairs?
Less than a year after taking the throne, King Edward VIII informed the Prime Minister of his
intentions to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. This went about as well as you might
expect. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin told King Edward VIII that the people
would never accept Simpson as queen. So, in return, the king informed Baldwin that he was
prepared to abdicate the throne — but also proposed the idea of a morganatic marriage,
which would mean he could remain as king but Simpson would not become queen.
This plan was ultimately rejected, however, and, in December of 1936,
King Edward VIII resigned the throne. In a BBC News interview with both Simpson
and the former king nearly 32 years into their marriage, Simpson admitted:
"I'm extremely happy. Yes, we've had some hard times, but who hasn't?"
Princess Margaret met Peter Townsend when she was just a teenager. He was nearly twice her age,
married, and working for her father, King George VI, at the time. Townsend continued
working for the family after Margaret's father died, and he and his wife eventually divorced.
And so Margaret, much like her Uncle Edward, fell in love with a divorcee,
which had become no less of a scandalous prospect by this point in time. Soon enough,
the press caught onto their secret relationship and, in an attempt to quash the rumors,
Townsend was sent to work in Brussels. In a letter to the Prime Minister in 1955, Margaret wrote:
"[I]t is only by seeing [Townsend] in this way that I feel I can properly decide whether I can
marry him or not. At the end of October or early November I very much hope to be in a position
to tell you and the other Commonwealth Prime Ministers what I intend to do."
Ultimately, Margaret made the difficult decision not
to marry Townsend. Margaret's close friend Lady Mary Russell later said:
"We still felt it wouldn't be possible [...] for her in her position to marry Peter Townsend."
In the early days of their relationship, Prince Charles and Princess Diana were often
photographed together looking utterly in love with one another. Of course,
everyone now knows that their romance was little more than a facade. Andrew Morton,
who wrote Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words with Diana's cooperation, explained in his book:
"Her marriage to Prince Charles in 1981 was described as a 'fairytale' by the Archbishop
of Canterbury. In the popular imagination, the Prince and Princess [...] were the glamorous
and sympathetic face of the House of Windsor. The very idea that their ten-year marriage was
in dire trouble was unthinkable — even to the notoriously imaginative tabloid press."
Morton went on to explain what he learned about Diana during his interviews with her. He wrote:
"It was like being transported into a parallel universe, the Princess talking
about her unhappiness, her sense of betrayal, her suicide attempts and two things I had
never previously heard of: bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder, and a woman called Camilla."
At first glance, the two were a perfect match — but it soon became
clear that their relationship was riddled with infidelity.
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."
In 1994, Prince Charles spoke publicly for the first time about the end of his marriage
to Princess Diana. After hemming and hawing for nearly a minute when asked about his relationship
with Camilla Parker Bowles, he chose to refer to her as a "great friend." When asked later
in the interview if he was faithful to Diana during their marriage, he admitted he wasn't.
A taped intimate phone conversation between Charles and Parker Bowles in
1993 had helped expose this infidelity, simultaneously bringing into question his
relationship with Parker Bowles. In these private conversations,
Camilla claims that she cannot start the week without Charles, who responded in turn:
"I fill up your tank!"
In 2005, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles became more than "great friends" and
finally wed in a civil ceremony. The queen gave her blessing on their relationship,
although, due to her role as head of the Church of England, she chose not to attend the ceremony.
Prince Charles wasn't the only unfaithful party in his marriage to Diana,
however. In another biography by Andrew Morton, the author revealed:
"While she raged against her husband's infidelity, she hid the fact that she
had enjoyed a long if sporadic love affair with Captain James Hewitt from 1986 to 1990."
According to the biography, at one point Diana even talked about buying a house in the country
with Hewitt. And Hewitt wasn't the only man with whom she considered running off. Per Morton,
she also fantasized about buying a house in Italy with the art dealer Oliver Hoare. Her secret love
affair with Hoare, much like her relationship with Hewitt, apparently lasted for four years.
