A Discarded but Not Forgotten Princess

portrait from the Celle Residenzmuseum
via Wikimedia Commons

At last, she was gone. The woman King George I had removed from everyone's sight and hidden away, imprisoned in a castle in faraway Hanover, was finally dead. He would never have to think about her again. In his court in London, he forbade mourning for the woman who had been his wife but not his queen although he did place an announcement in the newspaper that the "Duchess of Ahlden" had died. Unfortunately for him, he could not erase her from people's memories or, worse, from his children's hearts. When word reached him that his daughter, Queen Sophia Dorothea of Prussia, had enacted a period of mourning in Berlin, he was livid. How dare she! She, of all people, should have forgotten her mother long ago. She had been just seven years old when George sent her away.

How he had despised her--his unwanted wife. Sophie Dorothea of Celle had always been at the heart of scandal. It was a deep family wound that started long before either George or Sophia Dorothea had been born. It started in 1658, when George's uncle, George William of Brunswick-Luneberg, had disgraced his family and forfeited his inheritance in order to avoid marrying Sophia of the Palatinate, passing his lands and his intended bride to his younger brother, Ernest Augustus. George William even swore he would never marry in order to ensure he would have no legitimate offspring who could challenge the couple's own children. George William was given Celle to provide him with a living, but this would return to his brother's line upon his death. Ernest Augustus eventually became the Elector of Hanover and Sophia, a granddaughter of Britain's King James VI and I, became the heiress of the British throne. Together, they had six sons and a daughter.

But, George William, did not keep his promise. In 1665, he secretly married his mistress, Eleanor d'Olbreuse. The marriage was morganatic not dynastic, which made their only child, Sophia Dorothea, little better than a bastard when she was born in 1666. In an effort to provide for his daughter's future, George William proposed a marriage between his daughter and Ernest Augustus's eldest son, George Louis. Outraged, Ernest Augustus and Sophia spurned the offer.

George William reacted by fully reneging on his original promise. Ten years after their morganatic marriage, he married Eleanor with the full authority of church and state, officially recognized her as his duchess, and declared Sophia Dorothea legitimate, and, therefore his heir. The only way Ernest Augustus could get Celle now was to accept the marriage proposal. 

Weeks after her seventeenth birthday, the beautiful Sophia Dorothea of Celle was married to her 22-year-old cousin, George Louis. Raised in the love-filled and far less formal court of her parents, Sophia Dorothea found little joy in her new home. Not surprisingly, her aunt/mother-in-law, Electress Sophia despised her and it soon became clear that her husband felt the same. Despite this, the young couple did their duty and produced two children. George Augustus was born twelve months after the wedding and little Sophia Dorothea, the future Queen of Prussia, was born three and a half years after him.

Sophia Dorothea with her children
portrait by Jacques Vaillart via Wikimedia Commons

Within a few years, George Louis' disdain for his wife was fully realized when he took her maid of honor, Melusine van der Schulenberg, as his mistress. To add insult to injury, no one else found the,  super skinny Melusine attractive. Sophia Dorothea was outraged and humiliated. Her humiliation only deepened when Melusine bore him two daughters in quick succession. Sophia Dorothea had never cared for her husband--she had protested having to marry him--but she refused to be a complacent wife. 

She turned to Count Philipp von Konigsmarck as a willing listener to her tales of woe. Why should George Louis be allowed to flaunt his mistress while she was expected to remain faithful? Why indeed, Philipp agreed and the two began an affair of their own. 

There were, however, clear distinctions at that time between a wife's infidelities and a husband's, especially for rich husbands who were heirs to thrones. Not only was his wife his property over whom he had nearly unhindered autonomy, any child she might conceive by her lover could be passed off as a potential royal heir. 

Since he never loved his wife, George Louis' was insulted more by Sophia Dorothea's sins against him as Prince than as husband. While she was monitored more closely and her letters were intercepted. Having at last found happiness like she had seen in her parents' relationship, Sophia Dorothea sought to escape. She begged her parents to support a divorce, but the dynastic nature of the marriage made that even more difficult and scandalous in an age when divorce was already considered a sin. Seeing no other options, Sophia Dorothea decided to abandon her husband and children to run away with her lover.

Late on the evening of July 1, 1694, Philipp arrived secretly at the royal castle by boat and made his way to Sophia Dorothea's apartments. He was never seen again. It's not even clear if Sophia Dorothea has summoned him or if his invitation had been a ruse to lure him to a murderous plot. His body has never been found, but most believe he was killed that evening with approval from the future King of Great Britain.

Sophia Dorothea would suffer a more lingering fate. The marriage was dissolved. She was permanently separated from her children, without even correspondence to console her. Finally, she was sent to the castle at Ahlden to live as a prisoner for the rest of her life. After her daughter went to live with her new husband in Prussia and her son went to London as the new Prince of Wales, Sophia Dorothea would long for word of them, especially if they were traveling to Hanover. She would sometimes even dress up in anticipation of an unannounced visit. Alas, none ever came.

Sophia Dorothea spent 32 years as a prisoner, forever paying for her extramarital affair. Meanwhile, George Louis took both Melusine (aka the Maypole) and a second, plumper mistress named Sophia Charlotte von Kielmansegg (aka the Elephant) to Britain with him when he became King George I. He even gave them both noble titles as Duchess of Kendal and Countess of Leinster.

George Louis outlived his former wife by six months, just long enough for history to never find out if her son, King George II, would have freed his mother as King Richard the Lionheart freed Eleanor of Aquitaine from her husband King Henry II's imprisonment.

More About Sophia Dorothea
Consort of the Month: Sophia Dorothea of Celle on An Historian About Town
The Deadly Sophxit of Count Konigsmark and Princess Sophia Dorothea on The Chronicles of History 
Hidden Historical Heroines #35: Sophia Dorothea of Celle on Erin Lawless
On This Day: Birth of Sophia Dorothea of Celle on The Creative Historian
Sophia Dorothea de Celle, The Unfortunate Lady of Ahlden on Dynasties Forum
Sophia Dorothea of Celle on 1066
Sophia Dorothea of Celle on English Monarchs
Sophia Dorothea of Celle, Electoral Princess of Hanover on Unofficial Royalty
Sophia Dorothea of Celle, A Forced Marriage, Then an Imprisonment on The Monstrous Regiment of Women
Sophia Dorothea of Celle, The Prisoner of Ahlden on The History of Royal Women
The Wives of the Georgian Kings: Sophia Dorothea of Celle on Royal Central

The Last Hessian Princess

via Wikimedia Commons

A golden-haired princess arrived at Wolfsgarten on September 20, 1936 at a peak moment of joy for her family. The Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse-Darmstadt already had his "heir and a spare"--little Ludwig born in 1931 and Alexander born in 1933. Although his family had lost its political status at the end of the Great War in 1919, Germany was finally recovering and the Hessian family was thriving.

