AMERICAN BEAUTIES
MEGHAN MARKLE IS THE LATEST AMERICAN WOMAN TO WIN THE HEART OF A PRINCE. MARION MCMULLEN LOOKS AT OTHERS WHO HAVE MARRIED INTO ROYALTY
WHEN Britain’s King Edward VIII fell in love with stylish two time American divorcee Wallis Simpson it sent shockwaves through the country and led to him relinquishing the crown.
The 42-year-old royal abdicated in 1936, telling the nation in his famous radio broadcast: “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as
King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.”
But his American love, born Bessie Wallis Warfield in Pennsylvania, warned him beforehand: “I am so anxious for you not to abdicate and I think the fact that you do is going to put me in the wrong light to the entire world because they will say that I could have prevented it.”
Edward gave her an emerald engagement ring from Cartier and the couple eventually married in June, 1937, and became known as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The royal romance and abdication made her one of the most talked about women in the world at that time, but the American socialite once said: “You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance.”
Hollywood star Grace Kelly was also born in Pennsylvania and found fame in movies such as High Society, High Noon and Hitchcock films To Catch A Thief, Rear Window and Dial M For Murder.
She gave up her acting career when she fell in love with Prince Rainier of Monaco and married him at a lavish ceremony in April, 1956.
“When I married Prince Rainier, I married the man and not what he represented or what he was. I fell in love with him without giving a thought to anything else,” she later said.
Her wedding dress was designed by Helen Rose, who worked at the MGM movie studio, and featured 25 yards of silk taffeta, 100 yards of silk net and a lace veil strewn with thousands of tiny pearls. Wedding guests included film stars such as Gloria Swanson, David Niven and Ava Gardner.
The wedding made headlines around the world, but the blonde beauty once pointed out: “The idea of my life as a fairy tale is itself a fairy tale.”
The royal couple went on to have three children and remained together until Grace’s tragic death in a car accident in Monaco in 1982. Prince Rainier later opened a public rose garden in memory of his American-born wife. Roses were her favourite flowers. Hollywood star Rita Hayworth stole the heart of a royal prince in the 1940s. The actress, who was once nicknamed the Love Goddess, married five times saying: “All I wanted was just what everybody else wants, you know, to be loved.”
The star of films like Gilda and Pal Joey was married to director and actor Orson Welles before tying the knot with Prince Aly Khan – husband number three – on May 27, 1949.
The wedding guests in Cannes included seven princes, four princesses, two generals and a maharajah.
The couple had a daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, later that year on December 28.
Prince Harry is said to have proposed to his American brideto-be Meghan Markle as they prepared a roast chicken dinner at his cottage home in the grounds of Kensington Palace.
The Suits actress will marry her Prince on May 19 at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle and they have already announced that their wedding cake with be a lemon and elderflower cake decorated with fresh spring blooms and baked by Claire Ptak, owner of the east London Violet Cakes bakery.
They will also be surrounded by white garden roses, peonies and foxgloves on their big day in displays created by floral designer Philippa Craddock.
Meghan and Harry met on a blind date set up by a mutual friend in London. Meghan said: “The only thing that I had asked her when she said she wanted to set us up was ‘Well, is he nice?’ Because if he wasn’t kind, then it didn’t seem like it would make sense.
“So we met for a drink then, I think, very quickly into that we said, ‘What are we doing tomorrow? We should meet again.”
Prince Harry said: “I had never watched Suits. I had never heard of Meghan before. I was beautifully surprised when I walked into that room and saw her and there she was sitting there. I thought ‘I am really going to have to up my game here.’”
Marrying a prince does not of course guarantee a happy-ever-after ending but, as Rita Hayworth once said: “When you’re in love you’re living, you matter.”