From Commoners to Castles. 13 Americans Who Became Princesses
The marriage of Megan Markle and Prince Harry has taken over the world. Megan has a past that in the past wouldn’t have been fit for a castle. That’s why we love their “bloody good” love story. The Duchess isn’t the only American to fall in love and marry a prince.
While we might not have an official American royal family, few American girls have caught the eye of dashing foreign princes over the years. Grab your tiara and check out these commoners who now call a castle, “home sweet home.”
Check the 13 American Who Said “I Do” To Royalty- Guess Who Is No. 1
13. Marie-Chantal Miller
She’s living the American Dream and married to her prince which makes a royal dream come true. The daughter of American-born duty-free magnate Robert Miller, Marie-Chantal Miller grew up a true citizen of the world; she was raised with family homes in Hong Kong, Paris, London, and New York, Gstaad, and Yorkshire
wikimedia/Frankie FouganthinAmerican Princess Miller married Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece’ son of the deposed King Constantine of Greece, in 1995, and became Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of Greece, Princess of Denmark . “It was love at first sight,” she told Vanity Fair
Marie-Chantal Miller, owns a children’s clothing line named Marie Chantal. She is also the mommy of five. Marie is proof that women can have their royal cake and eat it too.
12. Rita Hayworth
Here’s another famous actress who chose a crown over Hollywood. In 1949, one of Hollywood’s brightest stars Rita Hayworth fell for Italian-born Prince Aly Khan the son of the Aga Khan, the ruler of the Ismaili faction of Shia Islam. (Say that three times fast!). They were married and seemed to have everything a royal couple could. But it must not have been enough.
commons wikimediaTheir tempestuous union lasted fewer than four years and produced one daughter, philanthropist and Alzheimer’s crusader Yasmin Aga Khan. For a brief time, she was a true American princess. Rita moved on to five more hubbies… true love was so hard to come by.
11. Hope Cooke
In the absence of both parents,Hope Cooke was brought up in New York by grandparents. In the late ’50s, when 20-year-old college freshman Hope Cooke was traveling abroad through Sarah Lawrence College in India, she met Palden Thondup Namgyal the Crown Prince of tiny Himalayan nation Sikkim, at the bar of Darjeeling’s Windermere Hotel.
Despite her young age, they married and she renounced her American citizenship after two years of dating. Two years after that she became a queen, styled as Her Highness Hope La, the Gyalmo of Sikkim.
commons wikimediaTheir marriage was reportedly full of drama to the point that the New York Times called it a “fairytale turned nightmare”. When India finally claimed the tiny kingdom as its own in the early 1975, Hope took her two birth children and one stepchild back to New York. She finally divorced the King in 1980, just two years before his death from cancer.
10. Autumn Kelly
Princess Anne’s daughter-in-law Autumn Phillips is a born-and-bred Canadian from Montreal. Autumn and Queen Elizabeth’s grandson Peter Phillips met at the 2003 Montreal Grand Prix, a Formula One motor race, where they were both working. While Peter was delivering Ralph Schumacher to the suite, Autumn approached him for a chat. “I’d never heard of Peter or Zara Phillips”.
InstagramWhile Autumn was raised Catholic, she converted to and was accepted into the Church of England before the wedding
9. Lee Radziwill
Lee Radziwill, the American socialite and younger sister of former US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, has died at the age of 85 at home in New York City on Friday.
Jackie Kennedy’s kid sister had her own friends in high places. After her first marriage dissolved, Lee married Stanislaw Albrecht Radziwill, a Polish prince. They stayed together for 15 years before splitting. They had two children, Anthony and Tina; now in her 80s, Lee divides her time between New York and Paris.
shutterstockThough Jackie was known as a fashion icon, Lee had a more inherent sense of style and eventually was named to the International Best Dressed List’s Hall of Fame. She was an actress, interior decorator, author, fashion public relations executive and television interviewer, although some of those careers were short-lived.
The Bouvier sisters were close but there was an undercurrent of competition between them. One biographer said the girls’ father, the dashing John “Black Jack” Bouvier, favored Jackie and Lee felt she could not live up to his expectations. Both girls idolized their father but Lee said she had a difficult relationship with their mother, Janet, who called her fat.
His father marry British-born model Sally Crocker-Poole and his grandfather married Rita Hayworth and his great-grandfather took Miss France as his fourth wife.
twitter/kendra_spearsThe couple, who live in Switzerland, have two children. The Princess Salwa still works as a model under her maiden name. The “Little Cindy” (a reference to supermodel Cindy Crawford) has appeared on the cover of Vogue Espana, Elle France, and Vogue China and is the face of the Armani Code fragrance campaign.
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instagram./avfhomeWith her daughter Princess Talita as high-society’s newest it-girl, her mother-in-law as Diane von Fürstenberg (she married Prince Alexander’s father Prince Egon in 1969) and her brother-in-law as the future king of Greece, we’d bet those are some fabulous family reunions.
4. Wallis Simpson
Now this one is a true-blue love story. Way back in 1936 when everything royals did was stuffy and to the “t”, King Edward VIII fell in love with a divorcee from PA.
As head of the Church of England, the idea of Edward marrying a divorcée was anathema for religious, legal, and moral reasons.
commons wikimediaTo make a long sob story short, they married, the castle didn’t recognize it, and Eddie had to choose between the love of his life and the love of his country. He chose true love and was removed from the long royal succession line. After marrying Edward she became the Duchess of Windsor and the two went into merry, glittering exile in places like the Bahamas, Florida, New York, and Paris.
Though her relationship with the British royal family remained fractured, when Wallis died in 1986 the funeral was attended by Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
3. Lisa Halaby
Princeton grad, Lisa Halaby met her prince in shining armor in an airplane. This Washington D.C. native worked for Royal Jordanian Airlines, and as royal luck had it, is where she met her husband, King Hussein of Jordan. Halaby was the daughter of a woman of Swedish descent and a man of Syrian descent.
shutterstockKing Hussein, 16 years her senior, swept her right off her hard-working feet Talk about a king-sized promotion!
After the death of his wife Queen Alia , King Hussein married Halaby in 1978 and she landed on the Jordan throne as Queen Noor (the Arabic word for “light”) . The couple had four children and were together until the King’s death from lymphoma in 1999. K Queen Noor continues to work globally on environmental and education issues.
2. Grace Kelly
It was love at first sight for this famous couple. Grace Kelly was Hollywood royalty. Then the Academy Award-winning actress met and fell madly in love with his Serene Highness Rainier III Prince of Monaco.
wikimediaGrace was in the south of France for the Cannes Film Festival screening of her film The Country Girl and her PR set up a photo-shoot for Paris Match at the palace. Her first meeting with Prince Rainier was captured on film and the rest is history. They married in 1956 and Grace became the beloved Princess of Monaco. “I married the man and not what he represented or what he was.”
Unfortunately, this love story doesn’t have a happy ending. The Princess was killed in a car accident at the age of 52 in a car accident, leaving the love of her life and children behind.
Meghan Markle/InstagramThe Royal Wedding
Meghan was introduced to Prince Harry in July 2016 by a mutual friend, and the whirlwind relationship led to an engagement in November 2017. The couple married in a royal wedding held at Windsor Castle in May 2018.
shutterstockWhile Prince Harry is only fifth in line to the throne (sixth when Kate gives birth to her third child)