Georg Donatus' wife, the former Princess Cecilie of Greece and Denmark, seemed settled after the wanderings and upheavals of her youth caused by the political turmoils in Greece and her own parents' estrangement. Cecilie's mother, the former Princess Alice of Battenberg, had not attended their wedding in February 1931 because she had been institutionalized by her mother, the former Princess Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine (who was also Georg Donatus' aunt). By the time Georg Donatus and Cecilie's third child was born, however, Princess Alice had long been recovered and was living independently. Although she was not in regular contact with Cecilie, at least they knew she was no longer believing herself to be married to Jesus. 

Georg Donatus' father, Grand Duke Ernest Louis, a beloved grandson of Queen Victoria, was aging but by no means decrepit at age 66. His mother, the former Princess Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich, was a warm and loving grandmother to the growing brood. Meanwhile, his only brother, Prince Ludwig, was newly smitten with a very special British lady called Margaret Campbell Geddes.

Cecilie and Georg Donatus named their little girl Johanna Marina Eleonore. Her second name was given in honor of her godmother, Cecilie's first cousin Princess Marina of Greece, who had married the youngest surviving son of Britain's king and become the Duchess of Kent. The family of five was nestled in the happy and stable environs of their grandparents' country home at Wolfsgarten outiside of Darmstadt. 

In the new year, Grand Duke Ernest Louis became ill with lung disease and started to decline. The family was worried but also had two new reasons to celebrate. First, Cecilie was pregnant again. Second, Ludwig and Margaret, affectionately known as Peg, were to be married in London. 

Preparations for the wedding kept everyone busy in that fall of 1937 when they celebrated Johanna's first birthday. Everyone, except the tiny princess, would fly together from Germany to England for the wedding celebrations. Ernest Louis did his best to make sure he could attend. Sadly, his body had other plans. The Grand Duke passed away on October 9, two weeks before the wedding. The couple rescheduled their wedding until November 20.

On November 16, the new Grand Duke Georg Donatus kissed his 14-month-old daughter Johanna goodbye, likely promising to bring her gift from his journey. Then, he helped his mourning mother, his pregnant wife, and his two little boys board the private plane for a multi-stage flight. However, something went wrong. During an unplanned landing the plane collided with a factory chimney and crashed. In a flash, everyone was gone. 

Devastated, Ludwig and Peg moved their wedding to the next day with the bride and the handful of guests dressed in mourning black. Then, they traveled to the site of the crash in Belgium for the gruesome task of identifying the bodies. From there, they hurried to Wolfsgarten to be with little Johanna, who was far too young to understand why her parents never returned to her. Although they had to oversee the funeral for six members of the family--Cecilie's baby was born in the lead-up to or in the moment of the crash--Ludwig and Peg showered Johanna with affection and attention.

The newlyweds formally adopted Johanna in early 1938 and she became their great joy. Their happiness was once again cut short the following year when little Johanna was stricken with meningitis. She died on June 14, 1939, just three months short of her third birthday. She was laid to rest at Rosenhöhe Park in Darmstadt with her brothers, parents, and grandparents.

For More About the Hessian Royal Family's Tragedies:
The Curse of November 16 on Royal Musings

Alt for Norge: The Life of Princess Astrid

Screenshot from @

detnorskekongehus

 on Instagram

An elderly lady sits in a wheelchair silhouetted in the shadows of the palace looking out on the crowds mourning her little brother. In another image, the same lonely figure sits alone beside his casket. A single stone of sadness with rivers of international mourning streaming around her. Alone. The last sibling.

And just days after that, the wheelchair sits empty. Its royal occupant no longer standing tall to give her "Alt for Norge."

Princess Astrid passed away in her sleep at the age of 94 on September 11, 2026, two days after her younger brother, King Harald V of Norway was laid to rest. 

Despite several health challenges in her later years, Princess Astrid remained an active member of the Norwegian Royal Family working almost to the end. She made her last public engagement on May 4, 2026 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dyslexia Norway just a few weeks after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Ten days later, she was hospitalized again, this time with heart failure and was given a pacemaker. This marked the unofficial end of 75 years of public service. Always full of humor and with a heart for service, Astrid once remarked, "I sit in a chair and stuff but it's my legs that fail...I can be involved with things." That spirit led her to take on as many as 20 official engagements a year well into her nineties.

Photo from the Studio of Ernest Rude from the
National Library of Norway via Wikimedia Commons

Princess Astrid Maud Ingeborg of Norway was born on February 12, 1932 as the second child of then Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway. She was named for her maternal aunt Astrid, who was soon to be Queen of Belgium (See my post about her, End of a Fairytale); her paternal grandmother Queen Maud of Norway, a former British princess; and her maternal grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Sweden (See my post about her, A Truly Royal In-Law). As a great-grandaughter of King Edward VII, she was born 18th in line to the British throne. At the time, however, her gender barred her from any claims on the Norwegian realm of her father or the Swedish realm of her mother. Nevertheless, she became a very important princess at a very young age. The death of Queen Maud when Astrid was five, elevated Crown Princess Martha to the role of Norway's first lady. When Martha died 16 years later, Astrid took on the role at the tender age of 22 because her older sister, Princess Ragnhild (see my post about her Death of Princess Ragnhild). She would serve as first lady for her grandfather King Haakon VII and her father King Olav V, until her younger brother Crown Prince Harald married Sonja Haraldsen (read my post about her, A New Kind of Queen for Norway) in 1968.

Astrid's early years were spent in the bosom of a growing, happy family despite the looming clouds of war that were gathering across Europe. When the Nazis brought the war to Norway, the Crown Princess and the three children fled at first to Sweden and then, when their presence grew harmful for Sweden's neutrality, to the United States as guests of President Franklin Roosevelt. King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav led a government from hiding in Norway and then from exile in London, after the Germans set up a puppet regime in Norway.

Astrid and her siblings spent five years of their childhood in the United States, at first in Upstate New York and then in Maryland, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C.. She was 13 by the time the war ended and they were finally able to return to Norway. She attended Nissen's Girl School and studied ceramics. Then, Astrid spent two years at Oxford University studying economics and political history, an unusual undertaking for a princess of her generation. However, the young princesses of the 1950s and 1960s were emerging as leaders -- perhaps because there were so many of them compared to the number of princes! Young royal women were being dispatched around the world to represent their nations. 

One memorable tour saw Astrid with her cousins Princess Margaretha of Sweden and Princess (later Queen) Margrether of Denmark on a joing tour across the California to promote Scandinavia Airline Service (SAS) with its new faster transatlantic flights. In addition to some glitzy dinners wearing tiaras, the wildly popular trio of princesses, went to SeaWorld and Disneyland and also visited a different kind of king--King of Rock 'n' Roll Elvis Presley on the set of his film G.I. Blues.

