With a pair of royal weddings [1] in recent memory, it's easy to look at the adorable love stories [2] of royals like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle [3] or Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank [4] and think royal romance is all fairy tale. While these young couples certainly seem happy [5], that hasn't always been the case for all royalty. Divorce [6], though frowned upon for royalty, has happened for several royal couples who just couldn't make it work [7] for a whole array of reasons [8]. Some of these divorces ended in massive scandal [9], while others turned out to be perfectly amicable [10]. Read on to see which royals have gotten divorced — and if they ever found their "happily ever afters" in the end.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana
When the Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, it seemed like a fairy-tale wedding [11] to cement the next generations of the British royal family. As we all know, though, it didn't last for long. The couple were in conflict from the very start, made worse by their significant age gap and very different personalities. Although they stayed together long enough to have two sons — Prince William and Prince Harry — the couple couldn't make it last and chose to separate but not divorce at first.
Both began affairs in the early 1990s: Diana with officer Major James Hewitt and Charles with ex-girlfriend [12] (and future second wife [13]) Camilla Parker Bowles. In 1992, scandalous recordings leaked [14] that revealed the depth of their marital woes, and the couple divorced in 1996 [15]. Diana lost her "Royal Highness" style but kept the title of "Princess of Wales" until her death in 1997.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson
After having a bit of a reputation as a playboy in his youth, Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson [16] in 1986. Both age 26, the couple were high-spirited [17] and less formal than some of their royal relatives. They had two daughters together: Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie [18]. However, Andrew's military career and their relatively low income for a royal lifestyle caused fractures [19] for the Duke and Duchess of York.
Like Charles and Diana, the couple first agreed to separate in 1992. However, pictures soon surfaced of Sarah with her financial adviser John Bryan, which caused a final rift (and is the reason Prince Philip still refuses to speak to Sarah [20] even to this day). The couple divorced in 1996 but remained close [21]: they still live together and raised their two daughters together as a perfectly content divorced couple.
Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones
As viewers of The Crown [22] already know, the queen's sister, Princess Margaret, was not especially lucky [23] in love. Her first love, with Group Captain Peter Townsend, failed when the government told Margaret she would have to give up her royal rights to marry the divorced Townsend [24]. In 1960, however, it seemed like she had finally found her match [25]: Antony "Tony" Armstrong-Jones, a society photographer whose cultured and modern tastes matched her own. Armstrong-Jones was given the title Earl of Snowdon, making Margaret the Countess of Snowdon.
The strong personalities that drew the two together, however, soon split them apart. Early in their marriage, they had two children: David, Viscount Linley, in 1961 and Lady Sarah in 1964. By the mid-60s, the Snowdons were drifting apart and cheating on each other [26], and their relationship turned bitter. They divorced in 1978. Tony remarried only months later, but Margaret, despite having a string of partners, never remarried.
Princess Anne and Mark Phillips
Out of the queen's children [27], Princess Anne [28] was the first to get married: she wed Mark Phillips in 1973. Mark, a military officer and Olympic equestrian, was a "commoner," and the pair are rumoured to have refused [29] the queen's offer of an earldom upon the marriage. The couple had two children, Peter [30] and Zara [31], and similarly declined to give them royal titles so they could lead more normal lives.
Through the 1980s, the couple's marriage began to deteriorate [32], but their separation was quiet, unlike the highly public implosion of her brothers' marriages. In 1989, they announced their separation but with no immediate plans to divorce, as royal divorce was still a touchy subject. By 1992, however, they did divorce. Anne remarried later that year to Timothy Laurence, to whom she is still married today, and Mark wed American equestrian Sandy Pflueger in 1997 (and divorced in 2012).
Prince Joachim and Princess Alexandra of Denmark
It's not just the British royals [33] who have had divorces in recent years. Prince Joachim of Denmark, the younger son of Queen Margrethe II [34], married Alexandra Christina Manley, a former sales and marketing executive, in 1995. The couple had two children, Prince Nikolai in 1999 and Prince Felix in 2000.
In 2004, the couple announced their intention to divorce — the first divorce [35] in the Danish royal family in over 150 years. Alexandra became known as the Countess of Frederiksborg and remarried in 2007, though that marriage also ended in divorce in 2015. Prince Joachim also remarried in 2007 to now-Princess Marie [36], and they also had two children: Prince Henrik and Princess Athena.
Princess Caroline of Monaco and Philippe Junot
Princess Caroline is the daughter of Princess Grace of Monaco, one of the ultimate "fairy tale" royals [37]. But her own life hasn't been quite such a fairy tale, at least not her love life. At the age of just 21, she married Philippe Junot [38], a French banker. Their marriage fell apart after just two years in 1980, and they had no children. The marriage was later annulled [39] by the Catholic Church in 1992.
Although this was Caroline's only divorce, it was only the first of three marriages that ended sadly. She remarried in 1983 to Italian heir Stefano Casiraghi, and they had three children: Andrea, Charlotte, and Pierre, who were formally legitimized [40] by the Catholic Church in 1992 after Caroline's first marriage was annulled. Stefano was killed in a boating accident in 1990, however. Caroline [41] married for the third time in 1999 to Prince Ernst August of Hanover, but the couple separated in 2009 and have lived separate lives [42] since then.
Princess Tessy and Prince Louis of Luxembourg
We don't talk much about the royal family of Luxembourg [43], but they've got the most recent royal divorce. Prince Louis, the third son of the reigning Grand Duke Henri, married Tessy Antony, a former army officer, in 2006. The couple have two children, Prince Gabriel and Prince Noah; Prince Gabriel was actually born prior to their marriage.
In 2017, the couple announced their intent to divorce. Tessy is likely to lose her royal titles [44] upon the divorce, unlike her British counterparts. The couple will still have one more hurdle to clear after the divorce is finalized: if they wish to remarry in the Catholic Church, they will need an annulment declared too.