Royals Who Married Common People

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Royals Who Married Common People

While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's love story is well known, they aren’t the only royal couple who have given Disney a run for its money when it comes to dream-come-true romances! News broke of Harry and Meghan's romance in 2016 after the pair were introduced through mutual friends. The following year, the royal and the actress announced that they were engaged in their first joint interview. “It was just an amazing surprise,” the Suits alum gushed to BBC News about the proposal at Kensington Palace’s Nottingham Cottage. “It was just so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee. As a matter of fact, I could barely let [him] finish proposing. I was like, ‘Can I say ‘yes’ now?’” In May 2018, the duo tied the knot at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, England, and they were granted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex title by Queen Elizabeth II at the time. They welcomed their son, Archie, in May 2019. One year later, the pair announced that they were stepping back from their duties as working members of the royal family. Harry and Meghan chose to move from the U.K. to California and in February 2021, it was confirmed that they would not be returning to their senior roles at the palace. In March 2021, the twosome opened up about their decision to no longer be part of the royal family during a tell-all interview on CBS. [jwplayer c0vUWxgb-zhNYySv2] “I was trapped but I didn't know I was trapped,” Harry shared. “Trapped within the system like the rest of the family. My father [Prince Charles] and my brother are trapped. They don't get to leave and I have huge compassion for that.” During the interview, the California native revealed that she attempted to seek help for suicidal thoughts after struggling with the targeted negative press in the U.K. "Look, I was really ashamed to have to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, but I knew that if I didn’t say that I would do it,” she explained at the time. “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore." As Harry and Meghan adjusted to their new life, the Duke of Sussex reflected on his outlook on being a royal. "It's the job, right? Grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was in my early 20s and I was thinking, ‘I don't want this job, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be doing this,’” Harry said during an episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast in May 2021. "Look what it did to my mum. How am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family, when I know it's going to happen again?" Since their departure, Harry detailed how living in Santa Barbara allows them to walk "a little more free." One month later, the Sussexes welcomed their daughter, Lilibet. Scroll down to see all of the royals who married commoners: [podcast_block]

Credit: Getty Images

Royals Who Married Common People

While Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's love story is well known, they aren’t the only royal couple who have given Disney a run for its money when it comes to dream-come-true romances! News broke of Harry and Meghan's romance in 2016 after the pair were introduced through mutual friends. The following year, the royal and the actress announced that they were engaged in their first joint interview. “It was just an amazing surprise,” the Suits alum gushed to BBC News about the proposal at Kensington Palace’s Nottingham Cottage. “It was just so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee. As a matter of fact, I could barely let [him] finish proposing. I was like, ‘Can I say ‘yes’ now?’” In May 2018, the duo tied the knot at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, England, and they were granted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex title by Queen Elizabeth II at the time. They welcomed their son, Archie, in May 2019. One year later, the pair announced that they were stepping back from their duties as working members of the royal family. Harry and Meghan chose to move from the U.K. to California and in February 2021, it was confirmed that they would not be returning to their senior roles at the palace. In March 2021, the twosome opened up about their decision to no longer be part of the royal family during a tell-all interview on CBS. [jwplayer c0vUWxgb-zhNYySv2] “I was trapped but I didn't know I was trapped,” Harry shared. “Trapped within the system like the rest of the family. My father [Prince Charles] and my brother are trapped. They don't get to leave and I have huge compassion for that.” During the interview, the California native revealed that she attempted to seek help for suicidal thoughts after struggling with the targeted negative press in the U.K. "Look, I was really ashamed to have to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, but I knew that if I didn’t say that I would do it,” she explained at the time. “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore." As Harry and Meghan adjusted to their new life, the Duke of Sussex reflected on his outlook on being a royal. "It's the job, right? Grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was in my early 20s and I was thinking, ‘I don't want this job, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be doing this,’” Harry said during an episode of the “Armchair Expert” podcast in May 2021. "Look what it did to my mum. How am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family, when I know it's going to happen again?" Since their departure, Harry detailed how living in Santa Barbara allows them to walk "a little more free." One month later, the Sussexes welcomed their daughter, Lilibet. Scroll down to see all of the royals who married commoners: [podcast_block]

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Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly

Philadelphia native and style icon Kelly met Prince Rainier in Monaco while filming director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 thriller, To Catch a Thief. In 1956, Kelly retired from acting and became a princess. The pair were married until 1982, when Kelly died in a tragic car crash in Cote D’Azur.

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Prince Abdullah II and Rania Al Yassin

Born in Kuwait, Yassin fled her country in 1991 after Saddam Hussein invaded and settled in Jordan. At just 22 years old, she met the future King of Jordan, Prince Abdullah, at a dinner party. “I think it was just a boy meets girl kind of story,” she told Oprah in 2006 of the beginning of her relationship. The young couple married just six months later and became king and queen upon King Hussein’s death in 1999.