Embed from Getty Images

The only moment of any controversy in Astrid's life came in her choice of spouse. All of King Olav's children married only with the grunting permission of their father: Ragnhild because Erling Lorentzen was a commoner and her former bodyguard and Harald because Sonja Haraldsen was also a commoner. Astrid's choice was potentially more scandalous because her desired spouse was also divorced. This meant more than just a social mismatch; it meant concerns from the Norwegian Church. Only a few years later, Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom had spurned her love Peter Townsend (see my post, An Affair to Remember) for the very same reason. Astrid quietly persisted, despite objections even from her own parish church and finally was given permission to marry Johan Martin Ferner, a businessman and Olympic medalist in sailing. As a consequence, she lost her royal status, becoming just Her Highness, and her royal income.

Embed from Getty Images

Thenceforth known officially as Princess Astrid Mrs. Ferner, she launched into a very happy domestic life. She and Mr. Ferner were married for 54 years until his death in 2015. The first 11 years of their marriage saw the arrival of give children: Cathrine, Benedikte, Alexander, Elisabeth and Carl Christian.

Publicly, she continued to support the monarch and to take on leadership roles for many charitable organizations. She was especially concerned with social and humanitarian issues, particularly those that related to women. Astrid also was an avid supporter of the arts and athletics. On her 70th birthday, Norway recognized her long service to the country by granting her an honorary pension.

Embodying the wartime mantra of "Alt for Norge" (All For Norway), Princess Astrid is the only member of the Norwegian Royal Family to have lived through all four reigns of the modern Norwegian monarchy, those of her grandfather Haakon VII, her father Olav V, her brother Harald V, and. for a few days, her nephew Haakon VIII. She was one of the last surviving great-grandchildren of Britain's King Edward VII--the others still living are The Duke of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent, Prince Michael of Kent, and Princess Alexandra Lady Ogilvy.

More personally, she is survived by her five children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, none of whom bear royal titles or undertake royal duties.

Princess Astrid, at the heart of the Norwegian Royal Family,between the then
Crown Princess & Princess and the King & Queen on the 85th birthday in 2017.
Photo by Marten Brun, The Norwegian Royal Court

More About Astrid
Did Princess Astrid of Norway Die of a Broken Heart? on Tatler
Heartbreak as Norways's Princess Astrid Dies on Hello!
Norway: Princess Astrid Mrs. Ferner's 90th Birthday on Dag Trygsland Hoelseth
On Call for Norway Throughout Her Life on the Norwegian Royal House
Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner on Royal Musings
Princess Astrid, Mrs. Ferner on Unofficial Royalty
Princess Astrid of Norway Has Died on Royal Watcher
Princess Astrid of Norway Dies Two Days After Her Brother's Funeral on Royal Central
Princess Astrid of Norway, 94, Is the Picture of Dignity on Tatler
Royal Wedding Dress: Princess Astrid of Norway on Queens of England
Working for Norway Throughout Her Life on Royal Musings

A New Kind of Queen for Norway

Photo from Norwegian Royal Household

With the death of King Harald II of Norway in 2026, his wife Queen Sonja made history. She became the first Dowager Queen of Norway since Queen Margaret of Denmark outlived King Haakon VI Magnusson in 1380. (Of course, Margaret asserted her own authority, eventually ruling as Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. For her story, see my post The Pantsless King.) For the next 500 years, Norway was ruled by foreign kings in union with Denmark and/or Sweden. When it finally gained its full independence from Sweden* in the early 20th Century, Norway voted to make Prince Carl of Denmark its new King. Carl adopted the name and title King Haakon VII and renamed his toddler son Olav, in tribute to Norway's earlier history. 

Carl/Haakon's wife, however, did not change her name. Having been born Princess Maud of Wales, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria's heir, she became Queen Maud. In 1905, the small family of three was welcomed to their new homeland with great fanfare, in large part because when Haakon was offered the crown, it was he who insisted on a plebiscite to confirm the people's opinion.

Maud and Haakon were first cousins, both grandchildren of King Christian IX of Denmark, and had strong ties to the Danish Royal Family. Maud's heart, however, remained tied to Britain, where her father had ascended the throne as King Edward VII in 1901. She maintained a grace-and-favour house on her father's Sandringham estate called Appleton House and visited frequently, even maintaining her charitable roles there. Somewhat introverted, she did not necessarily enjoy the public role of being a queen, but she had learned a few things from her elegant mother, Queen Alexandra: when in doubt, layer on more jewels! Her regal appearance helped to solidify the new monarchy's place.

Queen Maud and King Haakon VII

by Peder O. Aune via Wikimedia Commons

Another attribute Maud gained from her active parents truly connected her to the Norwegian people. She loved sport, particularly the winter sports like skiing that are innate to everyone in Norway. She was also a superior horsewoman. During World War I, while Norway maintained a neutrality that leaned heavily in favor of Britain, Maud, like many royal women of the day took an active role in relief efforts. However, she was not afraid to push against tradition either. In fact, she was one of few royal women to engage with edgier social subjects, even supporting a home for unwed mothers.

Maud helped establish the traditions and homes of the Norwegian Royal Family in line with those of her home nation. Even though her parents and and all of her siblings had passed away by the mid-1930s, she was still welcomed warmly by her nephew, King George VI. During one of her regular visits, she grew very ill and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. King Haakon dashed from Norway to be at her side as she underwent a surgery that successfully removed the tumor. Nevertheless, the weakened queen's heart failed and she died on November 20, 1938 just days before her 69th birthday. Her body was returned to Norway on a British naval flag ship and she became the first royal to be buried at Akershus Fortress in Oslo since the 13th Century. King Haakon survived her by more than 20 years but never remarried.

Martha and Olav in 1929

by G. Hård from the Norwegian National Library

via Wikimedia Commons

Instead, their daughter-in-law, the former Crown Princess Martha of Sweden became Norway's first lady. Martha and Crown Prince Olav were second cousins, both great-grandchildren of the prolific King Christian IX of Denmark. Martha was a granddaughter of Sweden's King Oscar II, who had also been King of Norway at the time that Norway gained its independence. As children of a younger son of the king, Martha and her siblings grew up in a more casual royal upbringing. Their parents even made sure their three daughters learned marketable skills -- cooking, childcare, first aid -- just in case they needed to make a living or become homemakers one day. As it happens, Margaretha married Danish Prince Axel, Astrid married King Leopold II of Belgium (read my post about her End of a Fairytale), and Martha married the future Norwegian king. Amazingly, all three of these elite marriages were also genuine love matches.

Olav had been slipping quietly across the border to visit Martha in Sweden without the public or the media taking notice. In 1928, they traveled separately to Amsterdam for the Olympic Games. Having won a gold medal in sailing, Olympian Olav proposed and Martha happily accepted. The engagement was finally announced in early 1929 to great public joy in both countries. Their true love match also symbolized "healing" for the two nations that had separated when the bride and groom were very young. Their wedding in March 1929 was the first royal wedding in Norway in over 300 years. 

