Americans Who Married Royals and Aristocrats

[Danjel]

and antoher one with their youngest son

[Hélène]

Originally posted by Perillos@Dec 31st, 2003 - 3:22 pm
Lest we forget, America's own Royal House, the Kamehamehas of Hawaii:

http://www.4dw.net/royalark/Hawaii/hawaiimn.htm

That is soo cool. I had no idea Hawaii had it's own Royal House...

[SpiffyBallerina]

Yeah, Hawaii had royals and then we kinda kicked them out or something. Whoopsies! I really have no idea what happened there; all I know is that they no longer rule.
Hey, we're all forgetting Lisa Halaby(sp?)! She was born and raised in the USA and she then became Queen Noor of Jordan.

[moosey60]

Pekina Nordom's wedding to that Marc guy was aired on TLC's "A Wedding Story". I saw it a while back. It was quite interesting...but I never expected royalty to air their weddings on national television...oh well...

Yea, Sean...I live in Canada so it'll be no problem. It was on TLC last summer or something...Maybe it'll be reaired some day. It was really interesting because they had their wedding in Cambodia and they showed all the cool traditions they had. They went to see the King to thank them and kneel before them...then they had a traditional Buddhist wedding in the palace. It was one of the best episodes of "A Wedding STory" because it was so unique. All the others were so bland...but this one was really special.


This was in an American magazine or newspaper...

Pekina Norodom and Marc Coumeri
By Lois Smith Brady

Marc Coumeri, 26, a quiet mathematician who likes techno music, met
Princess Pekina Norodom of Cambodia, 31, nearly two years ago at 4 a.m.
under the big disco ball at Twilo, a Manhattan dance club. Mr. Coumeri
and Noel Thomas, his old math buddy from from Johns Hopkins University,
were walking through the crowd on the dance floor. When they bumped into
the princess, who prefers to be called Miss Norodom, and her friend
Divina Kwok, Mr. Thomas took Miss Kwok's arm and danced with her.
Stranded together, Miss Norodom and Mr. Coumeri began dancing, too.

Miss Norodom recalled thinking that Mr. Coumeri looked like Clark Kent
and danced like a kangaroo. "He just hops all over the dance floor,"
said the princess, who said nothing about her royal lineage that night.

Mr. Coumeri and Miss Norodom danced for hours, past breakfast until
noon, when the club closed. "It was pouring rain," Mr. Thomas
remembered, "and we all decided to go for dim sum in Chinatown. It was
really cute - Pekina and Marc had just met, and now they were walking
around Chinatown under one umbrella, squeezed tight."

Miss Norodom is a granddaughter of King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia,
who was forced into exile by a coup in 1970 that opened the door to the
Khmer Rouge. "The Khmer Rouge were killing all the educated people,"
Miss Norodom said. "You speak more than one language, you're gone."

Her family settled in Beijing, then still known as Peking, where she was
born on July 7, 1970. (Seven is her lucky number.) Her name, Pekina,
means Peking girl. When she was 10, her family moved to Connecticut.
Today, she is more East Coast than Far East, working as a product
manager at Timex, wearing black all the time, playing the saxophone and
going skiing and snowboarding.

King Sihanouk returned to Phnom Penh in 1993, and her parents, Yin Kim
and Yuvaneath Norodom, rejoined him at the palace, with its ornate
pavilions and staff of astrologers, gardeners and bodyguards.

"When I go visit," Miss Norodom said, "I have maids. People kneel at me
and address me as princess. I feel like saying, `No need to kneel down.'
I'm honored to be a princess, but I don't feel like one."

About 24 hours after she and Mr. Coumeri shared dim sum in New York,
Miss Norodom called him and asked him out on a utilitarian first date -
to the Ikea furniture store near Newark International Airport. As they
wandered through the store, testing couches and pouring imaginary coffee
for each other in the mock kitchens, "I thought, `I can picture myself
dating this guy,' " she said.

Weeks later, she told him on the phone that she was the granddaughter of
the king of Cambodia. "She asked if I recognized her last name,"
recalled Mr. Coumeri, who works at American Express in New York, using
mathematical models to judge the creditworthiness of potential card
holders. "I said, `No, should I?' "

He called his parents, Linda and John Coumeri, in Jackson, N.J., to tell
them he was dating a princess. "My mother's first reaction was like,
`Marc, don't you meet anyone normal?' " he said.

