While it might seem like royal gossip is at a fever pitch these days, it’s nothing compared to what’s come before.
Throughout history, Europe’s royal families, in particular, have been plagued by scandals, controversy, and just plain bad press. From phone sex to affairs with the staff, the royals are one of the only groups of people who seem to become tamer with each generation.
King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’s romance caused the entire UK to split from the Vatican.
At the beginning of King Henry VIII’s reign in 1509, the British crown showed no signs of wanting to leave Catholicism. But when Henry VIII fell in love with his mistress Anne Boleyn, he made the unprecedented decision to divorce his first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Divorce is and was strictly forbidden in the Catholic church, so Henry casually decided to create his own religion. Thus, The Church of England was born.
Forcing an entire nation to switch religions for your marriage is controversial enough, but Henry and Anne weren’t done yet: he later beheaded his wife for allegedly cheating on him. Then, he went on to marry six more times.
Prince Andrew dated an erotic film actress in the ‘80s.
Back in 1981, Queen Elizabeth’s son Prince Andrew fell for Koo Stark, an actress and model who’d done a few mildly provocative photo shoots and appeared nude on film. Also, she was American, and that wasn't — and still isn't — exactly common.
Echoing early media reports about Meghan Markle’s acting career in which she's had sex scenes, the press treated Stark badly. When the papers got wind of her past in "blue films," their relationship was treated like a major scandal. Andrew even introduced Stark to the queen, and the palace had to issue a statement, according to a 1982 article in People magazine, saying: "We do not know if the Queen was aware of the girl’s acting career before she was invited to Balmoral."
Despite the fact that they were serious about each other, their relationship ended reportedly due to pressure from the palace for Prince Andrew to find a more royal-family-ready mate, according to The New York Post.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson faced scandal after scandal.
Shortly after he and Stark broke up, Prince Andrew decided to settle down with someone who seemed like a more appropriate royal fit in the eyes of the public: Sarah Ferguson, a girl from the English countryside who couldn’t have seemed more normal if she tried.
As it turned out, Andrew and Sarah were ill-suited to each other, and the scandals and bad press they brought upon the crown were almost too numerous to name. The most bizarre incident of all was when she was caught on vacation having her toes sucked by her "financial planner," John Bryan, as she and Prince Andrew’s young daughters played nearby.
After all that, in 2010, decades after their 1996 divorce, Sarah was busted trying to sell information about Prince Andrew to the press, according to ABC. That move got her virtually excommunicated from the royal family — although, today, she still lives with Prince Andrew. She also posted about how handsome he is on his birthday this year. Their relationship has been called "strange," according to Express.
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