The couple quickly set up nursery with Princess Ragnhild arriving the next year and Princess Astrid two years after that. Their last child and only son, Crown Prince Harald was born in 1937. In public, Martha assumed the usual round of royal duties with public appearances and charitable works, but she added something new to her repertoire: public speaking. Very few royal women gave speeches at that time, but Martha's natural grace and confidence were well-suited to the task. 

Martha and Harald with their children
(from left) Astrid, baby Harald and Ragnhild

by Anders Beer Wilse from Norwegian National Library
via Wikimedia Commons

As dark clouds were gathering in Europe, the couple was sent to the United States to shore up American support for the small nation. Martha and Olav built solid friendships with President Franklin Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. They also toured through areas where many Norwegian immigrants had settled, strengthening the ties back to the homeland. These connections were to be critical in the years ahead. 

Once again intending to remain neutral, Norway was forced into World War II when Germany invaded in April 1940. Martha and her three young children were rushed to the Swedish border by car and on foot because the train had been bombed the day before. Traveling incognito, they were denied access when they could not produce their passports. Princess Astrid, who was eight at the time, recalled that her mother took control and ordered their driver to smash through the gates. King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav set up a operations at a secret location in Norway and then later narrowly escaped to London, where Olav's cousin King George VI allowed them to establish a government in exile.            

Martha's presence in the officially neutral Sweden soon became diplomatically problematic. Martha's recently acquired friend offered a solution by inviting her and the children to come to the United States. He sent an American transport ship to pick them up from a Finnish port and bring them across the Atlantic. They initially stayed in the White House. Many speculate that the President and the Crown Princess had a romantic relationship. Whether true or not, Roosevelt certainly admired her and valued her opinion. Her presence in the U.S. brought many benefits to Norway, including a U.S. built submarine, which she christened. When not advocating for Norway with the U.S. government and wealthy Norwegian-Americans, Martha was active with the Red Cross.  

After the war, the whole family was reunited in Norway following five years of separation. The Norwegian people welcomed them all with great pride and affection. By then in his 70s, King Haakon's health was steadily declining leading Olav and Martha to take on even more responsibilities. However, the king was not the only one ailing. In 1947, Martha had returned to the United States to undergo back surgery and received a blood transfusion contaminated with hepatitis. That illness eventually caused her to develop cirrhosis of the liver. She died at age 53, two weeks after their 25th wedding anniversary and four months before the birth of her first grandchild. She was the second modern royal buried at Akershus. Olav survived her by nearly 37 years and like his father, never remarried. He became King Olav V upon his father's death in 1957 and reigned until his own death in early 1991. Norway had no queen for more than 52 years from Maud's death until Olav's when King Harald V succeeded with Queen Sonja at his side. 

Sonja and Harald in 1968
via Wikimedia Commons

Their road to the throne together had not been an easy one, however. Sonja Haraldsen had been born among the "common" people. Her father was a clothing merchant. She studied accounting and fashion and helped out in the family business. The couple met through common social connections and quickly fell in love in their early twenties. King Olav, a descendant of generations of royal-to-royal marriages strongly objected to an unequal marriage for his heir. (See my post, Unequal Marriage Equals Happy Marriage?) He actively intervened to prevent them from marrying but Harald persisted; he would not consider anyone but Sonja. The media had learned of the romance however, making Sonja the "Waity Katie" of her generation. She kept engaged with her work and even completed an undergraduate degree in English, French and history at the University of Oslo, where her granddaughter Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra enrolled in August 2026. After nine years, Harald's obstinence finally caused Olav to relent. Better an unequal marriage than an end to the royal dynasty. 

Sonja and Harald were married on August 29, 1968 and the new Crown Princess soon became a very popular first lady for her father-in-law. However, the couple's joy was marred in 1970 with a terrible miscarriage. After waiting so long to marry, were they to be denied a family after all? Finally, more than three years after their wedding, Princess Martha Louise was born in September 1971 followed by Prince Haakon Magnus in July 1973. Their family was complete. 

As Crown Princess and then Queen, Sonja undertook the usual round of royal public and social duties. In 1972, she launched a fund in her newborn daughter's name to help children with disabilities. She established a music competition and a school to promote diversity and inclusion. She is particularly well-known for promoting the visual arts and outdoor sports, particulary trekking. She has also travelled widely representing Norway, becoming the first queen to visit Antarctica, when she went there in 2005 to open a research station in Queen Maud Land. She became a grandmother for the first time in 2003 with the birth of Princess Martha Louise's first daughter Maud Angelica Behn.

In more recent years, Sonja has suffered some health issues, especially atrial fibrillation for which she was implanted with her first pacemaker in 2005. A few months before Harald's death the condition landed her in the hospital again.  

King Harald died one day before their 58th wedding anniversary, making Sonja the first royal wife in modern Norway to outlive her husband. Although she is the first Queen Dowager, she will simply be addressed as Queen Sonja. This moment also marks the first time, one Queen Consort (Sonja) is followed by another, new King Haakon VIII's wife, the former Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby.

*During the period from 1818 until 1905, the Bernadotte Kings of Sweden were also Kings of Norway, although the countries were technically separate nations. During this time period, Queen Desideria became a Dowager Queen in 1844 and so did her daughter-in-law Queen Josephine in 1859. Desideria was crowned Queen of Sweden but never of Norway. She visited Norway but never lived there. In fact, she spent much of her time in her native France. Queen Josephine spent significantly more time in Norway during her husband's reign. After his death, however, she largely withdrew from society, living quietly in Sweden. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

A Steady Princess in the Heart of Tempests

Edition Moos, Karlsruhe Nr. 3640

via Wikimedia Commons

Theodora's life had always been unstable, riddled with upheavals and tragedies. She had lived through the Balkan Wars and the First World War. She had sheltered in the cellars with her mother and sisters when the French had bombarded the royal palace in Athens. Her family had been forced into exile not once, but twice. Her grandfather had been assassinated when she was just five years old. Her father had narrowly escaped a death sentence for treason when she was a teenager. Her beloved mother had been sent to a sanatorium after claiming she was married to Jesus.

This wasn't even the first time an entire branch of her family tree had been obliterated in a moment. When she was still a girl, her mother's cousin Alexandra had been brutally murdered with her husband and all of their children, the youngest just two years older than Theodora herself. The next day, Alexandra's sister met the same fate.

But this family annihilation was worse. Maybe it wasn't as brutal. It wasn't intentional. It wasn't political. It was an accident. But that was not the worst part yet. This time, it was Cecilie. Her little sister. Her playmate. Of the four daughters of Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg, Princess Cecile was the one who sparkled, whose bright personality found a way to shine despite all of the hardships they faced, while Princess Theodora was the quieter one, who stood back and tried to help keep everyone together. 