The couple were married in a Buddhist ceremony at Phnom Penh's royal
palace on May 30. Chanting monks in cantaloupe-color robes dipped roses
in scented water, which they shook over the couple as a blessing.
Afterward, a long procession of musicians in knickers escorted the
couple and their guests across the grounds to the throne hall, where the
king and queen waited to receive them.

"It was awesome," Benay Borow, the bridegroom's aunt, said. "How many
palaces have I been to? Not many. The Helmsley Palace is about it."

Mulling over the statistical chances of meeting a total stranger in a
club one night and then flying across the planet to marry her in a royal
wedding less than two years later, Mr. Thomas, the best man, said, "It
was an example of mathematical beauty."

[Dennism]

What a nice story. I'll have to look for that episode on TLC!

[Sg1fan]

Isn't one of the Hilton heirs (not Nicky and the other one I can't stand to see barely dressed appropriately) , but the older heir, a cousin of some royal? I thought one of Gabor sistors married and divorced some prince but I may be wrong....

One website I read said that it's Zsa Zsa Gabor (she has a daughter by Conrad Hilton) and that she was once the "Princess of Anhalt, Duchess of Saxony" another said her husband never really had that title. Can anyone shed light on that one.

[Sean.~]

Originally posted by Naut2bGrimaldi@Jan 4th, 2004 - 1:54 am
One website I read said that it's Zsa Zsa Gabor (she has a daughter by Conrad Hilton) and that she was once the "Princess of Anhalt, Duchess of Saxony" another said her husband never really had that title.  Can anyone shed light on that one.

Yes, I can. In Germany, since 1918, titles per se have been illegal. Members of the former royal, ducal, princely, and countly houses are, however, permitted to use their titles as their last name. So, for example, The Duke of Wurttemberg is Carl Herzog von Wurtemberg. His wife is technically Diane Herzog von Wurttemberg, but since that sounds silly, the state just basically turns a blind eye to the feminization of the name and she is therefore Diane Herzogin von Wurrtemberg.

With respect to Zsa Zsa, her husband Frederick bought his title. That is, he was adopted as an adult by a Sax-Anhalt Princess in exchange for money. As a result of his adoption he gained the last name Furst von Saxe Anhalt. So he isn't really a Prince and Zsa Zsa most certainly is not a Princess. The German titles were not transmitted through adoption (particularly in the female line).

The Sax-Anhalt line is, in reality, extinct.

Sean. ~

[Danjel]

Chanel,
You were talking about Princess Joan of Luxembourg, yeah I know of that union, in fact I've got a picture of her

[Danjel]

This is her daughter, Princess Charlotte,

I've got a pic of her son too...............somewhere!!! ;-)

[Emma-Janette]

Queen Noor (Lisa Halaby).
She's American and married King Hussein of Jordan.

[Chanel]

Danjel -

Thank You for those photos. Those are the two wemon I was talking about. Was Joan american or british? I thought that she was american.

Chanel

[shannen26]

Consuelo Vanderbilt (1870-1964) married Chas. Spencer Churchill in 1895, in NY- she was born in New York, her husband was the 9th Duke of Marlborough- c Bleneihm Palace- they divorced in 1921. The Family was related to Sir W. Churchill and to Lady Diana Spencer.

[Perillos]

Originally posted by Sean.~+Jan 4th, 2004 - 1:59 am--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Sean.~ @ Jan 4th, 2004 - 1:59 am)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Naut2bGrimaldi@Jan 4th, 2004 - 1:54 am
One website I read said that it's Zsa Zsa Gabor (she has a daughter by Conrad Hilton) and that she was once the "Princess of Anhalt, Duchess of Saxony" another said her husband never really had that title.* Can anyone shed light on that one.

With respect to Zsa Zsa, her husband Frederick bought his title. That is, he was adopted as an adult by a Sax-Anhalt Princess in exchange for money. As a result of his adoption he gained the last name Furst von Saxe Anhalt. So he isn't really a Prince and Zsa Zsa most certainly is not a Princess. The German titles were not transmitted through adoption (particularly in the female line).