In addition, Diana's own salacious phone calls were leaked to the media. In one,
a man by the name of James Gilbey can be heard calling Diana by the
pet-name "Squidgy" not once, not twice, but 53 times in one half-hour recording.
Apparently, fidelity was neither Charles nor Diana's strong point.
Prince Andrew and his wife Sarah Ferguson divorced the very same year as Prince Charles
and Princess Diana. Much like the other unhappy couple,
Andrew and Fergie had separated for a time before eventually calling it quits for good.
Andrew and Ferguson reportedly split partially because of his demanding career.
The newlyweds were only able to spend 40 nights a year together for the first five
years of their marriage. But work wasn't the only thing tearing the two apart.
According to Andrew Morton, Ferguson had an affair with Steve Wyatt, a man referred to in his Diana
biography as a "Texan playboy." Ferguson was later photographed in a compromising situation
with another Texan, this time her financial advisor John Bryan. In an interview with CNN,
Ferguson recalled seeing the picture for the first time and thinking:
"Oh, no, Sarah."
Princess Anne and her husband Mark Phillips separated in the summer of
1989 and subsequently divorced in 1992. Anne's divorce was likely particularly
troubling to the royal family as she, too, had been involved in an affair.
While married to Phillips, Anne reportedly entered into a relationship with a man by the
name of Timothy Laurence, who served the queen in the same capacity as Margaret's
former love interest Captain Peter Townsend. Their relationship was outed when letters
Laurence wrote to Anne were stolen from her briefcase and published by the press.
After officially divorcing Phillips, Anne and Laurence married in Scotland in 1992.
Some might argue that Prince William and Kate Middleton are a good example of a
modern royal couple — but that doesn't mean their relationship didn't come without some controversy.
Before the two wed, Middleton could, in a sense, have been referred to as
a "commoner." Essentially, however, that just means she's not from a royal family,
and Middleton was still incredibly wealthy before marrying William. Still,
her social status was a point of contention for some, and her standing as a so-called "commoner"
may have been why Prince William delayed proposing to Middleton for eight long years.
Nowadays, Middleton is referred to as Catherine,
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge — interestingly enough, however, the queen could
have given her the name "Princess William," in the same fashion as commoners have been named.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's romance made headlines right from the outset,
thanks mostly to the former actress being a biracial American divorcee.
Indeed, when Meghan was first introduced as Harry's girlfriend, the racist backlash from
the British tabloid press and social media at large was swift and ruthless. Meanwhile,
her friends and family were pumped for private information about the star. In December 2021,
the duchess won a landmark case against the Mail on Sunday for "breach of copyright and invasion
of privacy" after they published a private letter she'd sent to her estranged father.
In their groundbreaking Oprah Winfrey interview,
the Sussexes confirmed intense press intrusion was what ultimately led them to defect from the royal
family. Harry was apparently terrified his wife would end up like his mother,
the late Princess Diana, who died in a car crash after being chased by paparazzi.
"My biggest concern was history repeating itself. And I've said that before,
on numerous occasions, very publicly."
In the end, however, it appears that Harry and
Meghan have managed to carve out a life for themselves elsewhere.
Before Meghan Markle, there was Koo Stark. It was this actress who
caused pearls to be clutched within the royal family back in the '80s,
after Stark hooked up with Prince Andrew. Stark was a fledgling actor whose biggest roles were
in racy movies such as Cruel Passion and Emily. As royal family expert Charles Rae explained:
"She caused a sensation. Everyone was fascinated by her — particularly her past."
Although both the queen and the late Princess Diana were reportedly fond of her,
Stark was never going to fit in with the royals because, as royal expert Ingrid Seward once said:
"In those days, a prince of the realm might have had an actress as a mistress,
just like his ancestors would have done, but never a wife."
She and Andrew were apparently set up on a blind date in 1981
and hit it off immediately. However, the press deemed Stark totally unsuitable to
marry a prince and the relationship was, therefore, doomed to fail.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more List videos about your favorite royals are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.