Theodora was at home at her husband's ancestral castle, Salem, in Germany on that cold, cloudy November day when the news was delivered by telegram. Twenty-six-year-old Cecilie, her unborn child, her two little boys, her husband, her mother-in-law and their pilot all killed in an instant when their plane inexplicably crashed.

In that terrible moment, perhaps Theodora thought back to those glorious but stressful days when she and her sisters, the exiled Princesses of Greece, had made their debut in London society as the penniless relatives of the British Royal Family. (Their mother, after all, had been born at Windsor Castle under the eye of her grandmother Queen Victoria.) The girls and their baby brother, Prince Philip, who was 15 years younger than Theodora, bounced between a quasi-stable existence in France to "visit" various relatives from Romania to Britain to Germany, where their mother was ultimately confined. 

Princess Alice with her four daughters

 from the Royal Collection via Wikimedia Commons

And, it was in Germany, that all four sisters found their husbands. The two youngest married first: Sophie to Prince Christoph of Hesse in 1930 when she was only 16 and Cecilie a few months later to Christoph's cousin Hereditary Grand Duke Georg Donatus of Hesse. Two months later, oldest sister Margarita, age 26, Hereditary Prince Gottfried of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

A month after that, Theodora was the last to marry when she wed Berthold Margrave of Baden, and moved into Schloss Salem. Within six years, the couple had three children: Margarita, Max, and little Ludwig, born just eight months before the Hessian plane crash. Ever dutiful, Theodora continued to maintain strong ties of her family. She traveled frequently to visit her mother at the sanatorium. With their mother institutionalized and their father living a playboy lifestyle in Paris, it was Theodora who invited their baby brother Philip a home with her growing family as Schloss Salem.

Theodora and Berthold were patrons of Philip's first school there, Salem School, which had been co-founded by Berthold's father and Jewish-German educator Kurt Hahn. With the Nazis' rise to power, Hahn relocated to Gordonstoun and Philip followed him there, while Berthold maintained the school at Salem. While her brothers-in-law voluntarily joined the Nazi party, Theodora's husband was less enthusiastic about the new regime. When war came, he did his aristocratic duty serving as a cavalry officer. He was injured early in the war and returned home to Theodora and the children. Theodora spent the war volunteering with the Red Cross and helping Berthold run their estates and raise their children.

The rest of her family was flung across the Europe. Philip, now grown was actively serving in the British Navy, actively fighting against her surviving brothers-in-law in the German army. Their father was on the French Riviera, while their mother, having returned to stable mental health was living a nunlike existence in Greece, where she was risking her life to protect Jewish people from the advancing armies.

Berthold was able to maintain the school's independence, but he could not fully protect it nor all of his domains from Nazi control. The school's main operations were closed in 1941, and the Nazis used the castle grounds as a forced labor camp for Polish prisoners. With the defeat of the Nazis, the French occupied the area and forced the remaining school program to be closed due to the Nazi influence. Before the end of the year, the French occupiers had been convinced of the school's true intent. In November 1945. Schule Schloss Salem was reopened under the original educational philosophies instituted by Kurt Hahn and Berthold's father. It continues to operate today. In addition to the school in Gordonstoun, Hahn went on to found Outward Bound and United World Colleges, which has been attended by many of the 21st Century's young royals.

by Philip de László via Wikimedia Commons

Although the turbulence of the war had subsided and normalcy eventually returned to Salem, Theodora's family heartaches continued to arrive at regular intervals. First, she lost her father not long before the war ended, not having seen him for years. Then, in 1947, the joy of Philip's wedding to the future Queen of the United Kingdom was denied to the sisters and their families. Despite a close bond between the prince and his sisters, the specter of the war with Germany was still too fresh to allow them to join him and his bride in the Abbey. Saddened and depressed and by then suffering from heart problems, Theodora was able to gather with her sisters and other univited relatives for their own celebration. They later received detailed written descriptions from their mother and from their cousin, Princess Marina of Greece, who had married the bride's uncle, Prince George Duke of Kent. Within a few years, things had settled enough for Theodora to be invited to the coronation when Philip's bride was crowned Queen Elizabeth II.

In the meantime, the restoration of the Greek monarchy under her cousin King Paul led to many invitations to royal occasions in her birth country. As her children grew into adulthood, the Badens' popularity across the royal families of Europe led to even more invitations that eventually yielded stronger family connections: their daughter Margarita married Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia in 1957 while their oldest son Max married Archduchess Valerie of Austria in 1966. A year later, the youngest son Ludwig married Princess Marianne of Auersperg-Breunner.

Sadly, Berthold did not get to witness their sons' marriages. Theodora had lost him quite suddenly in 1963 when he died while driving home with Ludwig. Without Berthold at her side, Theodora withdrew more from public life, remaining at Salem. She often struggled to speak or to walk. Her ongoing heart issues were exacerbated by seizures. She survived him only by six years. Her death at age 63 at least spared her one final tragic loss: she was never orphaned as her mother Princess Alice lived on for another eight months after her.

Theodora and Berthold on their wedding day
via Wikimedia Commons

The strong familial connections that Theodora always fought to maintain despite the turmoil of her life also survived her. More than 50 years later, when her brother Philip died shortly before his 100th birthday, the ongoing Covid restrictions of the time severely limited the number of people allowed at the funeral. Only three people were invited to represent his birth family. One of them was Theodora's grandson, Hereditary Prince Bernhard of Baden

More About Theodora
Baden-Greece Nuptials on Royal Musings
The Badens on Royal Musings
Funeral of Princess Theodora, Margravine of Baden on The Royal Watcher
Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark on Alchetron
Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark Explained on Everything Explained Today
Princess Theodora of Greece, Margravine of Baden on Unofficial Royalty
Princess Theodora, Margravine of Baden on The Royal Watcher
Theodora of Greece & Denmark--A Princess without a Fortune on History of Royal Women
Wedding of the Margrave of Baden and Princess Theodora on The Royal Watcher

A Matriarch without Descendants

By William Beechey via Wikimedia Commons

If fate had been kinder to her, Queen Adelaide might be the 19th Century royal matriarch we remember today instead of Victoria. Her daughter might have been Queen Elizabeth II and the entire line of Windsors might never have existed. Alas, tragedy launched a different trajectory for the pale young woman from Meinengen who married a future king more than twice her age.

In fact, tragedy seems to have often guided the course of Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen's life. When she was just 11, a fever carried away her father, but his death placed her mother in the role of regent and taught her that women could be leaders. At 25, the tragic death in childbirth of King George III's only legitimate grandchild and her infant (read my post A Double Royal Tragedy), brought the penniless Duke of Clarence to her doorstep looking for a fertile wife. And, alas the tragic death of her only living child left her without a dynastic role in history.

