THE ROYAL VARIETY

The Duke of Sussex broke the mould when he became the first prince to marry an actress. Until then regal relationships with ‘ ladies of the stage’ were banned… not that it stopped them. Royal biographer CHRISTOPHER WILSON takes a look at the story of the

FOR CENTURIES when it came to ladies of the stage and screen and royalty, look, but don’t touch was the watchword for red- blooded princes. Actresses were considered so dangerous in fact that for years they were banned from the Royal Enclosure at Ascot. Despite this, the lure of forbidden fruit saw many relationships – there isn’t a prince worthy of the name who didn’t fall victim to the footlight- fantasy syndrome – but Prince Harry was the first to actually marry an actress when he tied the knot with Meghan Markle in 2018.

DOROTHEA JORDAN ( 1761- 1816)

Mistress, but never the wife, of the man who became King William IV. She bore “Sailor Bill” 10 children, but in the end he dumped her when it looked as if the throne might come his way – William was George III’s third son and had not expected to inherit the crown. An accomplished actress, she came from Ireland and first found fame treading the boards up north before becoming a West End success under the stage name Mrs Jordan. She also wrote the song The Bluebells of Scotland. Best part: Peggy in David Garrick’s play, The Country Girl ( 1785)

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NELLIE CLIFDEN ( b 1840)

Nominally an actress but very little is known about her career. Nellie was born in Ireland and met the 19- year- old of Wales ( later King Edward VII) when he was studying at Cambridge. She enjoyed a tempestuous affair with him and was laughingly known back in London as “The Princess of Wales”.

Everything went well until the untimely death of the prince’s father Prince Albert – Queen Victoria blamed Albert’s death on the scandal surrounding her son’s love life (“killed by that dreadful business”) – whereas the poor chap actually died from typhoid. Nellie, alas, sank into obscurity. Best part:

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LILLIE LANGTRY ( 1853- 1929)

She came into life much later, when he’d married the chilly Queen Alexandra. Lillie was an accomplished and successful actress who kept the prince amused for three years until she became pregnant by an ex- boyfriend.

A friend of Oscar Wilde, she started her own touring company and was adored by the theatre- going public. Edward moved on to Alice Keppel, great- grandmother of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, but Lillie had become a rich woman, unlike Mrs Jordan ( see above) who died penniless and abandoned.

Best part: Lady Macbeth ( 1889)

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UNKNOWN

King George V, grandfather of our present Queen, tried his best to be a good boy – his older brother Prince Albert Victor, destined to die in young adulthood, indulged in indiscriminate sex and was implicated in a rent- boy scandal.

Deeply repressed, George tried hard to keep away from temptation by proposing marriage to his dead brother’s fiancée. Still, he couldn’t resist the allure of the greasepaint and, according to his biographer, George “kept” an actress from the Theatre Royal, Southsea, while serving as a midshipman based in Portsmouth.

“She’s a ripper!” he wrote about her. Best part:

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PHYLLIS MONKMAN ( 1892 – 1976)

George VI was 23 and more than a bit backward with the ladies. The society photographer Cecil Beaton recalled, “Prince Albert ( as he then was) was a shy young man and courtiers were beginning to worry – he showed no sign of the usual interest in the opposite sex, so some delightful, trustworthy young woman had to be chosen to initiate the prince.”

That person was the dancer and actress Phyllis Monkman, said to have the “finest legs on the West End stage”. Bertie became besotted, and she gave him a cigarette lighter he continued to use for many years after his marriage.

She died aged with a picture

ROYAL GIFT: Lillie with Edward’s necklace

her young her bedside. Best part: Ma Bracken in the film Diamond City ( 1949)

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COBINA WRIGHT ( 1921- 2011)

Prince Philip’s first great love, after meeting him in Venice when they were both 17 and spending three weeks together “in passionate evenings in gondolas in the Grand Canal”. Strikingly beautiful, she had huge blue eyes and a radiant smile. That same year she signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox and disappeared to Hollywood to star in nine films opposite better- known stars including Don Ameche, Betty Grable and Victor Mature.

Later in life she succumbed to alcoholism, but recovered; kept Philip’s photograph by her bed to the end.

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PAT KIRKWOOD ( 1921- 2007)

The prolific Lancashire- born stage actress, singer and dancer became “Britain’s first wartime star” with her rendition of Cole Porter’s My Heart Belongs To Daddy. Noel Coward became a great fan. In a rare moment of indiscretion,

Prince was found breakfasting with Miss Kirkwood after a night out on the town at the time when the Queen ( then Princess Elizabeth) was pregnant with Prince Charles in 1948. Both denied any impropriety.

Best part: Ann Johnson in Come on George ( opposite George Formby, 1939)

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HÉLÈNE CORDET ( 1917- 1996)

Though it was always denied, rumours continued to persist that this pretty, lively actress, nightclub owner and cabaret star who’d known

since he was four had enjoyed a long affair with him. Later, when married, it was repeatedly said that the prince had fathered both her children, Max Boisot and Louise Cordet – and certainly he paid for their education.

This led Boisot to issue an unprecedented statement saying Philip was not his father.

Hélène always maintained Philip wasn’t her type – she preferred “tall dark handsome men”.

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SUSAN GEORGE ( b 1950)

Met Prince Charles at his 30th birthday party at Buckingham Palace, having received an invitation “out of the blue”

VERY LOVING: Susan George on Charles

after he’d seen her star as a rape vicitim in the X- rated film Straw Dogs. A few days later, a car was sent for her and Charles played host to her in a flat overlooking St James’s Street. According to the doyen of royal reporters, James Whitaker, “Susan stayed nearly all night, she did not get home until 7am.” There were a couple more similar dates, but then the pair went their separate ways. Charles, according to Susan, was “very romantic and loving”.

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KOO STARK ( b 1956)

Similarly met Prince Andrew at his 21st birthday party at Buckingham Palace. At the time she had a part in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the National Theatre, and