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Princess Cristina of Spain and Inaki Urdangarin

The youngest daughter of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía married the former Spanish handball player in Barcelona in October 1997. At the time of their wedding, Cristina’s brother, King Felipe VI, bestowed upon them the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Palma de Mallorca. The duo went on to welcome four children, sons Juan, Pablo and Miguel were born in 1999, 2000 and 2002, respectively, and daughter Irene was born in 2005.

The duo, who were stripped of their titles in 2015 amid a fraud case, weathered many storms amid their marriage. In 2018, Urdangarin was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison after being found guilty of tax fraud, embezzlement and influence peddling. Cristina was also charged with tax fraud for her alleged part of the $6 million embezzlement scheme, but was later acquitted.

One week after Urdangarin was spotted holding hands with a mystery woman in January 2022, the royals announced their separation after 24 years of marriage. "By mutual agreement we have decided to break off our marriage,” they said in a statement to The Times. “Our commitment to our children remains intact. Since this is a private decision, we ask the utmost respect of all those around us.”

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Prince Haakon and Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby

A rock ’n’ roll duo! Mett-Marit Tjessem Hoiby, a Norwegian commoner, met Prince Haakon in 1996 at Norway’s Quart Festival. The pair started dating two years later, when Hoiby was a single mother to a three-year-old boy named Marius, whom she shared with Morten Borg. Despite the controversy of Hoiby having a child out of wedlock, Haakon and Hoiby married on August, 25, 2001. The couple have since had two of their own children: Princess Ingrid (born in 2004) and Prince Sverre (born in 2005).

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Prince Willem-Alexander and Maxima Zorreguieta

Zorreguieta, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, didn’t believe Willem-Alexander when he said he was heir to the Netherlands throne. The then–vice president of institutional sales at New York City’s Deutsche Bank met the royal in 1999 at the Seville Spring Fair, where he introduced himself as just Alexander. The couple, married in 2002, became king and queen of the Netherlands in 2013 after the abdication of Wilhem-Alexander’s mother, Queen Beatrix.

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King Felipe and Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano

Before she was Queen of Spain, Letizia Ortiz was a successful TV journalist reporting on international events in Iraq and 9/11 on Ground Zero. Ortiz, who was previously married to writer Alonso Perez and is the first divorced Queen of Spain, met King Felipe in 2002 on assignment covering an oil spill in northern Spain. The two married on May 22, 2004, and now share two daughters Leonor (born in 2005) and Infanta Sofia (born in 2007).

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Prince Nikolaos and Tatiana Blatnik

Venezuelan-born Blatnik studied sociology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where she graduated in 2003. The same year, the former Diane von Furstenberg event planner met Prince Nikolaos of Greece. She married the royal seven years later in 2010, while wearing an Angel Sanchez dress.

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Prince William and Kate Middleton

Kate Middleton and the future King of England met as students at University of St. Andrew’s in Fife, Scotland, in 2001. At the time, she was dating someone else. They were pictured together for the first time on a ski trip in Klosters, Switzerland, in 2004. On April 29, 2011, after almost a decade of dating William, the world tuned in to watch Kate become royalty. The couple are now parents of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

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Maria Del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, The Duchess of Alba, and Aflonso Diez

Civil servant Diez and the billionaire Duchess of Alba knew each other for years before developing romantic feelings for each other. The Duchess — who was Spain's richest woman — had been married twice before her 2011 wedding to Diez, who is 25 years her junior. When she died at age 88 in 2014, her wealth was split among her six children and grandchildren, with nothing left to her husband. 

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Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock

Wittstock, a former Olympic swimmer for Zimbabwe, met Prince Albert of Monaco, son of Princess Grace Kelly, in 2000 when she was in Monaco for a swimming competition. The athlete and the royal married on July 1, 2011, and welcomed fraternal twins Jacques and Gabriella on December 10, 2014.

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Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist

Swedish model and ex-reality TV star Hellqvist, now Duchess of Varmland, met Sweden's Prince Carl Philip in 2010 when they were eating in the same restaurant. Their friends knew each other, and the rest, as they say, is history. The pair were engaged in June 2014, wed each other in Stockholm one year later, and welcomed their first child, Prince Alexander, on April 19, 2016.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The former Suits actress and Harry first met in London in the summer of 2016, but they didn’t go public with their relationship until that November. They became engaged in November 2017. Harry and Meghan tied the knot at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in May 2018 as they became the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

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Princess Mako and Kei Komuro

The duo met while they were both studying at the International Christian University in Tokyo. They got engaged in 2017 and tied the knot four years later. The Japanese princess gave up her royal status following the nuptials.