But, in 1818, her potential for motherhood made her a bridal candidate for Prince William Duke of Clarence. As the third of George III's nine sons, William had felt far enough from the crown to eschew matrimony for decades. Instead, he set up house with an actress and produced 10 rowdy but well-loved children before casting her aside in 1811. (Read my post on Dorothy Jordan.) His navy career was hardly lucrative enough to pay for so many offspring or so many parties and, in the way of Hanoverian princes, William built up quite a bit of debt. The death of his niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, opened the door of opportunity. To get more money from Parliament all he and his younger brothers had to do was find a suitable bride. He and brother number 4, Edward Duke of Kent, found their new wives and saved some cash by having a double wedding.

William married Adelaide of Saxe-Meinengen while Edward married the widowed Victoria of Saxe-Coburg on July 11, 1818 in their mother's drawing room at Kew Palace. Then, both couples raced off to Hanover, where they could live less expensively, to try to beget heirs. 

In addition to becoming a royal duchess of Clarence, 25-year-old Adelaide became a stepmother to William's brood, who went by the surname Fitzclarence. They ranged in age from 11 to 24. The always kind Adelaide accepted her husband's illegitmate children (and the grandchildren who started arriving in 1820 with the first one named Adelaide!) and welcomed them with warmth. Still, she hoped for a child of her own and those hope were well-founded when she fell pregnant just a few months after the wedding. Late in the pregnancy, however, Adelaide became ill with pleuriscy and delivered a little princess two months early in March 1819.  They named her Charlotte but she died within a few hours. Two months later, Edward and Victoria's own daughter, Victoria, was born.

Within a few months, Adelaide had recovered enough to become pregnant again. This time, William decided to use a ploy Edward and Victoria had used back in the spring:  he would rush his pregnant wife to England so the potential could be born on English soil. Alas, the journey did not go as planned and Adelaide miscarried her second pregnancy before they crossed the English Channel. The saddened couple continued on to London and took up residence in Clarence House at St. James's Palace. Their daughter Princess Elizabeth Georgiana Adelaide was born there on December 10, 1820. The infant princess was third in line to the throne after her childless uncle Frederick Duke of York and her father.

Adelaide rejoiced in her baby daughter. Like her older sister, Elizabeth was born prematurely, causing her parents to christen her on the day she was born. However, it was quickly clear that Elizabeth was stronger. She seemed a picture of health throughout that wet, cold winter toward the end of a period we now call "the little ice age." As March roared in with more intemperate weather, Elizabeth remained well until suddenly she was not. But it was not the weather that carried her away. On March 1, the baby began to suffer convulsions and high fever. The doctors could do nothing to save her from a strangulated bowel or intussusception.

Sculpture by William Scoular, photo by James Calford via Wikimedia Commons

Once again, a healthy young heir had been tragically ripped away from the Hanoverian dynasty. William and Adelaide were devastated. They immediately commissioned a death mask and a memorial sculpture of their daughter in her cradle. They kept the sculpture always near them and Adelaide eventually willed it to their niece, Queen Victoria, to have it permanently displayed at Windsor Castle.

The couple tried once again to give the nation an heir. By the end of the year, Adelaide was pregnant once again. As with her earlier pregnancies, she went into labor early. At about 30 weeks, she was delivered of stillborn twin boys. It was her last recorded pregnancy. She was 29 years old.

Adelaide continued to focus on her husband and his family and, when she was permitted by the widowed Duchess of Kent, on their niece Princess Victoria, who was in blooming health. Adelaide was renowned for her charity and her gentleness. Many were impressed with how she had tamed the garrulous and somewhat rude-mannered Duke of Clarence. He seemed to become a calmer, kinder person thanks to her influence. Of course, she could not prevent all of his outbursts.

The couple was particularly troubled by the Duchess of Kent. Adelaide had sought to befriend her and the young Princess Victoria, assuring the Dowager Duchess of her true affection. "My children are dead," she wrote to her sister-in-law with whom she had shared a wedding, "but your child lives and she is mine, too."

Tensions only continued to grow after William became King William IV in 1830. By this time, Victoria was entering adolescence and the King and Queen Adelaide longed to have her with them more often. The Duchess of Kent, however, jealously guarded her daughter seeking both to physically protect her and to ensure her own control over the future monarch. At his 71st birthday party, when the Duchess had offered just one too many signs of disrespect to the King--including taking over 17 rooms at Kensington Palace that the King had denied her, William roared within everyone's hearing that he hoped he would live until Victoria was at least 18. "I should then have the satisfactin of leaving the royal authority to the personal exercise of theat young lady, the heiress presumptive to the Crown, and not in the hands of a person now near me, who is surrounded by evil advisers and who is herself incompetent to act with propriety in the situation in which she is now placed."

Princess Victoria burst into tears. The Duchess received the rebuke in stony silence. Adelaide was absolutely mortified but maintained her composure as Queen and hostess with more than 100 guests in attendance. She also continued thereafter to provide little respites for young Victoria from the strict confines of her mother. Adelaide called Victoria "my dear little heart". She consistently invited her to court and made her comfortable when she was allowed to come. She also created an environment where Victoria did not have to feel torn between her mother and her aunt.

The following year, William's lifestyle caught up to him. The combined impact of heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, and pneumonia dogged his final weeks. He struggled to remain alive to fulfill his vengeance against the Duchess of Kent. Queen Adelaide stayed ever vigilant by his side, nursing him an comforting him, refusing to rest for the final 10 days and welcoming his children to keep vigil with her. He died less than a month after Victoria's 18th birthday. Although heartbroken and exhausted, Adelaide immediately wrote to the new Queen, assuring her of her "most affectionate devotion" and signing herself as "your Majesty's most affectionate Friend, Aunt, and Subject."

Queen Victoria repaid Adelaide's kindness immediately. As the first Queen Dowager in more than a century and because she was not the mother of the new monarch, Adelaide might easily have been denied the perquisites of her station. Instead, Victoria showered her with affection, even embracing her at her coronation. She let Adelaide take any personal mementos she wanted fromthe King's estate, gave her an income of £100,000 per year, and let her stay at Windsor Castle, where her daughter Elizabeth was buried, whenever she wished. A few years later, when Victoria's first child was born, she christened her Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa and asked Queen Adelaide to stand as godmother.

During her widowhood, Adelaide continued to act as materfamilias to the ever-growing Fitzclarence family. She regularly welcomed them to her home at Bushy Park, where she served as Ranger of Bushy Park, a position her husband had granted her in the first year of his reign. She also traveled frequently. She returned to her German homeland and also went to warmer climates like Madeira, Malta, and Gibraltar in service to her chronically worsening health. Wherever she went, she is known to have supported churches, hospitals, and the poor.

Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert, whose own mother had been banished from his life when he was very young and died when he was still a child, also embraced Queen Adelaide's maternal spirit as well as her sterling moral reputation. When she died in 1849 at age 57, Albert served as chief mourner joined by the seven surviving Fitzclarences and their offspring. Victoria writing that it was a "great and irreparable loss to both of us."

