14. The Royal Family
With all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, this would be a good time to give the royal family tree a little shake and get more acquainted with the four children of Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
The queen’s first child is Harry’s father, Charles, Prince of Wales, who is 69 years old. As the queen’s eldest child, Charles is the heir apparent to the British throne. He has been Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay since 1952 and is the oldest and longest-serving heir apparent in British history. He is also the longest-serving Prince of Wales, having held that title since 1958. As we well know, Charles married Diana in 1981, and they divorced in 1996. They had two sons – Prince William (35) and Prince Harry (33). Princess Diana died tragically in 1997. In 2005, Charles married his longtime paramour Camilla Parker Bowles, now Duchess of Cornwall. Charles has three grandchildren. George, Charlotte and newborn Louis are the offspring of Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
The queen’s second child is Anne, Princess Royal, who is 67. When her mother became queen in 1952, Anne was second in line for the throne; now she is 13th. In 1973 Anne married Captain Mark Phillips; they divorced in 1992. They have two children – Peter (40) and Zara (36) – and three grandchildren: Savannah, Isla and Mia Grace. A fourth is due this summer (2018).
Several months after her divorce in 1992, Anne married her current husband, Sir Timothy Laurence. Known for her equestrian skills, Anne has won medals at the European Eventing Championships. And she is the first member of the British Royal Family to have competed in the Olympic Games, having participated in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal as a member of the British team, riding the queen’s horse, Goodwill.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York, 58, is the queen’s third child. At present, he is seventh in line for the throne. In 1986, he married Sarah Ferguson, familiarly known as Fergie. The couple divorced in 1996. He and Sarah, Duchess of York have two daughters – Beatrice (29) and Eugenie (28), each dubbed Princess of York. Prince Andrew holds the rank of commander and the honorary rank of vice admiral in the Royal Navy, in which he served as an active-duty helicopter pilot and instructor and as captain of a warship. In 2014, he founded the Pitch@Palace initiative to support entrepreneurs with the amplification and acceleration of their business ideas.
The queen’s fourth child is Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. At age 54, he is 10th in line for succession to the throne. In 1999, Prince Edward married Sophie Rhys-Jones, a public relations executive with her own firm. He and the Countess of Wessex have two children – Lady Louise Windsor (14) and James, Viscount Severn (10). The Earl of Wessex has assumed many duties from his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, who has been reducing some commitments due to his age. Edward succeeded Prince Philip as president of the Commonwealth Games Federation. He has also taken over the duke’s role in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, attending Gold Award ceremonies around the world.
Queen Elizabeth, who is now 92, has been reigning since 1952. In 2017 she became the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee (65 years). She is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch, as well as the world’s longest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state, the oldest and longest-reigning current monarch, and the oldest and longest-serving current head of state. Long live the queen!