The Sax-Anhalt line is, in reality, extinct.

Sean. ~ [/b][/quote]
Actually, Sean, I think you may be thinking of the Ducal line of Saxe-Altenburg, which is extinct; the Ducal House of Anhalt, whose members carry the collateral title "Duke/Duchess of Saxony", aren't quite extinct; in fact, the head of the family, Eduard von Anhalt, is a well-known TV talk show host in Germany. There aren't many of them left, though. Zsa Zsa' husband, real name is Robert Lichtenberg, was adopted by Maria Auguste Prinzessin von Anhalt, who apparently made her living off of adopting adults who sought her title.

[Dennism]

There are a few Americans who married into the House of Bragança, which was the last ruling family in Portugal:

http://www.chivalricorders.org/royal...a/portgenl.htm

[Perillos]

Originally posted by Sean.~@Jan 8th, 2004 - 6:18 pm
[You're right. I seem to get my Anhalts and Altenburgs confused often. Marlene corrected me once before too (similar names, etc.). I know of Eduard von Saxe-Anhalt. IIRC, the male line is almost extinct too? Non?

Sean.

Very close to extinction, yes.

[Will]

Princess Grace, actually, was the second American consort in Monaco. The first was Princess Alice from a very rich New Orleans family, & widow, I believe, of the Duc de Richelieu.

[ILOVEABBA]

The famous 1940s actress Rita Hayworth married the Aga Khan and became a princess. The couple had a daughter Princess Yasmin, who nursed her mother in old age and when she was ill with alzheimers.
The couple were only married for a short time before divorcing, so Rita Hayworth remained much more famous as an actress than as a princess. She starred in such movies as Gilda which was probably her most famous role. :flower:

[Perillos]

Did Rita Hayworth marry the Aga Khan? I thought she married Prince Aly Khan...? Or are they one and the same person?

[Dennism]

She married Aly Khan, the father of Aga Khan IV. He went to bed with Gilda and woke up with Rita Hayworth.

[Lalla Meriem]

Let me see:

Hope Cook who married The Chogyal of Sikkim (it was never a Kingdom). She became known as "Hope La, The Gyalpo of Sikkim." She was born in 1963 and he was born in 1923. His eldest child was actually older than Hope. She wasn't his first or even his last wife.

Lisa Halaby who married King Hussein who, as we all know, became HM Queen Noor Al-Hussein and mother of 4 of his 12 children.

Sarah Bulter the British/American Texan who married HRH Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad of Jordan and Iraq. She became HRH Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan and Iraq. They have several children now. The Iraqi Hashemites only use their Jordanian titles.

Alice Heine born in New Orleans in 1858. Her family was super wealthy. Her mother was from a wealthy New Orleans family her father was of the super wealthy Hamburg banking family. She married Armand, Duke of Richelieu at 17. They had two children together before he died 5 years later. She met Prince Albert not long after and they were a couple until 1889 when his father finally died. Then the Duchess became Princess Alice of Monaco. She was a beautiful blonde lady much like Grace. Prince Albert and Princess Alice seperated in 1902 (never divorced).

Grace Kelly who became Princess Grace of Monaco. We all know this story. I'm reading an new (or rather old) book on them currently.

Joan Dillion is American. She married HRH Prince Charles of Luxembourg and I believe was known as Princess Charles. She is now married to Phillippe de Noailles, Duc de Mouchy. She is now Joan, Duchesse de Mouchy. Her daughter Princess Charlotte is listed as just Charlotte Cunningham after her marriage. I don't know if she is still a Princess of Luxembourgh. I don't know so much about Luxembourgh titles as other countries. I do know that the title "of Luxembourgh" is only for the children of the GD or the HGD now the others are just "HRH Prince/ss of Nassau." haut-brion.com has information about Joan and her kids.

The Middle East is just full of American and also British wives and even husbands.

Lots more who have married aristocrates than have married royalty.

Harry and William are part American via Diana.

Sir Winston Spencer-Churchill's mother was American.

The Dole's imprisoned the Last Hawaiian Queen in her Palace. There is much dispute over who is the heir now. The most likely claimant is a billionairess. It is a really sad story. The are still tring to find all the treasures that were stolen and sold from the Palace.