In addition to bequests to the Queen, including some jewels still in use by royal ladies today, she left cash, jewels, and family treasures to the Fitzclarence grandchildren, several of whom had been named Adelaide in honor of her.

Although she insisted on a quiet and unassuming funeral in keeping with her character and personality, her most famous namesake has her relaxed vibe but also knows how to throw a great festival. Adelaide, Australia was named in her honor in 1836 while King William was still alive. Queen Victoria's second son Prince Alfred was the first royal to visit Adelaide in 1867. 

In 2026, Victoria's great-great-great granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, named her daughter Adelaide, reviving a royal name that had reigned two centuries ago.

More About Adelaide
The Adelaide Mill on Jane Austen's World
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, The Good Queen on The History of Royal Women
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen Consort of King William IV on Carolyn M. Cash
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen of the United Kingdom on Unofficial Royalty
Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen of the United Kingdom and Hanover on European Royal History
Consort of the Month: Queen Adelaide on An Historian About Town
The Coronation of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen on The History of Royal Women
December 2, 1849: Death of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen on European Royal History
The Double Wedding at Kew on The History of Royal Women
Dowager Queen Adelaide on Stanmore Tourist Board
The Example of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen on Rebecca Starr Brown
"Free from vanity and pomp": Queen Adelaide on Catherine Curzon
The Queen Adelaide on Queens Consort of England
Queen Adelaide on Royal Musings
Portrait of Queen Adelaide on The Winterhalter Catalogue
A Regency Era Personality: Queen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen on Things That Catch My Eye
Remembering Queen Adelaide on Royal Splendour
Three Portraits of Queen Adelaide on From the Bygone
The Tragic Death of Princess Elizabeth of Clarence on The History of Royal Women
The Wives of the Georgian Kings: Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen on Royal Central

A Queen Who Truly Changed a Kingdom

via Wikimedia Commons

The church was silent. The streets of Munich were empty. The woman in the coffin had helped create the city as center for art and beauty, but her religion had always been a problem.When the Protestant Princess Caroline of Baden became the second wife of the soon-to-be King Maxilimilian I Joseph of Bavaria, she was not forced to adopt her new homeland's Catholicism. She was even allowed to keep her Protestant clergyman. But, on this gray November day in 1841, her clergy were forbidden to enter the Theatine Church and required to hand over their beloved Queen to the Catholic priests. By order of the archbishop, the priests wore no robes or finery. Dressed only in their street clothes, they led the coffin into the church. Then, without music or fanfare or blessings, they lowered her into the crypt.

Caroline had arrived in Munich as a lovely young bride 44 years earlier in the midst of the Napoleanic turmoil. In fact, she met her a husband, a widower 20 years her senior when he fled to her father's territory to avoid Napolean's rampaging armies. It might not have been the preferred match for the young woman who is said to have fallen in love with the French Bourbon Prince Louis Antoine Duke of Enghien, who had also sought refuge in Baden. But a French match had been deemed too unstable given the recent revolution and rise of the Republic. Better to marry her to Maximilian, who had fallen deeply in love with her, and send her to Bavaria, where she could help to raise the four surviving children from his first marriage, the oldest of whom, Prince Ludwig, was only 10 years younger than Caroline.

Accompanied by her twin sister Amalie, she left behind a close and happy family, but she would soon fill Maximilian Joseph's castle with a family of their own. Tragically, her first pregnancy ended in stillbirth and her second baby died before his third birthday, but two sets of healthy twin girls quickly arrived followed by two more princesses to complete the family. Tragedy again, however, when the youngest Princess Maximiliana contracted typhus and died at age 10.

By then, however, Maximilian Joseph and Caroline had grown into a loving couple and devoted parents. Caroline had gained the admiration of her stepchildren though the relationship with Prince Ludwig was never ideal. The nation was also stable. King Maxilimilian I Joseph had achieved this through a careful relationship with Napolean, which enabled him to obtain and retain his crown. The favor was so strong that Napolean even supported the marriage of his stepson Eugene de Beauharnais to Maximilian Joseph's oldest daughter, Princess Augusta. Caroline initially opposed the marriage, but relented when she learned that the couple loved each other. 

Caroline and Maximilian Joseph with their daughters
By August von Heckel in the Bavarian National Museum via Wikimedia Commons

In fact, all of the daughters married well and several raised historically significant families. Among the grandchildren were: Emperor Franz Joseph II of Austria and his wife Empress Elisabeth, Queen Josephine of Sweden, Empress Amelie of Brazil, Prince Consort August of Brazil, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, and Queen Marie Sophie of the Two Sicilies. 

With their mixed religious marriage and their joint love of arts and culture, Caroline and Maximilian Joseph transformed Bavaria and its capitol Munich, in particular. Having emancipated the Protestants, perhaps influenced by the Lutheran Caroline, Maximilian Joseph also nationalized many of the treasures of the Catholic Church--which almost certainly led to the Catholic priests' disrespect at her funeral. They founded the Academy of Fine Arts and the National Theater, while also re-designing the city of Munich as a planned city around four royal boulevards with several squares, including one named for Caroline.

The unexpected death of Maximilian Joseph in his sleep after a family celebration of his name day in 1825 was a terrible blow to Caroline. Not only had she lost a devoted husband and staunch supporter, but her stepson, the new King Ludwig I sought to minimize her popular influence. Ludwig respected Caroline but he did not trust her Protestantism or anti-French tendencies. As he grew more ambitious, he became more volatile and impulsive (characteristics that would eventually lead to scandal and abdication).

In an effort to decrease Caroline's popularity and impact, he forced her to live outside of Munich. At first, the staunchly Catholic Ludwig tried to separate her Lutheran chaplain from her, but Caroline successfully pushed back. He even denied her the status of a Queen Dowager. 

During her 16 years as a widow, Caroline remained steadfast and kind despite Ludwig's public coldness. She remained devoted to her growing family. In her final public moment--that unmerciful funeral--she enabled one more act of grace in a life that had been filled with them. King Ludwig was horrified by the outcome of his treatment of his stepmother, who had cared for him when she was little more than a girl herself. The indignity of her funeral led him to relent and become a defender of Protestant rights and a critic of extemism.

More about Caroline
Birth of Princess Caroline of Baden on European Royal History
Caroline of Baden -- Franz Josef and Sissi's Grandmother Part One on History of Royal Women
Caroline of Baden -- Franz Josef and Sissi's Grandmother Part Two on History of Royal Women
Caroline of Baden, Queen of Bavaria on Unofficial Royalty
The Daughters of the Hereditary Prince of Baden on Crowns, Tiaras, & Coronets
The First Bavarian Queen, Caroline of Baden on Arrayed in Gold
Queen Caroline of Bavaria, Royal Stepmother and Mother on Arrayed in Gold
Sweet Caroline of Baden, The First Queen of Bavaria on Paul's Talk Travel Blog

Making a Splash in Monaco

By brunifia via Wikimedia Commons

Water has always flowed through her veins. Born as the daughter of a swim coach in 1978 deep in the heart of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Charlene Lynette Wittstock could little have imagined how far her passion for swimming would take her. A fifth-generation descendant of German immigrants, she inherited her competitive spirit from her sales manager father Michael and her mother Lynette, a former competitive diver. 

Charlene's passion for swimming strengthened as the family, including two younger brothers, moved to South Africa when she was 11. She quickly found her lane: by age 19 she was the South African champion in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke. A year later, she won three gold medals and a silver in the All-Africa Games. From there, she competed at the World Championships and twice at the Commonwealth Games. In 2000, she became an Olympian, representing South Africa at the Sydney Olympics. She finished 14th and 17th in her two individual backstroke events and earned a fifth-place finish with her team in the 4x100 medley relay.

When she was not in training or in competition, Charlene was still in the pool--usually teaching children how to swim. She believes that learning to swim is a fundamental right, not because it is fun and healthy, but because it is a skill that can literally save their lives. Charlene learned this lesson as a young girl when her five-year-old cousin Richard died in the river near his home. Charlene was devastated.

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Charlene's athletic career took her around the world including to the picturesque Mediterranean Principality of Monaco in 2000. The pretty blonde 22-year-old champion emerged from the pool and was later greeted by the 42-year-old bachelor Prince Albert of Monaco. Known for his "playboy" ways, Albert had never married although he was rumored to have fathered at least two children by different mothers (Jazmin and Alexandre, both of whom he later acknowledged.) Like Charlene, he was also an Olympian. He had represented Monaco in four Winter Games--1988 Calgary, 1992 Albertville, 1994 Lillehammer, and 1998 Nagano--and would compete one more time in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

The two also may have shared a bond over early tragedy; Prince Albert had lost his mother American-born Princess Grace in a fatal car crash when he was 24. Whatever the connection between them, Albert and Charlene kept their relationship private for several years. They were not seen publicly together until the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. By then, Albert's father Prince Rainier had died and he had succeeded as the sovereign Prince Albert II. A few months after Turin, he made an Easter trip to the North Pole.

All of this time, Charlene continued swimming. Although she did not compete in the 2004 Summer Olympics, she was gearing up to make an Olympic return in 2008. She had even regained her South African national championship. However, a shoulder injury sidelined her for 18 months and she failed to qualify in 2008. It was effectively the end of her swimming career.

Charlene was increasingly seen in Monaco or with Albert, but their romance remained unofficial. She took on several charitable roles in Monaco, but no announcements were forthcoming. Media excitement began to build in 2010, especially when Charlene attended the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden to Daniel Westling. Only four days later, the couple finally announced their own engagement. Although not required, Charlene converted to Catholicism. She also took lessons in French and Monagesque. 

They were married just over a year later with a civil ceremony in the throne room of the princely palace on July 1, 2011 and a religious ceremony the next day in the palace's courtyard. They then honeymooned closer to her native land in Mozambique. 

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As is usual, the media immediately began asking when a baby would arrive. It was a particularly critical issue in Monaco because Albert's other children had no right to the throne because their mothers had not been married to the prince. Therefore, his heir at the time was his older sister Princess Caroline.

Charlene, like many newly married women, did not become pregnant right away. Instead, she invested her time in taking on more charitable roles: Special Olympics International, Giving Organizations Trust in South Africa, the Princess Grace Foundation USA, amFAR, Red Cross and more. In late 2012 she launched the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation to help prevent more tragedies like the one that had followed her from her earliest days: childhood drowning.

Nearly three years after their wedding, Albert and Charlene announced her pregnancy. Six months later, they shared that they were expecting twins. On December 10, 2014, their daughter Princess Gabriella arrived followed two minutes later by Hereditary Prince Jacques. Monaco maintains male-preference succession rules so Jacques is first in line to the throne although he was born second. 

For the next many years, Charlene's life followed a routine of charitable events, public ceremonies, international visits, and family photo calls. The media and the public alternatively praised her beauty, style and good works while criticizing her less-than-perfect French, her spending habits, and rumors of marital issues. 

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When she fell deeply ill while in southern Africa in May 2021, initial concerns over her health soon spiralled into ugly speculation about her personal life. She had been back in her part of the world on an official mission to combat rhinoceros poaching when she contracted a severe ENT infection. Unable to fly due to the pressurization of airplanes, she was essentially stuck 8,000 miles (nearly 13,000 kilometers) away from Monaco. 

Her prolonged absence led to rumors that she was refusing to return to her husband. So Prince Albert brought the children to visit her. Of course, they had to go back to work and school, leaving Charlene behind. This did nothing to ease the public chatter. 

Charlene underwent several medical procedures, including a four-hour surgery, and was felled by complications in September. In early November, after nearly six months, she was finally able to return to Monaco, where the family was delighted to welcome her. Within a few days, however, it was clear that her recovery was going to take an extended period of time. All of her official engagements were cancelled and she traveled to Switzerland for a four-month stay in a high-end clinic. Of course, this further absence continued to fuel nasty speculation. 

By the time she again returned to Monaco in March of 2022, she was able to slowly resume her duties. Then, three months later, she was diagnosed with COVID-19, leading to another--although shorter--period of isolation. 

Having weathered physical illness, family separation, and public scrutiny, Princess Charlene seems to have emerged stronger. In recent years, she has increased her activites around water safety and drowning prevention and launched new initiatives and partnerships to use sport to protect marine life and to advocate for gender equality. She also took after as President of the Society for Protection of Animals of Monaco, Honorary President of Pink Ribbon Monaco, and Vice President of the Monegasque Olympic Committee. Prince Albert has served on the International Olympic Committee since 1985. 

In 2024, Charlene and Albert displayed their Olympic spirit by carrying the Olympic torch together ahead of the Summer Games in Paris. It was a suiting moment for a woman who learned from an early age that hard work and tenacity pay off. Despite all she has endured publicly and personally over the years, she now appears more self-confident in her role as Princess of Monaco, as wife and mother, and as a leader on the international stage advocating to make this world a better place.

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More About Charlene
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Celebrating Prince Albert and Princess Charlene's 10 Year Anniversary on Monaco Tribune
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HSH Princess Charlene of Monaco Celebrates Her 48th Birthday on New My Royals
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Princess Charlene's Diamond Foam Tiara on The Royal Watcher
Princess Charlene's Family Opens Up about Her Lengthy Illness on Vanity Fair
Prince Charlene's Infinite Cascade Necklace on The Royal Watcher
Princess Charlene Reflects on 'Pain that Never Goes Away' on GBN
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